Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly

bilingual pun A bilingual pun is a pun created by a word or phrase in one language sounding similar to a different word or phrase in another language. The result of a bilingual pun is often a joke that makes sense in more than one language. A bilingual pun can ...

s or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages).

Hybrid word A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Common hybrids The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin ...

s are effectively "internally macaronic." In spoken language,

code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...

is using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation. Macaronic Latin in particular is a jumbled jargon made up of

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

words given Latin endings or of Latin words mixed with the vernacular in a pastiche (compare

dog Latin Dog Latin or cod Latin is a phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by "translating" English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them as if they were Latin words. Dog Latin is usually a humorous dev ...

). The word ''

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

'' comes from the

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy a ...

''macaronicus'' which is from the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

''maccarone'' ("dumpling," regarded as coarse peasant fare). It is generally derogatory and used when the mixing of languages has a humorous or satirical intent or effect but is sometimes applied to more serious mixed-language literature.

History

Mixed Latin-vernacular lyrics in Medieval Europe

Texts that mixed Latin and

vernacular language A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

apparently arose throughout Europe at the end of the Middle Ages—a time when Latin was still the working language of scholars, clerics and university students, but was losing ground to vernacular among poets, minstrels and storytellers. An early example is from 1130, in the Gospel book of

Munsterbilzen Abbey Munsterbilzen Abbey was an abbey of Benedictine nuns in Munsterbilzen, Limburg, Belgium, founded in around 670 by Saint Landrada. It was plundered by Vikings in 881 but restored. From the 9th century it was dedicated to Saint Amor. It was an i ...

. The following sentence mixes late Old Dutch and Latin:

Tesi samanunga was edele unde scona et omnium virtutum pleniter plena

Translated: ''This community was noble and pure, and completely full of all virtues.'' The ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreveren ...

'' (collected c.1230) contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German or French. Another well-known example is the first stanza of the famous carol '' In Dulci Jubilo'', whose original version (written around 1328) had Latin mixed with German, with a hint of Greek. While some of those early works had a clear humorous intent, many use the language mix for lyrical effect. Another early example is in the Middle English recitals '' The Towneley Plays'' (c.1460). In '' The Talents'' (play 24), Pontius Pilate delivers a rhyming speech in mixed English and Latin. A number of English political poems in the 14th century alternated (Middle) English and Latin lines, such as in MS Digby 196:

The taxe hath tened uinedvs alle, Probat hoc mors tot validorum The Kyng þerof had small fuit in manibus cupidorum. yt had ful hard hansell, dans causam fine dolorum; vengeaunce nedes most fall, propter peccata malorum ''(etc)''

Several

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short s ...

s also contain both Latin and English. In the case of 'Nolo mortem pecatoris' by Thomas Morley, the Latin is used as a refrain:

Nolo mortem peccatoris; Haec sunt verba Salvatoris. Father I am thine only Son, sent down from heav’n mankind to save. Father, all things fulfilled and done according to thy will, I have. Father, my will now all is this: Nolo mortem peccatoris. Father, behold my painful smart, taken for man on ev’ry side; Ev'n from my birth to death most tart, no kind of pain I have denied, but suffered all, and all for this: Nolo mortem peccatoris.

Translated: "'I do not wish the death of the wicked'; These are the words of the Saviour." An allusion to John 3:17 and 2 Peter 3:9.

Latin–Italian macaronic verse

The term ''macaronic'' is believed to have originated in Padua in the late 15th century, apparently from ''maccarona'', a kind of pasta or

dumpling Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fish ...

eaten by peasants at that time. (That is also the presumed origin of ''

maccheroni Macaroni (, Italian: maccheroni) is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as elbow macaroni. Some home machines ...

