Jack.is » Joking » Linguistlaugh

A Linguist Laugh

Linguist Larry was relaxing at home, reading a linguistics textbook. Just as he got to an excellent paragraph on diacritical marks, he heard something banging on the front door. Larry opened the door to see a hideous zombie, with a smell too foul to articulate. Its skin was of a shade not named. The mouth was nothing more than a slash from upper left to lower right. The zombie growled, apparently trying to communicate, but Larry heard only growling and incomprehensible strings of phonemes. Larry never liked to let someone go on not knowing they weren't understood, so he let the zombie know:

"Sorry guy, I can't understand a word you're saying. You've got quite a grave accent.1"

  1. The pun has three meanings. If you can name all three, I'll list you here as one of the few amazing people who got it.2
  2. It's not actually that hard. I just want to see how many people e-mail me about it.