Originally conceived by Oran Blackwell around 2020 (approximately five years prior to first public documentation in 2025).
Do dodos do doodoos? Dodos do do doodoos! Do they?
A recursive English sentence that uses homonym repetition and reduplication to create grammatical meaning — similar in spirit to Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo and James had had “had had.”
| Word | Function | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dodos | Plural noun | Subject (the extinct birds) |
| do | Auxiliary verb | Forms the question |
| do | Main verb | “Perform / make” |
| doodoos | Noun | Childish slang for feces |
| Do they? | Tag question | Confirms understanding |
Meaning: “Do dodos defecate? Yes — they do.”
- A compact example of recursive homonymy and morphological play.
- Each “do” serves a distinct grammatical role.
- Structurally analogous to other famous English oddities.
- As of 2025, no prior example of this construction appears in linguistic literature or indexed online sources.
Created and documented by Oran Blackwell (2025).
Please credit or link this Gist when referencing the sentence.
dodos do do doodoos
the dodos do sentence
dodo recursive sentence
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Oran Blackwell linguistics
English homonym oddities
Buffalo buffalo sentence
had had sentence
linguistic curiosities