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grawlix | noun |
a series of typographical symbols (such as $#!) used in text as a replacement for profanity
– thank you to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
May27
Tag Archives: language
Apr26
a different vision.
(perhaps me casually speaking spanish with a new friend i will meet)
—
looking forward to learning
a bit more of the language before i travel this summer
i think i have a really good base though
i’ve been learning spanish with my pre-k classes for 20 years
so i’m pretty good with
animals, colors, family members, my name, yes and no, and hello and goodbye
plus, i can burst into songs and dances in spanish as needed.
(i’ll keep this as my wild card)
—
” a different language is a different vision of life.”
-federico fellini
Jan26
naliqqaittuq.
snow day yesterday at last
a really good day to stay home from school
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Inuit in Canada’s North have their own unique names for the months of the year. Aseena Mablick, an announcer for CBC Nunavut’s Inuktitut-language radio program Tausunni, has been collecting information on the names of the months in Inuktitut for years.
Mablick says one of the reasons she’s sharing this now is to “keep the language.”The names in Inuktitut are interconnected with the environment and wildlife surrounding the Inuit in Canada’s North.”It’s a truthful and honest calendar for people who are living over here, everyday, like us,” she says. “We just follow mother nature’s ways for naming the calendar.”
Each region in Nunavut has its own unique names for the calendar, and Mablick shared with us just two of the regions she’s looked into — Baffin region (also known as the Qikiqtaaluk Region) and Nunavik (northern Quebec).
January In Nunavik, January is “Naliqqaittuq”, literally meaning “nobody’s able to compete with it,” says Mablick. “It has to do with the coldest weather in that month.”
January is called “Qaummagiaq” in the Baffin region. It means “bright day coming back.”
meanwhile in ann arbor…
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credits: cbc news (north), aseena mablick, deadline detroit
Jan2
banished.
When was the last time you called someone a GOAT? Or declared an “inflection point,” or answered a yes-or-no question with “absolutely”?
Probably too recently, say the faculty of Lake Superior State University, the Michigan college that releases an annual list of words that they say deserve to be “banished” from our vocabularies over “misuse, overuse and uselessness.”
“Our nominators insisted, and our Arts and Letters faculty judges concurred, that to decree the Banished Words List 2023 as the GOAT is tantamount to gaslighting. Does that make sense?” said Rodney S. Hanley, the university’s president. “Irregardless, moving forward, it is what it is: an absolutely amazing inflection point of purposeless and ineptitude that overtakes so many mouths and fingers,” Hanley added.
Here’s the full list of the school’s banished words for this year:
- GOAT
- Inflection point
- Quiet quitting
- Gaslighting
- Moving forward
- Amazing
- Does that make sense?
- Irregardless
- Absolutely
- It is what it is
Out of over 1,500 nominations — from people across the U.S. and as far afield as New Zealand and Namibia — judges declared that this year’s top offender was “GOAT,” the acronym for “greatest of all time.”
Nominators and faculty alike found the term objectionable due both to its impossibility – how can anyone declare a single best of all time when another may come along in the future – and the liberal way the title is dispensed these days.
“The singularity of ‘greatest of all time’ cannot happen, no way, no how. And instead of being selectively administered, it’s readily conferred,” said Peter Szatmary, a spokesperson for Lake State.
Lake State’s faculty judges would likely argue that was too many people (and non-people) described as “the greatest of all time.” “Words and terms matter. Or at least they should,” Szatmary said.
Joining “GOAT” in banishment are nine other words and phrases that nominators and judges complained were used so often that they had become disconnected from their literal meanings – like “amazing,” which nominators fretted no longer meant “dazzling” or “awe-inspiring.”
“Not everything is amazing; and when you think about it, very little is,” one nominator noted.
Sponsor Message
Frequently targeted are of-the-moment phrases like “in these uncertain times” (as so many COVID-related messages began in 2020), “information superhighway” (banished in 1995) and “filmed before a live studio audience” (such a vice it was banished twice, first in 1987 then again in 1990).
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“the flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment.
the lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say;
but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.
-voltaire
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credits: npr, becky sullivan, image, christopher furlong, getty images
Apr20
noetic or poetic?
NOETIC
no-ED-ik
Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Greek, mid-17th century
Definition: Relating to mental activity or the intellect.
Examples in a sentence:
“The philosophy department attracts noetic students.”
“Noah was equally athletic and noetic”
—
Some travel life,
Shining brightly noetic
But as for me,
I’d rather wax poetic.
-beth
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image credit: npr brightside
Mar27
luposlippapaphobia.
word of the week
you never know when you might need this
it could be just the perfect word to describe your circumstances.
—
image credit – gary larson, the far side
Jan3
huh?
