Introduction
Bill Bryson, English language expert and author of Mother Tongue, says in his book, “Wordplay is as old as language itself, and almost as various.” Bryson explains several different types of wordplay; including, anagrams, lipograms, puns, crosswords, palindromes, and others.
I’ve always been a fan of wordplay. Making plays on words in the English is fairly simple. In fact, I’m pretty sure my brother (who just turned four three days ago) just made his own pun. He said, “Why is the light on the ceiling?”
“That’s where lights usually go.” I responded.
“So the light’s up?” and then he proceeded to laugh hysterically. Maybe I’m reading too far into it, but ‘light up’ means both ‘turn on’ and the literal meaning, the light is up off the ground.
Wordplay in English
If a four year old is already making puns, the English language must be even easier than I thought to manipulate for wordplay. Some more examples of puns in English include “A farmer counted 196 cows in his field. But when he rounded them up, he had 200.” “Did you hear about the optometrist who fell into a lens grinder and made a spectacle of himself?” “Insects that make honey are always on their best bee-hive-our.”
But, puns are not the only word play that we English speakers get enjoyment from. Countless crossword puzzles and word finds exist. I spent way too much of my elementary school years searching for words in a mass of random letters, and crosswords can be found in almost every major and a large percentage of minor newspapers in America. I find crosswords awfully boring and usually impossible, but many people love them.
I think it’s fair to say that wordplay is rather popular to English speakers. Puns are generally accepted pretty well (although many people are just too dumb to understand them) and word games such as Scrabble, Words with Friends, crosswords, word finds, and other games are all very popular.
Japanese
Japanese has been a language that I have wanted to learn since I was very young. I always liked the way the Japanese language sounded and looked. So, of course, I would have to know how wordplay works in Japanese.
Apparently, puns are called dajere. Their idea of a pun is pretty different from ours. Our puns involve replacing a words with homophones to create funny situations or play on multiple definitions of words. The Japanese puns are little simpler in that they involve using the same sounds / words twice in a single sentence. Several examples are on Rachel B’s blog post about Japanese wordplay, which I found very interesting.
Rachel claims that Japanese puns “are to be said with a straight face, and are often reacted to with an even straighter face, as no one finds them funny.” Well, that’s a shame. But, there wordplay does sound awfully boring. “Iruka ga iruka?” Meaning, “Is there a dolphin?” is the “famous” example she used.
Compared to English, the Japanese appear to not appreciate wordplay as much. They do not find puns to be funny as we do. The Japanese do: however, enjoy and use palindromes and and play their own unique word games. So while puns usually end up falling flat, the Japanese still have their own fun with words. They just do it differently than we do.
Spanish
Spanish is similar to English in it’s appreciation of puns. This is likely due to the fact the Spanish and English have many more similarities phonetically and structurally than Japanese does with either. Spanish (especially Mexico) uses puns in a way similar to ours, by using words with multiple meanings. For example, “What does the fish do?” (Que hace el pez) “Nada!” (Nothing! / It swims!) and “What do you to a cow that fell into the river?” “Nada, buey!” Meaning both “Swim, cow!” and “Nothing, fool!”
Unlike the Japanese,Spanish seems to be another language that, as a whole, appreciates wordplay to the same degree as English. Mexico absolutely adores wordplay, especially puns. Spanish may even be above English in that regard.
Ancient Languages
What about ancient languages? When did wordplay begin, exactly? Well, Bill Bryson in Mother Tongue says that, “Among the earliest instances of wordplay, Aguarde cites a Greek anagram dating from the third century B.C. and, earlier still, a lipogram by the Greek Lasus from the fifth century B.C…. So it is safe to say that wordplay is very old and effectively universal.” So, obviously, wordplay is more widespread than I thought. Bryson even mentions that some people believe that Jesus Christ himself made a pun. “He said, “Thou art Peter: upon this rock I shall build my church.’ It doesn’t make much sense until you realize that the Greek word for Peter and rock is the same.” He also says that the Romans were especially fond of anagrams, where you rearrange the letters of a phrase to create a new phrase.
Pun-wise, the Jesus pun is similar to the Japanese style of puns. It’s doubtful that they found them absolutely hilarious, but they enjoyed them nonetheless. I’ve seen claims that the original bible had several other instances of wordplay. The Romans were interested in Anagrams, which have also come into English.
But just remember, next time you think to yourself that puns are lame, even Christ himself enjoyed a little wordplay.