h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi !

Is anyone out there aware of anywhere I can glean information on

1. acoustic or phonetic palindromes, or

2. phrases that when spoken or played backwards change their meaning (making sense both ways)?

Best regards,

Ollie Langridge

This sounds like an interesting topic, Ollie! I haven't studied it myself, but I know that many of the consonants in English sound like nothing on Earth when recorded and played backwards. This means that they don't have a phonetic equivalent in the "backwards universe". Some consonants, the ones that make a continuous sound, should be the same backwards, so that s, r, l, h, m, n should be possible, as well as the vowel sounds, but others like t, d etc can't be reversed.

The vowels themselves sound different when played backwards because almost all vowels in English are in fact diphthongs (two pure vowel sounds run together). When you say "day", you actually say "d-ay-ee". So backwards it will become ee-ay-*. The d becomes an unpronounceable sound.

The book 'Inversions' by Scott Kim is mostly about ambigrams (aka inversions), but has a couple of examples of phonetic palindromes that work on some level:

We revere you

Ominous cinema

Henry S is being modest: he wrote a rather good entry on ambigrams at A505612

Thanks for your reply. There's a brilliant page on phonetic sounds of forwards/ backwards speech if you type in "EV:audio reversal in popular culture" into your internet search engine. Great page!

The reason I'm researching this is to make a palindrome short film - one that can be played forwards and backwards and have identical meaning, or better still one that changes meaning when played backwards (hence not strictly palindromic but totally fascinating).

Certain sounds/ phrases sentences make the same sense both ways - e.g. "we revere you" and "ominous cinema" or "wow, Bob, Wow" (Twin Peaks) or even "the house is on fire" even though they look like they shouldn't make any sense at all.

Let me know if you have any more thoughts.

Best regards

Ollie

Anyone else out there who shares this fascination, or has examples, please let me know, unless you're called John Oates that is.

Thanks for your reply. Here's another one -

Wow,Bob,wow !

which you may recognise from Twin Peaks (where in the Black Lodge scenes the actors were rehearsed to speak the lines in reverse. Any others, please let me know. I'm trying to do this research to make a short film that is either a perfect palindrome or one that changes its meaning when played in reverse.

Please let me know if you have any further ideas or pointers.

O

Rather than relying on random reports of phrases which are the same backwords, you should devise a simple phonetic alphabet which can then be reversed. You will need to be able to read it as well as write it.

Consonants which are the same backwards, such m, n, r can be left as they are.

Stopped consonants such as k and t will sound different when reversed. They will sound like the original letter but more abruptly cut-off.

Vowels, w and y will change considerably. Wa in slow motion is oo-ah, so backwards it will be ah-oo which is ow. That's why wow is the same backwards. We in slow motion is oo-ee so backwards it is ee-oo which is yoo. That's why we turns to you.

Thanks for getting back to me Gnomon. Here's some results so far which I attach for your interest. I think I got the simple phonetic alphabet right. The anomalies are also very interesting....

Any notes or feedback ?




In a preliminary audio session (10/02) the following words and / or phrases made perfect sense when played forwards or backwards.

- OMINOUS CINEMA
- WOW, BOB, WOW
- MMMMM, ANNA, MMMMM
- EASY, BOB, EASY
- HE HE HE HE HE HE
- HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
- AHA!
- UH – HUH
- SHEESH!
- OOOOOOO!
- MMMMMMM
- OH!
- ANNA
- BOB
- HANNAH
- NOON
- DAD
- MOM
- SIS
- NAN
- I / EYE
- LIL
- ARE
- SEES / SEAS / SEIZE
- A
- EYE-EYE-EYE-EYE-EYE
- (ONO / OH NO)
- IDI
- BUB
- BIB
- (GAG)
- DID YOU SAY WE ARE DEAD, BOB ? AHA, BOB, DEAD ARE YOU ? YES WE DID !

These below changed their meaning completely -


NUMBER 9 = TURN ME ON DEAD MAN
I AM DISEASE = SEIZE THE MAYOR
THE THEORIST = SIR ETHAN
CRAYOLA = A LAWYER
MICKEY MOUSE = SLIMY IMP
PNEUMONIA = HI NORMAN


Individual letters underscored below sound the same forwards or backwards -



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z/Zee

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


(from lower case then), a, e, h. i, l, m, n, o, r, s, u, and z
(12 total) are phonetic palindrome letters.

Hence (most)(written) palindromes using these letters should be reversible for audio.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some new things to try –

suss
ini
meme
hah !
minim
laurel
none / nun
‘n’ (and)
allah
non
lull
did you = we did !
did you say ? = yes we did !
dead
are
eff

P.S. Researcher 203425, you need to put an introduction on your Space or nobody can talk to you there! Click on the 'Edit Page' button. Also, you can change your name by clicking on 'Preferences'. Makes you easier to remember. Have fun.

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