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Macaronic language is any expression using a mixture oflanguages,[1] particularlybilingual 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 are effectively "internally macaronic". In spoken language,code-switching is using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation.[2]
Macaronic Latin in particular is a jumbledjargon made up ofvernacular words givenLatin endings or of Latin words mixed with the vernacular in apastiche (comparedog Latin).
The wordmacaronic comes from theNeo-Latinmacaronicus, which is from theItalianmaccarone, or "dumpling", regarded as coarse peasant fare. It is generally derogatory and used when the mixing of languages has a humorous orsatirical intent or effect but is sometimes applied to more serious mixed-language literature.
Texts that mixed Latin andvernacular language apparently arose throughout Europe at the end of theMiddle Ages—a time when Latin was still the working language of scholars, clerics and university students, but was losing ground to the vernacular among poets,minstrels and storytellers.
An early example is from 1130, in theGospel book ofMunsterbilzen Abbey. The following sentence mixes lateOld 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.
TheCarmina Burana (collected c.1230) contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German or French. Another well-known example is the first stanza of the famouscarolIn Dulci Jubilo, whose original version (written around 1328) had Latin mixed with German, with a hint ofGreek. While some of those early works had a clear humorous intent, many use the language mix for lyrical effect.
Another early example is in theMiddle English recitalsThe Towneley Plays (c.1460). InThe 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 [ruined] vs 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)
Severalanthems also contain both Latin and English. In the case of 'Nolo mortem peccatoris' byThomas 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.
The ScottishChaucerianWilliam Dunbar'sLament for the Makaris uses as a refrain for every four-linestanza the phrase from theOffice of the Dead "Timor mortis conturbat me" ["The fear of death disturbs me"].
The termmacaronic is believed to have originated inPadua in the late 15th century, apparently frommaccarona, a kind of pasta ordumpling eaten by peasants at that time. (That is also the presumed origin ofmaccheroni.)[3] Its association with the genre comes from theMacaronea, a comical poem byTifi Odasi in mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of the genre isTosontea byCorrado of Padua, which was published at about the same time as Tifi'sMacaronea.
Tifi and his contemporaries clearly intended tosatirize 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.[4]
An important and unusual example of mixed-language text is theHypnerotomachia Poliphili ofFrancesco 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 theHypnerotomachia is contemporary with Tifi'sMacaronea, 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'sMacaronea was a popular success, and the writing ofhumorous 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 wasBaldo byTeofilo Folengo, who described his own verses as "a gross, rude, and rustic mixture of flour, cheese, and butter".[5][6]
Macaronic verse is especially common in cultures with widespreadbilingualism orlanguage contact, such as Ireland before the middle of the nineteenth century. Macaronic traditional songs such asSiúil A Rúin are quite common in Ireland. In Scotland, macaronic songs have been popular amongHighland immigrants toGlasgow, using English andScottish Gaelic as a device to express the alien nature of the anglophone environment. An example:[7]
When I came down to Glasgow first,
a-mach air Tìr nan Gall.
I was like a man adrift,
air iomrall 's dol air chall.
[...]
translation:
When I came down to Glasgow first,
down to the Lowlands(lit. "out to the land of foreigners").
I was like a man adrift,
astray and lost.
Folk and popular music of theAndes frequently alternates between Spanish and the givenSouth American language of its region of origin.
SomeClassical Persian poems were written with alternatingPersian andArabic verses or hemistichs, most famously bySaadi[8] andHafez.[9] Such poems were calledmolamma' (ملمع, literally "speckled", pluralmolamma‘ātملمعات),[10] Residing inAnatolia, in some of his poemsRumi mixed Persian with Arabic as well as the local languages ofTurkish andGreek.[11]
Macaronic verse was also common inmedieval India, where the influence of the Muslim rulers led to poems being written in alternating indigenousHindi and the Persian language. This style was used by poetAmir Khusro and played a major role in the rise of theUrdu orHindustani language.
Occasionally language is unintentionally macaronic. One particularly famed piece of schoolyard Greek in France isXenophon's line "they did not take the city; but in fact they had no hope of taking it" (οὐκ ἔλαβον πόλιν· άλλα γὰρ ἐλπὶς ἔφη κακά,ouk élabon pólin; álla gàr elpìs éphē kaká).Readin the French manner, this becomesOù qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca. ('Where is Pauline the maid? At the [railway] station. She's pissing and taking a shit.')[12][13]
Macaronic text is still used by modern Italian authors, e.g. byCarlo Emilio Gadda andBeppe Fenoglio. Other examples are provided by the character Salvatore inUmberto Eco'sThe Name of the Rose, and the peasant hero of hisBaudolino.Dario Fo'sMistero Buffo ("Comic Mystery Play") featuresgrammelot sketches using language with macaronic elements.