''.) Its association with the genre comes from the '' Macaronea'', a comical poem by Tifi Odasi in mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of the genre is '' Tosontea'' by Corrado of Padua, which was published at about the same time as Tifi's ''Macaronea''. Tifi and his contemporaries clearly intended to

satirize Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

the broken Latin used by many doctors, scholars and bureaucrats of their time. While this "macaronic Latin" (''macaronica verba'') could be due to ignorance or carelessness, it could also be the result of its speakers trying to make themselves understood by the vulgar folk without resorting to their speech. An important and unusual example of mixed-language text is the '' Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' of Francesco Colonna (1499), which was basically written using Italian syntax and morphology, but using a made-up vocabulary based on roots from Latin, Greek, and occasionally others. However, while the ''Hypnerotomachia'' is contemporary with Tifi's ''Macaronea'', its mixed language is not used for plain humor, but rather as an aesthetic device to underscore the fantastic but refined nature of the book. Tifi's ''Macaronea'' was a popular success, and the writing of

humorous Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...

texts in macaronic Latin became a fad in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in Italian, but also in many other European languages. An important Italian example was '' Baldo'' by

Teofilo Folengo Teofilo Folengo () (8 November 14919 December 1544), who wrote under the pseudonym of Merlino Coccajo or Merlinus Cocaius in Latin, was one of the principal Italian macaronic poets. Biography Folengo was born of noble parentage at Cipada near M ...

, who described his own verses as "a gross, rude, and rustic mixture of flour, cheese, and butter".The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford University Press (1996)

Other mixed-language lyrics

Macaronic verse is especially common in cultures with widespread

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

, such as Ireland before the middle of the nineteenth century. Macaronic traditional songs such as '' Siúil A Rúin'' are quite common in Ireland. In Scotland, macaronic songs have been popular among

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

immigrants to Glasgow, using English and Scottish Gaelic as a device to express the alien nature of the anglophone environment. An example: Folk and popular music of the Andes frequently alternates between Spanish and the given

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

language of its region of origin. Some Classical Persian poems were written with alternating

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

verses or hemistichs, most famously by Saadi and Hafez. Such poems were called ''molamma (, literally "speckled", plural ''molamma‘āt'' ), Residing in Anatolia, in some of his poems

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...

mixed Persian with Arabic as well as the local languages of Turkish and Greek. Macaronic verse was also common in medieval India, where the influence of the Muslim rulers led to poems being written in alternating indigenous Hindi and the Persian language. This style was used by the famous poet

Amir Khusro Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian su ...

and played a major role in the rise of the Urdu or Hindustani language.

Unintentional macaronic language

Occasionally language is unintentionally macaronic. One particularly famed piece of schoolyard Greek in France is Xenophon's line "they did not take the city; but in fact they had no hope of taking it" (, ''ouk élabon pólin; álla gàr elpìs éphē kaká''). Read in the French manner, this becomes "Où qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca." ("Where is Pauline the maid? At the ailwaystation. She's pissing and taking a shit.") In English literature, the untranslated line makes an appearance in James Joyce's ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

''.

Modern macaronic literature

Prose

Macaronic text is still used by modern Italian authors, e.g. by

Carlo Emilio Gadda Carlo Emilio Gadda (; November 14, 1893 – May 21, 1973) was an Italian writer and poet. He belongs to the tradition of the language innovators, writers that played with the somewhat stiff standard pre-war Italian language, and added elements of ...

and

Beppe Fenoglio Beppe Fenoglio (; born Giuseppe Fenoglio 1 March 1922 in Alba (CN) – 18 February 1963 in Turin) was an Italian writer, partisan and translator from English. The works of Fenoglio have two main themes: the rural world of the Langhe and the ...

. Other examples are provided by the character Salvatore in Umberto Eco's ''

The Name of the Rose ''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, ...

'', and the peasant hero of his '' Baudolino''. Dario Fo's ''

Mistero Buffo ''Mistero buffo'' ("Comical Mystery Play") is Dario Fo's solo ''pièce célèbre'', performed across Europe, Canada and Latin America from 1969 to 1999. It is recognised as one of the most controversial and popular spectacles in postwar European t ...

