Kezdetben teremté Isten az eget és a földet

A language. A language is an ordinary thing. Every language is the same, none being something special, or even more important than the other. Or is it? Yes, the answer is yes. All languages have intrinsically the same worth but one - the Hungarian
language. It is not worth more or less than its fellows. But it is somewhat special - it is the only language that is so hilariously funny.
Some languages may seem odd to the casual observer, or even foreign, but Hungarian is the only language that coaxes a smile out of me in the grimmest od moods or in the darkest of settings. Here it is, with it's funny words, the umlauts and other odd symbols. I just want to share this experience with everyone - go out, get a Hungarian book and laugh! Just try not to injure yourself or someone else. Oh, by the way, the title of this post was found in a Hungarian book, known almost universaly throughout the world: the Bible (verse 1 of Genesis: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.) Yes, even reading the bible can be fun. Ah, this brings back memories... of an experience in Hungary. I was there on a trip with a full bus of heavy sleepers. But that night they were not destined to sleep wall - me and my roomate found a bible in the drawer, carelessly (this is not an error!) left there by the friendly Giddeons. We were reading it aloud the better part of the night, pausing only to emitt roars of laughter. The next morning our travel companions - blessed be the ignorant - asked around about the distracting events of last night...
Sometime later I was having a conversation with that very friend; he expressed a wish to learn a foreign language. I suggested hungarian. "Wasted money,", he replied. I would be laughing all the time during the lessons, and I couldn't (not wouldn't, mind you, because that implies willful behaviur) learn a thing.
I often wondered about the elements in a language that make us percieve it as funny. What shape do words have to be to make them seem funny, even without knowing the meaning of it. It seems that this is the integral part of this problem - the "not knowing" part. If we don't know it - if it's utterly devoid of any meaning to us - it seems just nonsense.
This leads to a inevitable conclusion - nonsense is funny. It stimulates or pleasure centres, and the result is laughter: soothing, refreshing, invigourating even.
Or even choking. Again - the same dramatis personae. Once my friend came into my room, working himself through two large sandwiches. An evil spirit wanted that I find a piece of paper with Hungarian rubbish written all over it. Thinking nothing in particular I read a word aloud - I'll never forget that word, it was fekete (black) - and he was so startled by it that he started choking and spit the contents of his mouth back on his plate. Imagine: murder by Hungarian. Man, truth can be stranger than fiction. I can't help but imagine Mr. Holmes studying the marks on the body left by Hungarian.
Is there something to be learned from these episodes? Nothing about the Hungarian
language, I assure you.
But about nonsense. Nonsense is good, even vital.
Nonsense is what makes us people unite, and call ourselves man. For every man -
old, young, male, female, intelligent, dumb - gets the joke. And it is never on him.
Rejoice then, all of you, at the universal triumf of nonsense!

Kolatkar