I've always been a big fan of Macaronic poetry. Inaugurated by Tifi Odasi (Typhis Odaxius) in his Macaronea and perfected by Merlinus Coccaius (né Teofilo Folengo, 1496-1544) in his sublime mock-heroic Baldus. Written in Latin hexameters, the poet would then mix in latinized words from his native language. Although, the term macaronic stems from the early 16th century, the tendency to mix languages in poetry has been around at least as early as Ausonius. Here's a late 16th century German example:
Angla floosque canam, qui Wassunt pulvere svvarto,
Ex watroque simul stoitenti et blaside dicko,
Multipedes deiri qui possunt huppere longe,
Non aliter quam si flöglos natura dedisset.
Illis sunt equidem, sunt inquam corpora kleina,
Sed mille erregunt menschis matrasque plagasque,
Cum steckunt snaflum in livum blautumque rubentem
Exsugant; homines sic, sic vexeirere possunt!
Ex quæ tandem illis pro tantalonia restant
Vexeritate, et quem nemant pro vulnera lodum![Flöia, cortum versicale, de flöis schwartibus, illis deiriculis, quæ omnes fere Minschos, Mannos, Vveibras, Iungfras, &c., behuppere, et spitzibus suis schnaflis steckere et bitere solunt, authore. Gripholdo Knickknackio ex Floilandia. Anno 1593.]
[via Carl Blümlein Die Floia und andere maccaronische Gedichte, 1900]
Posted by jim at August 22, 2003 07:51 AM | TrackBackBy "inaugurated" I presume you mean the word "macaronic" was first used in this context; the form, of course, is much older -- the medieval poets were very fond of mixing languages. And not only in Europe; Nargis Virani has a paper "Pluralist or Garbled Poetics? : The Mulamma’at of Jalal-al-Din Rumi," whose abstract says "Rumi composed close to one hundred ghazals, lyrical poems, by mixing Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Greek, the occasional Mongolian locution and even an amorous Armenian phrase."
Posted by: language hat on August 22, 2003 09:47 AMYes. Though a lot of the early "macaronic" poetry consists of using different lexical items in isolation, e.g., Greek words in Latin poetry, or alternating lines, e.g., in some medieval English poems, writing a line in Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and then Latin. In the Hisperica Famina a large number of "Latin" words are coined from Hebrew and Greek roots. But actually mixing things up on the morphological level seems to be a macaronic tradition. I am not familiar with Rumi, but will look at the link. Thanks.
Posted by: jim on August 22, 2003 04:09 PM