Sounds Like One Thing, Yet Means Another

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I do not know if there is a precise term for this sort of quasi-homophonic sort of sentence. I find them to be hilarious and reminiscent of “The Anguish Language” by
Howard L. Chace. For those of you unfamiliar with the aforementioned subject, I’ll provide a brief excerpt from the opening of “Ladle Rat Rotten Hut” (or “Little Red Riding Hood” to the unannointed). I was exposed to this delightful perversion of the English language back in 1970.

[ul]“Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry Putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.”
[/ul]

To digress momentarily, I find “The Anguish Language” to be one of the ultimate forms of code cypher. Only a fluent speaker of English could possibly extract the true meaning of the words involved. I have even encountered native English speakers who were unable to understand the correct interpretation of the above excerpt.

Here are two other phrases I have encountered in my joke collecting history:

Hoof hearted, ice melted.
Spoken in an Irish accent:

Whale oil beef hooked

Does anyone else have some favorite lines like this?

2

I might be able to make sense out of your excerpt, there, Zenster, but I’m not up to the effort just now. However, you might find some of what you’re looking for in the computer game “You Don’t Know Jack.” It’s been awhile since I’ve played, but I know there’s a whole section of sentences like that you’re supposed to figure out.

3

There’s a bilingual version in a book called Mots d'heures, gousses, rammes', and its sequel N’heures souris rammes’… I can’t remember much of them off-hand, but one started:

Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles…

The best part are the footnotes by the linguist' who discovered’ the manuscripts, offering his interpretations of them as if they actually were old-french poetry… I believe the first line of this one was described as `the inevitable result of child mariage’, while Halles is a large market in Paris, the assumption being that the hero of the story was a bit of a country bumpkin, somewhat overwhelmed by the profusion of wares offered…

Unfortunately I can’t remember more of the poems.