The word “huh” packs a lot of meaning into just one syllable. When we use it, we might be expressing confusion, asking for clarification, or requesting that a statement be repeated. We’re also communicating so concisely there’s hardly a break in the conversation, making “huh” the politest kind of interruption.
No wonder, then, that the word “huh” appears in multiple languages. In fact, according to a recent study in the journal PLOS ONE, linguists have found that the word is used to express confusion not only in related language families, but across multiple, independently developed languages. The researchers, who recently won an Ig Nobel Prize honoring their study, argued that “huh?” is so common it may actually be universal.
According to New York Magazine, the researchers studied conversational use of the word “huh” in 10 different languages, including English, Icelandic, Murrinh-Patha (from Australia), and Cha’palaa (from Ecuador). Though these languages don’t share an origin, they still employ “huh” in much the same way.
The researchers believe that the widespread use of the word “huh” is an example of convergent evolution. In each language, “huh” developed independently, but was shaped by similar environmental or linguistic pressures—for example, the need for a relatively polite way to signal confusion. According to the study, the word “fulfills a crucial need shared by all languages –the efficient signaling of problems of hearing and understanding.”
“Huh” is not an innate human sound, like a grunt or emotional cry, the researchers say. Rather, it’s learned, taught to children, and passed down linguistically from generation to generation. According to researchers, its universality is a result of its important conversational function. Most of us probably take the word “huh” for granted—or don’t even think of it as a word at all—but according to researchers, that’s exactly why it’s so important: It doesn’t draw attention to itself.
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“before I came here I was confused about this subject.
having listened to your lecture I am still confused. but on a higher level.”
-enrico fermi
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Source Credit: New York Magazine, Photo credit: Animal Channel
animal planet
Nov11
baby talk.
i hear it over and over again
even coming out of my own mouth
and wonder how and why
we ever began the tradition
of talking to our pets in baby talk.
they must consider us to be quite simple people
ever working on our vocabulary and articulation
always hoping that some day
we might master our own language.
—
“i’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes,
a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt,
and i am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.”
-john steinbeck
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image credit: zazzle.com
Aug8
can we speak in flowers? it will be easier for me to understand. -author unknown
what is your favorite flower?
do you know what it’s saying?
THE HISTORY OF FLOWER MEANINGS – The Language of Flowers
The symbolic language of flowers has been recognized for centuries in many countries throughout Europe and Asia. They even play a large role in William Shakespeare’s works. Mythologies, folklore, sonnets, and plays of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Chinese are peppered with flower and plant symbolism—and for good reason. Nearly every sentiment imaginable can be expressed with flowers. The orange blossom, for instance, means chastity, purity, and loveliness, while the red chrysanthemum means “I love you.”
FLOWERY LANGUAGE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
Learning the special symbolism of flowers became a popular pastime during the 1800s. Nearly all Victorian homes had, alongside the Bible, guidebooks for deciphering the “language,” although definitions shifted depending on the source.
In the Victorian era, flowers were primarily used to deliver messages that couldn’t be spoken aloud. In a sort of silent dialogue, flowers could be used to answer “yes” or “no” questions. A “yes” answer came in the form of flowers handed over with the right hand; if the left hand was used, the answer was “no.”
Plants could also express aversive feelings, such as the “conceit” of pomegranate or the “bitterness” of aloe. Similarly, if given a rose declaring “devotion” or an apple blossom showing “preference,” one might return to the suitor a yellow carnation to express “disdain.”
How flowers were presented and in what condition were important. If the flowers were given upside down, then the idea being conveyed was the opposite of what was traditionally meant. How the ribbon was tied said something, too: Tied to the left, the flowers’ symbolism applied to the giver, whereas tied to the right, the sentiment was in reference to the recipient. And, of course, a wilted bouquet delivered an obvious message!
More examples of plants and their associated human qualities during the Victorian era include bluebells and kindness, peonies and bashfulness, rosemary and remembrance, and tulips and passion. The meanings and traditions associated with flowers have certainly changed over time, and different cultures assign varying ideas to the same species, but the fascination with “perfumed words” persists just the same.
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There is a language, little known,
Lovers claim it as their own.
Its symbols smile upon the land,
Wrought by nature’s wondrous hand;
And in their silent beauty speak,
Of life and joy, to those who seek
For Love Divine and sunny hours
In the language of the flowers.
–The Language of Flowers, London, 1875
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text credits: Old Farmer’s Almanac, Catherine Boeckmann
art credit: Illustrated postcard. Printed in England/The Regent Publishing Co Ltd.-Dumbarton Oaks Archives
Jul18
know what?
“I only know that I know nothing”
― Socrates
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source credit: bbc
I didn't have my glasses on.... 