The prevalence of homonyms in the English language is significant, almost as if homonyms were some deliberate linguistic choice designed to frustrate native speakers and secondary language students alike. A piece of peace, the imminent capital in the eminent capitol, a man you meet seen whining at a wine and meat scene. For those unfamiliar with the subtleties of the English vocabulary, it can be enough to make you bang your head against the wall.

Homonyms are words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings. These include the subcategories of homophones (words that share pronunciations but have different meanings and may be spelled differently) and homographs (words that share their spellings but not their meanings.)

These words make up some of the difficulty related to learning the vocabulary of a new language, but can also be incredible linguistic tools that allow you to create bizarre wordplay that will leave your readers scratching their heads.

Puzzling Poetry

The poem titled The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den is a fascinating example of the subtle impact that homophones and tonal variance can have on language. Anyone familiar with the basics of Mandarin Chinese will know how important differently spoken tones are to the language, but what has been colloquially dubbed as the “Shi-Shi-Shi” poem takes it to a new level.

The short poem tells the story of a poet named Shi Shi who is addicted to eating lions, though the story proper isn’t what makes it stand out. Instead of focusing on the narrative, the author creates a linguistic experience that could almost be likened to an extended homophonic pun:

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.

Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.

The first two lines of the poem highlight the nature of the art form: a 92-word piece consists entirely of one syllable repeated over and over with changing tonal variance. Great to see on paper but virtually impossible to articulate vocally, even for native Mandarin speakers. In this case, the homographic nature of the Mandarin syllables creates an illustration of the broad range of vocal tones required to speak the language.

Another example of this comes from the twisted mind of Dmitri Borgmann, German-American author famous for his linguistic punnery:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Makes perfect sense, right? While virtually incomprehensible at first glance, this sentence is another demonstration of how linguistics can be manipulated to create phrases that are grammatically sound, but function more as abstract poetry than meaningful dialogue.

Here, three different meanings of the word “buffalo” are utilized along with various clause structures that omit the need for punctuation. While a visual puzzle such as this isn’t offering emotional depth in the way that we typically imagine poetry, it can serve as a reflection on the fluid nature of language and how the written word can be manipulated.

Homonyms work in mysterious ways, whether they’re being used for recreational linguistics, confusing vocabulary students or tripping up your auto spellchecker. When taken to extremes, they may provide a great example of the different ways that you can play with language in your writing, but could create phrasing that requires your readers to spend ten minutes staring at to figure out.

Greg Hill is a web content writer from the Midwest with a penchant for self-actualization and racquetball.