User:Smokingloud/sandbox/Basqet'b Pal

= Basqet'b pal = Basqet'b pal is a phrase in the Warlpiri language of central Australia. It was used by ethnolinguist Eleanor Dent in her 1976 dissertation as an example of verb-adjective equivalence in Warlpiri, and has since been cited in numerous textbooks and academic papers. The phrase translates to "small resting marsupial", or in some sources "sleeping wallaby".

Prominence
Although the grammatical structure of "basqet'b pal" would be of no particular interest to a native speaker of Warlpiri, the phrase is famous for bearing a humorous phonetic resemblance to the English word "basketball"—the consonant t'b at the end of "basqet'b" blends with the following p such that the two sound almost identical. An excerpt from Dent's dissertation was reprinted widely in student newspapers, leading the Linguistic Society of America to issue a statement condemning contrived or satirical linguistic examples. Other Aboriginal language academics nevertheless continued the joke by including basketball-related puns in their own work (for example "aley'oup", meaning dusty, red wind, or "chakil oneel", meaning broken sandal).