“Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo”
Believe it or not, this sentence is grammatically correct and has meaning too. First devised by professor William J. Rapaport in 1972, the sentence uses various meanings and parts of speech for the term “buffalo”
“Buffalo”, with a capital “B” refers to the area of Buffalo, New York.
“buffalo”, with a lower case ”b”, can be a noun meaning “bison” or a verb meaning “intimidate”
Adding a few words to clarify, we get:
“Bison from Buffalo, New York, intimidate other bison from Buffalo, New York, also intimidate (even other) bison from Buffalo, New York.”
The sentence uses a restrictive clause, so there are no commas, nor is there the word “which,” as in, “Buffalo buffalo, which Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” This clause is also a reduced relative clause, so the word “that”, “which” could appear between the second and third words of the sentence, is omitted.
Buffalo is not the only word in English for which this kind of sentence can be constructed; any word which is both a plural noun and a plural form of a transitive verb will do. Other examples include dice, fish, right and smelt.