The 2001 novelThe Last Samurai byHelen DeWitt[14] includes portions of Japanese,Classical Greek, andInuktitut, although the reader is not expected to understand the passages that are not in English.
Macaronic games are used by the literary groupOulipo in the form of interlinguistichomophonic transformation: replacing a known phrase with homophones from another language. The archetypal example is byFrançois Le Lionnais, who transformedJohn 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'.[15] Another example is the bookMots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d'Antin Manuscript.
Macaronisms figure prominently inThe Trilogy by thePolish novelistHenryk Sienkiewicz, and are one of the major compositional principles for James Joyce's novelFinnegans Wake.
InMichael Flynn'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.
Two well-known examples of non-humorous macaronic verse areByron'sMaid of Athens, ere we part (1810, in English with aGreek refrain);[16] andPearsall's translation of the carolIn Dulci Jubilo (1837, in mixed English and Latin verse).
An example of modern humorous macaronic verse is the anonymous English/Latin poemCarmen Possum ("The Opossum's Song"), which is sometimes used as a teaching and motivational aid in elementary Latin language classes. Other similar examples areThe Motor Bus byA. D. Godley, and the anonymousUp I arose in verno tempore.
Ezra Pound'sThe Cantos makes use of Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Italian, among other languages.
Recent examples are themużajki or 'mosaics' (2007) ofMaltese poetAntoine Cassar[17] mixing English, Spanish,Maltese, Italian, and French; works of Italian writerGuido Monte;[18] and the late poetry of Ivan Blatný combining Czech with English.[19]
Brian P. Cleary's "What Can I C'est?" makes use of macaronic verse, as do other poems in his bookRainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry:
My auntie Michelle is big in the BON
(As well as the hip and the thigh).
And when she exhales, OUI haul out our sails
And ride on the wind of VERSAILLES.
A whole body of comic verse exists created by John O'Mill, pseudonym ofJohan van der Meulen, a teacher of English at the Rijks HBS (State Grammar School),Breda, theNetherlands. These are in a mixture of English and Dutch, often playing on common mistakes made when translating from the latter to the former.
The finale of act 1 ofGilbert and Sullivan'sSavoy OperaIolanthe has several instances of humorous macaronic verse.[20]
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 hisdolce 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 forrepente)...Lord Mountararat: Now, listen, pray to me, / For this paradox will be / Carried, nobody at allcontradicente...
Then, the chorus of peers sing macaronic verse as they attempt to resist the fairies' powers:
Our lordly style you shall not quench with basecanaille! (That word is French.)
Distinction ebbs before a herd of vulgarplebs! (A Latin word.)
Twould fill with joy and madness stark theoι πoλλoί! (A Greek remark.)One Latin word, one Greek remark, and one that's French.
"Macaronisms" are frequently used in films, especially comedies. InCharlie Chaplin'santi-war comedyThe Great Dictator, 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 ofBenito Mussolini, using Italian foods (such assalami andravioli) as insults.
Other movies featuring macaronic language are the Italian historical comediesL'armata Brancaleone andBrancaleone at the Crusades (d.Mario Monicelli), which mix modern and medieval Italian as well as Latin (sometimes in rhyme, and sometimes with regional connotations, such as theItalo-Normans using words from modernSicilian).
OnSaturday Night Live, the character, Opera Man, played byAdam Sandler, would often sing snippets using Macaronic language.[citation needed]
Amacaronic song is one that combines multiple languages. Macaronic songs have been particularly common in Ireland (Irish–English)[21][22][23] and also occur for other languages, such asYiddish–Ukrainian.[24]
Macaronic language appearing in popular songs includeRammstein's "Amerika" (German and English), theBeatles' "Michelle",Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" andThe Weeknd's "Montreal" (French and English),The Clash's "Spanish Bombs",José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" (Spanish and English),Bandolero's "Paris Latino",Magazine 60's "Don Quichotte (No Están Aquí)", andJJ Lin's "只對你說 (Sarang Heyo)" (Mandarin, English, and Korean).[25]
