Minnesofa: noun. A minnesofa is an upholstered seat filled with water. Derived from the Dakota word "minne" (water) and the word sofa (which originally comes from Arabic), the word happens to be subject to a very witty interlingual pun:
A tourist goes to a store in Dodoma and points at a couch behind the shop window. "I want this one," he says resolutely. "The minnesofa?" Asks the shopkeeper. "No," says the customer, "one will do just fine."
The joke is that whereas "minne" means "water" in Dakota, it means "four" in Swahili when modifying words belonging to the class "m/mi" - a grammatical class containing many wooden products. However, it is a mistake on the part of the tourist to assume that sofas belong to the class, as they actually belong to the class of "n," also known as the class of animals but better defined as the class of grammatical leftovers. Thus, the tourist ostensibly buys the sofa for four times the price, leaving the shopkeeper very confused. What a joke indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment