Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or any other sequence of units (like a thread of DNA) which has the property of reading the same in either direction (the adjustment of spaces between letters is generally permitted). The word palindrome comes from the Greek words palin (back) and dramein (to run) meaning running back. Writing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing.
According to Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way (p. 227): "Palindromes... are at least 2,000 years old. The ancient Greeks often put 'Nipson anomémata mé monan opsin' on fountains. It translates as 'Wash the sin as well as the face.' The Romans admired them, too, as demonstrated by 'In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni' ('We enter the circle after dark and are consumed by fire'), which was said to describe the action of moths."
The latin palindrome 'Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas' is remarkable for the fact that it reproduces itself also if one forms a word from the first letters, then the second letters and so forth. Hence it can also be arranged into a square which can be read either horizontally or vertically:
SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTASPalindromes occur in many western languages, but they are particularly prevalent in English due to the wide variety and frequent reversal of letter pairs within words.
Japanese palindromes, called kaibun, rely on the hiragana syllabary, like the word "shinbunshi" (newsprint). Their syllabary makes it possible to make very long palindromes.
Chinese palindromes are relatively easy to create due to the structure of written Chinese. For example: 我愛媽媽,媽媽愛我 ("I love Mom, Mom loves me") --- this is usually the first palindrome learned by Chinese kids. Numerous palindromes can be created by replacing "媽媽"(Mom) with any person. As a result, only very special palindromes are worth mentioning.
Examples of palindromic words and phrases:
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2 Symmetry by the characters 3 Symmetry by the words 4 Symmetry by the lines |
In Japanese:
Symmetry by sound
The Icelandic music-band Sigur Rós composed a song on their album Ágćtis Byrjun, which partly sounds the same, playing forwards or backwards. Not only symmetric from the notes, but also symmetric in the sound by mixing the reverse music over the original. The song - named Staralfur - can be downloaded at their website under http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/index.html.
The interlude from Alban Berg's opera, Lulu is a palindrome.
See also crab canon, in classical music: a canon in which one line of the melody is reversed in time and pitch from the other.
Symmetry by the characters
Remark: Characters include letters and CJK characters.
In Dutch:
- parterretrap: "stairway to the ground floor"
- nepparterreserretrappen (less serious extension of the previous): "fake stairways from the ground floor to the sun lounge"
- Aias sadas saia: "It rains white bread in the garden."
- Solutomaattimittaamotulos: "the result from a measurement laboratory for tomatoes"
- saippuakuppinippukauppias: "soap cup batch trader"
- Atte kumiorava, varo imuketta!: "Rubber squirrel Atte, beware the cigarette holder!"
In French:
- kayak
- élu par cette crapule
- la mariée ira mal
- Laval
- Ein Neger mit Gazelle zagt im Regen nie.
- Reliefpfeiler
- Reconocer
- Anita, la gorda lagartona, no traga la droga latina.
- Dábale arroz a la zorra el Abad.
- Sé verlas al revés.
- La ruta natural.
- Las Nemocón no comen sal.
- Anás usó tu auto, Susana.
- Adán no cede con Eva, Yavé no cede con nada.
- Así Mario oirá misa.
- ˇAbusón, acá no suba!
- Se corta Sarita a tiras atroces.
- Amigo, no gima.
- Anita lava la tina.
- Es Adán, ya vé, yo soy Eva y nada sé.
- Átale, demoníaco Caín, o me delata.
- żBérgamo?, ˇno, Magreb!.
- Mal si le das la fé falsa del Islam.
- ˇOro! ˇYa hay oro!
- O rey, o joyero.
- Alá, yo soy de Mahoma el dios. Oídle a Mohamed: yo soy Alá.
- O sacáis ropa por si acaso.
- Sometamos o matemos.
- Oír Aida en ópera: la lírica Cirila la repone a diario.
- Allí por la tropa portado, traído a ese paraje de maniobras, una tipa como capitán usar boina me dejara, pese a odiar toda tropa por tal ropilla.
- Géza, kék az ég: "Géza, the sky is blue."
- Rám német nem lel, elmentem én már: "The Germans won't find me, I'm already gone." (1943)
- Indul a görög aludni: "The greek goes to sleep."
- Rémes tóga bagót sem ér: "Crap chiton worths nothing."
- Erőszakos kannak sok a szőre: "Aggressive males have lots of hair."
- Keresik a tavat a kis erek: "Small streams look for the lake."
- Kis erek mentén, láp sík ölén odavan a bánya rabja: jaj, Baranyában a vadon élő Kis Pálnét nem keresik!: "Along the small streams and in the flat lap of the moorland gone the prisoner of the mine: oh, nobody looks for Ms. Kis Pál who lived in the woods of Baranya." (Created by Demők Béla.)
- Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor. (Quintilian)
- Si bene te tua laus taxat, sua laute tenebis. (Plinius)
- Subi dura a rudibus.
- Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis.
- Adoro te animo, domina et oro da.
- Meritis servi sinum munis ivres sitirem.
- Aspice'nam raro mittit timor arma nec ipsa.
- Si se mente reget non tegeret Nemesis.
- Sum summus mus. ("I am the mightiest mouse.")
- Perica reže raci rep: "Laundress cuts duck's tail."
- sėdėk užu kėdės: a phrase. Means "Sit over the seat!".
- Regninger: The longest palindrome norwegian word. Means "bills".
- Du har bra hud: Meaning "You've got good skin"
- Ni rakar bra Karin: Meaning "You shave good Karin"
- God apa gavs galna anlag, svag apa dog: Meaning "Good monkey was given crazy abilities, weak monkey died."
- Märk stupid abrakadabra: ur fin ränsel lyfta rappa japaner samma mimosa som i mammas rena pajapparat fylles när ni fruar bada karbad i putskräm: Meaning "Notice stupid abracadabra: from fine backpack swift japaneese the same mimosa as in mother's clean pie machine filles when you vifes bathed med bath in shoecream"
- 我愛媽媽,媽媽愛我: "I love Mom, Mom loves me"
- 客上天然居,居然天上客.
- 人過大佛寺,寺佛大過人.
- 人人為我,我為人人: "Everybody cares about me, I care about everybody"
- 船上女子叫子女上船: "The woman on the boat is calling her children to go onboard" --- copy from url:
- http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ikiw/gro.aidepikiw.www//:ptth (links back here)
Symmetry by the words
Some palindromes use words as units rather than letters. They Might Be Giants released a single called I Palindrome I, the lyrics of which include the word palindrome: "Son I am able," she said, "though you scare me." "Watch," said I, "beloved," I said, "watch me scare you though." Said she, "able am I, Son."
Another example:
- You can cage a swallow, can't you, but you can't swallow a cage, can you?
Symmetry by the lines
Still other palindromes take the line as the unit. The poem Doppleganger was composed by James A. Lindon.
Doppelganger
- Entering the lonely house with my wife
- I saw him for the first time
- Peering furtively from behind a bush --
- Blackness that moved,
- A shape amid the shadows,
- A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
- Revealed in the ragged moon.
- A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
- Put him to flight forever --
- I dared not
- (For reasons that I failed to understand),
- Though I knew I should act at once.
- I puzzled over it, hiding alone,
- Watching the woman as she neared the gate.
- He came, and I saw him crouching
- Night after night.
- Night after night
- He came, and I saw him crouching,
- Watching the woman as she neared the gate.
- I puzzled over it, hiding alone --
- Though I knew I should act at once,
- For reasons that I failed to understand
- I dared not
- Put him to flight forever.
- A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
- Revealed in the ragged moon.
- A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
- A shape amid the shadows,
- Blackness that moved.
- Peering furtively from behind a bush,
- I saw him for the first time,
- Entering the lonely house with my wife.
In genetics, a palindromic DNA sequence can form a hairpin.
See also : wordplay, word games, anagram, pangram, transcription (linguistics), crab canon
- http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ikiw/gro.aidepikiw.www//:ptth (links back here)
