Even More Palindromic Language Names

Rushdie's and my own ignorance become even more abominable with the discovery of the following palindromic language names that add to the other two already noted:

- Aja spoken in Sudan;
- Aka spoken in Sudan;
- Ama spoken in Papua New Guinea;
- Ama spoken in Sudan;
- Caac spoken in New Caledonia;
- Efe spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
- Erre spoken in Australia;
- Ese spoken in Papua New Guinea;
- Iaai spoken in New Caledonia;
- Kerek spoken in Russia;
- Kuk spoken in Cameroon;
- Laal spoken in Chad;
- Logol spoken in Sudan;
- Manam spoken in Papua New Guinea;
- Monom spoken in Vietnam;
- Nauruan spoken in Nauru;
- Noon spoken in Senegal;
- Ñuñ spoken in Senegal;
- Olo spoken in Papua New Guinea;
- Omo spoken in Papua New Guinea;
- Opo spoken in Ethiopia;
- Ososo spoken in Nigeria;
- Tennet spoken in Sudan; and
- Yaqay spoken in Indonesia (on the island of Papua).

The list above is a subset of those reported in the comments thread for this post on Language Hat, which has Ethnologue.com as a source.

The preponderance of palindromic language names on the single island of Papua, with a total of six in the list above and who knows how many more actually being spoken there, is most galling for the likes of fools such as me who think Malayalam is the centre of the palindromic universe.

Never again will I believe anything I read in a book unless it's been verified by the internet.

Rushdie Needs To Know About Kanak

The very first entry on this blog, written up and posted only two days ago, has been peddling lies!

Malayalam is NOT the only name of a language that happens to be a palindrome, and Language Hat (via Far Outliers) have shown up Rushdie's and my own shortcomings, for Kanak is also a palindromic language name.

Thus the list of languages whose names are palindromes that I know of comes to two: the Dravidian language of Malayalam found in Southern India (whose palindromic status was incorrectly heralded as unique in Rushdie's Midnight Children); and the Melanesian language of Kanak spoken in New Caledonia (whose palindromic status I noticed in a blog entry on Language Hat that had nothing to do with reading anything in reverse.)

Although I am decidedly disappointed at having spread inaccuracy on the internet, I am nevertheless decidedly delighted to say that an internet source is taking precendence over another of the hard-copy and bounded variety.

Malayalam, Blogolb and Rushdie

I've finally gotten around to reading the Booker of Bookers, Rushdie's Midnight Children, and along with his most enjoyable madhouse prose come interesting titbits (I'm still thrilled about discovering titbit is an acceptable variation of tidbit) relating to the subcontinent.

And I'd like to think it was because Rushdie knew I was going to read his book that he mentions, for no reason that seems related to the story as such, that India is host to the only language in the world whose name is a palindrome: Malayalam.

Wikipedia then furnished me with the further revelation that Malayalam also happens to be the longest single-word palindrome in the English language. Thus when it came to registering this very blog after having decided I've got too much time on my hands to let them just wander down somewhere between my legs, I fell under the spell of Jung's notion of synchronicity and proceeded to determine that these two events, the new blog and the linguistic fervour arising from titbits and palindromes, were definitely related.

But anything mentioning tits I did not think to be the finest thing for this website to have in a prominent place, so blogolb became the obvious, and some cantankerous bastards would say, rather unexciting choice for a title and domain name.

Unfortunately, this Michael and his dated "Thoughts" from 2003 have already taken http://blogolb.blogspot.com/, what looks to me like a Chinese site has already taken http://www.blogolb.com/, and my money-pinching ways have precluded me from buying http://www.blogolb.com.au.

So now I'm left with Thus Sprach... at the address that appears in your browser.

Enjoy.

Update: This blog has been up for only three days, but already I've had to post a correction related to this, my very first post.