Hoola Bandoola: A or B?

nils at math.uio.no nils at math.uio.no
Sun Nov 19 19:55:33 CET 2006


In connection with the recent discussion of Disney comics
related things that can be found on YouTube, I raise
the following question: Hypothesis A or Hypothesis B?

The question relates to the utterly famous Swedish progg band
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoola_Bandoola_Band ,
where we learn that

<< The name is inspired by a fictional language spoken by
ants in a Donald Duck short cartoon, most likely "Tea for
Two Hundred", directed in 1948 by Jack Hannah, with ant
language spoken by Pinto Colvig. >>

But there are apparently _two candidates_ to the honour
of being the Donald & Ants Disney short movie that inspired
the band members enough to make them choose the
Hoola Bandoola name in 1971. So we need sociolinguistic
expertise on formicarufaen dialects to reach a firm conclusion
here:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hoola_Bandoola_Band

To make this less Off-Topic and more Off-Topic for Disney
comics, rather than for Disney on the screen, we may consult
_Donald Duck & Co. #24, from June 1961_, which carries
more or less a ten page comics version of Tea for Two
Hundred. I have trouble using "Inducks", which does not
seem to work as well as earlier?? -- what does it say about
this story? Writer/artist? And what are the original American
ant words, and what are these in Swedish 1961 translation,
of the formicarufaen idioms
   Eela! Oola! Oola!
   Gabba! Hogga! Bogga!
   Okka! Bokka! Effka!
   Omba! Domba!
   Wahoo ooga!
   Kapoo! Habot!
   Kooga Booga!
   Hiiiv-ug!
And which of these antean idioms would be _closest to_
"hoola bandoola"?

Nils Lid Hjort





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