Mandarin by the numbers
Language Log 2013-06-08
Summary:
As spectacularly demonstrated by this YouTube video, it is amazing how much one can say in Mandarin simply by punning with numbers alone:
We've heard about speaking in tongues or glossolalia. Perhaps we could call this "speaking in numbers" or "numerolalia". Yet this is not babbling in numbers; it really conveys intelligible meaning.
I doubt that [...]