Grammelot (or gromalot or galimatias) /ˈɡræməlɒt/[1] is an imitation of language used in satirical theatre, an ad hoc gibberish that uses prosody along with macaronic and onomatopoeic elements to convey emotional and other meaning, and used in association with mime and mimicry.
The satirical use of such a format may date back to the 16th-century commedia dell'arte; the group of cognate terms[clarification needed] appears to belong to the 20th century.
Others, such as theatre scholar John Rudlin in Commedia dell'arte: An Actor's Handbook (London: Routledge 1994:60), suggest this origin as well.
His 1969 show Mistero Buffo ("Comic Mystery Play") was a satirical touring performance involving sketches based on mediaeval sources, told in Fo's own grammelots constructed from Gallo-Italian languages and phonemes from modern languages (he has coined separate Italian, French and American grammelots).
[6] Famous Grammelot also include Charlie Chaplin's faux-German in The Great Dictator and Monty Python's Knights Who Say Ni.