'' ("''Comic Mystery Play''") features

grammelot Grammelot (or gromalot or galimatias) is an imitation of language used in satirical theatre, an ''ad hoc'' gibberish that uses prosody along with macaronic and onomatopoeic elements to convey emotional and other meaning, and used in association w ...

sketches using language with macaronic elements. The 2001 novel '' The Last Samurai'' by

Helen DeWitt Helen DeWitt (born 1957 in Takoma Park, Maryland) is an American novelist. She is the author of the novels ''The Last Samurai'' (2000) and '' Lightning Rods'' (2011) and the short story collection ''Some Trick'' (2018) and, in collaboration with ...

DeWitt, Helen. ''The Last Samurai'' (Chatto and Windus, 2000: ; Vintage, 2001: ) includes portions of Japanese, Classical Greek, and

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

, although the reader is not expected to understand the passages that are not in English. Macaronic games are used by the literary group Oulipo in the form of interlinguistic homophonic transformation: replacing a known phrase with homophones from another language. The archetypal example is by

François Le Lionnais François Le Lionnais (3 October 1901 – 13 March 1984) was a French chemical engineer and writer. He was a co-founder of the literary movement Oulipo. Biography Le Lionnais was born in Paris on 3 October 1901. Trained as a chemical en ...

, who transformed John Keats' "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" into "Un singe de beauté est un jouet pour l'hiver": 'A monkey of beauty is a toy for the winter'. Another example is the book ''

Mots d'Heures ''Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript'' (''Mother Goose Rhymes''), published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten, is purportedly a collection of poems written in archaic French with learned glosses. In fact, they are English-lan ...

''. Macaronisms figure prominently in ''

The Trilogy The Trilogy (1884-1888) is a series of three novels written by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz. The series follows dramatized versions of famous events in Polish history, weaving fact and fiction. It is considered great literary work on pa ...

'' by the Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, and are one of the major compositional principles for James Joyce's novel ''

''. In

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and conspiracy theorist who was the 24th U.S. National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned in light of ...

's science fiction novels of the Spiral Arm series, a massive interplanetary exodus from all Earth language groups has led to star system settlements derived from random language and culture admixtures. At the time of the novels' setting, several hundred years later, each planet has developed a macaronic pidgin, several of which are used for all the dialogs in the books. The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie's second book bears a cross-lingual pun as its title, ''Priests de la Résistance''.

Poetry

Two well-known examples of non-humorous macaronic verse are

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

's '' Maid of Athens, ere we part'' (1810, in English with a Greek refrain); and Pearsall's translation of the carol ''In Dulci Jubilo'' (1837, in mixed English and Latin verse). An example of modern humorous macaronic verse is the anonymous English/Latin poem '' Carmen Possum'' ("''The Opossum's Song''"), which is sometimes used as a teaching and motivational aid in elementary Latin language classes. Other similar examples are ''

The Motor Bus "The Motor Bus" is a macaronic poem written in 1914 by Alfred Denis Godley (1856–1925). The mixed English-Latin text makes fun of the difficulties of Latin declensions. It takes off from puns on the English words "motor" and "bus", ascribing ...

'' by

A. D. Godley Alfred Denis Godley (22 January 1856 – 27 June 1925) was an Anglo-Irish classical scholar and author of humorous poems. From 1910 to 1920 he was Public Orator at the University of Oxford, a post that involved composing citations in Latin for ...

, and the anonymous '' Up I arose in verno tempore''. Ezra Pound's '' The Cantos'' makes use of Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Italian, among other languages. Recent examples are the ''mużajki'' or 'mosaics' (2007) of Maltese poet Antoine CassarGrech, Marija
"Mosaics: A symphony of multilingual poetry"
, ''The Daily Star'' (Kuwait), 25 August 2007 mixing English, Spanish, Maltese, Italian, and French; works of Italian writer Guido Monte; and the late poetry of Ivan Blatný combining Czech with English.Wheatley, David
"The Homeless Tongue: Ivan Blatný"
. ''

Contemporary Poetry Review Garrick Davis (born 1971 in Los Angeles) is an American poet and critic. He was Poetry Editor of '' First Things'' magazine from 2020 until 2021. Career Davis is the founding editor of the ''Contemporary Poetry Review'', the largest online ar ...

'', 2008.

