Talk:Live, Laugh, Love

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Linguistics[edit]

It seems to me that "live laught love" is an example of the same phenomena that explains expressions like "ding dong" or "tic tac toe".

I found this source about it:

"This rule was first spotted by Mark Forsyth. Mark explains that “If there are three words then the order has to go I, A, O.” " (from https://thelanguagenerds.com/2019/why-do-we-say-flip-flop-tick-tock-and-king-kong-but-not-flop-flip-tock-tick-and-kong-king/)

This source calls the phenomena an ablaut reduplication. It also looks like a irreversible binomial (even thought it has three words). I don't want to risk making any original research, but I think there might be something here. We would just need some independent source to confirm that.

Mateussf (talk) 15:13, 28 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Live, Laugh, Love Waltz" by Josef Strauss[edit]

I assume this would be taken down for original research or something, but Josef Strauss published a waltz in 1869 called "Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' und Lust", which translates to "My Life's Character is Love and Joy". Apparently this is commonly referred to as the "Live, Laugh, Love Waltz" today. Now, I realize that this isn't a perfect match for the phrase for a number of reasons: there are superfluous pronouns, linking verbs, and articles (notably, "Success" also is more verbose than the phrase's current, laconic form), "life" in German is a noun instead of a verb in that context, "joy" ("lust") isn't a match for "laugh" (which would be "lachen" in German), and "laugh"/"joy" and "love" are swapped. Nevertheless, it shares the same alliterative quality and optimistic message. It also predates Anderson Stanley's "Success" by 35 years. I'm inclined to chalk it up to a coincidence, as it's plausible that two people separately and across a language barrier noticed similar alliterations, but I think this at least deserves mention here on the talk page. 2600:1700:6BA0:6D00:843B:5B9F:ACAE:124F (talk) 16:39, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]