SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY!


Dr. George Apfelsaft's New Language!

Famous communications expert Dr George Apfelsaft, of St Oscar's College, Oxford, has made a sensational discovery in an underground bunker beneath Trinity Music Room. It appears that a written document has been discovered, dated 4.5 Billion B.C., in a now extinct language known as quollangish. Intriguingly, given that there are several references in the document to a queen of England, or a twibble of Poodle-glick, in the original quollangish, the document appears to strike at the very core of our culture. The phrase "The Queen's English" is a fallacy. The official language of the crown, and of all British subjects, is quollangish, and we are Quollangi. (The singular: I am Quollangus. Investigations by Dr Apfelsaft are still very much in progress, however he has divulged one, perhaps rather startling fact: that every paragraph of written quollangish ends with the word "Tuesday." Dr Apfelsaft explains:

"Of course, ze vord 'Tuesday' does not haf ze same meaning in quollangish as you uneducated fools may think. Quollangish is a rich and subtle language, for a remarkably sophisticated people, oui? "Tuesday" is a form of ritual statement of respect, which roughly translates into English as: "Please do not kill me, or if you must, then do it as painlessly as pozzible." Hic. Anyvay, ze vord 'Tuesday' is most interwesting in der vay in vich it has been corrupted into its meaning in the current English tongue."

Sadly, despite the almost glaring clarity of Dr Apfelsaft's ideas, it seems that the linguistic community is unprepared to accept his groundbreaking research. They question the dating of the document, despite the fact that "4.5. Billion B.C." is clearly printed on the header. This criticism seems unfounded and unjust, but Dr Apfelsaft is used to such ill treatment, and takes it all in his stride.

George Apfelsaft was born in 1997, and had an unhappy early life as a goldfish. His first job was as a general scientific advisor to such authors as Steven Baxter, Jeffery Archer, and Zirquon the Exterminator, however he resigned after an SF writers' convention during which, in an episode which frightens him even now, Michael Marshall-Smith attempted to eat him. Escaping by the skin of his fins, George vowed to make sure such a terrible thing could never happen again. Firstly, he made use of genetically modified food in order to change species. Having become a ring tailed lemur, which he supposed would pass for human in most SCR common rooms, he proceeded to devote his life, which, as a side effect of the chemicals he had consumed, was now measured in terms of eternity, to the enlightenment of the human race, to discovering all that he could about their means of communication. Despite an unhappy piscine childhood, George believes that eventually the world will come to accept quollangish as the one true language.

"I have a dream," Dr Apfelsaft says "of standing in a hall filled with people, all talking quollangish. One of them stands up and gives me the Noble prize for peace. She gives a speech. Of course, it is in quollangish and a feature of this language is that every different individual has there own, mutually incomprehensible dialect, so no one knows what she is talking about, but I know at that moment that it is all my work, that the whole world is speaking the first language, and it is all my fault. There will be obstacles, but they will be overcome. Nothing in the world can stop me now."

We asked Dr Apfelsaft to give a few closing words to this article. This is what he said:

"Quollangiousness imgeria vibble pebble-bildersnatch yellow de hofsingler quoll abregnidigigio reve tureen washerpop vewir vweis Quollangi. Tuesday." -----

Whee! Squooble linky yellow.

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Quarble beeleep soup "main page" regnoblatt Tuesday.
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