Brian P. Cleary Brian P. Cleary, (born October 1, 1959) is an American humorist, poet, United States patent holder, inventor and author. He is the trademark holder for Fab-u-List (TM) Books (Serial number 90562144), a line of gift books for grownups. The bow-tie ...

's "What Can I C'est?" makes use of macaronic verse, as do other poems in his book ''Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry'': A whole body of comic verse exists created by John O'Mill, pseudonym of Johan van der Meulen, a teacher of English at the Rijks HBS (State Grammar School),

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

, the Netherlands. These are in a mixture of English and Dutch, often playing on common mistakes made when translating from the latter to the former.

Theatre

The finale of act 1 of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. Pin ...

Savoy Opera Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which imp ...

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbe ...

'' has several instances of humorous macaronic verse. First, the three lords mix Italian and Latin phrases into their discussion of Iolanthe's age:

Lord Mountararat: This gentleman is seen, / With a maid of seventeen, / A-taking of his ''dolce far niente''...
Lord Chancellor: Recollect yourself, I pray, / And be careful what you say- / As the ancient Romans said, ''festina lente''...
Lord Tolloller: I have often had a use / For a thorough-bred excuse / Of a sudden (which is English for ''repente'')...
Lord Mountararat: Now, listen, pray to me, / For this paradox will be / Carried, nobody at all ''contradicente''...

Then, the chorus of peers sing macaronic verse as they attempt to resist the fairies' powers:

Our lordly style you shall not quench with base ''canaille''! (That word is French.)
Distinction ebbs before a herd of vulgar ''plebs''! (A Latin word.)
Twould fill with joy and madness stark the ''oι πoλλoί''! (A Greek remark.)
One Latin word, one Greek remark, and one that's French.

Film

'Macaronisms' are frequently used in films, especially comedies. In

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

comedy ''

The Great Dictator ''The Great Dictator'' is a 1940 American anti-war political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the onl ...

'', the title character speaks English mixed with a parody of German (e.g. "Cheese-und-cracken"). This was also used by Benzino Napaloni, the parody character of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

, using Italian foods (such as salami and ravioli) as insults. Other movies featuring macaronic language are the Italian historical comedies ''

L'armata Brancaleone ''L'armata Brancaleone'' (known in English-speaking countries as ''For Love and Gold'' or ''The Incredible Army of Brancaleone'') is an Italian comedy film released on April 7, 1966, written by the duo Age & Scarpelli and directed by Mario Monice ...

'' and ''

Brancaleone alle crociate ''Brancaleone at the Crusades'' ( it, Brancaleone alle Crociate) is an Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli and released in 1970, the sequel to ''L'armata Brancaleone''. Plot The film starts where ''L'armata Brancaleone'' has ended. B ...

'' (d. Mario Monicelli), which mix modern and medieval Italian as well as Latin (sometimes in rhyme, and sometimes with regional connotations, such as the Italo-Normans using words from modern Sicilian).

Song

A macaronic song is one that combines multiple languages. Macaronic songs have been particularly common in Ireland (

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

–English) and also occur for other languages, such as

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

–Ukrainian. Macaronic language appearing in popular songs include

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riede ...

's " Amerika" (German and English), the

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

’ " Michelle", the Talking Heads "

Psycho Killer "Psycho Killer" is a song by the American band Talking Heads, released on their 1977 debut album '' Talking Heads: 77.'' The group first performed it as the Artistics in 1974. The band also recorded an acoustic version of the song featuring A ...

" and The Weeknd's " Montreal" (French and English), The Clash's " Spanish Bombs", José Feliciano's " Feliz Navidad" (Spanish and English), and

JJ Lin Wayne Lin Junjie (; born 27 March 1981), better known by his stage name JJ Lin, is a Singaporean singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Lin launched his musical career by releasing his debut album '' Music Voyager'' (2003). GIO, Taiwa ...

's track entitled trilingually as "只對你說 Sarang Heyo 사랑해요" 只對你說 (Mandarin, English, and Korean).

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macaronic Language Latin language Language games Cultural exchange