...anything to do with the written or spoken word.

Interesting words, new words, archaic words, kreyol words, disappearing words, unusual words, expression, ebonics... you get the idea...

Just hit Reply to this thread.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FireFly,

covenant
...the notion of agreement in covenant comes originally from a literal 'coming together.' It was borrowed from Old French noun covenant, and verb covenir, 'agree', which was descended from Latin covenire 'come together'.
Source also of English: convene, convenient, convention, convent and coven.

Mahalo nui loa ~ Hawaiian ~ Thank you very much

Latest fashion-speak word to pop up in the fashion columns here is lust-have ... the step after a must-have bag, shoe, accessory... maybe even a man?

bacteriorhodopsin ~ electronic device applications

I was flicking through a book on Morrocco and souq(s) (outdoor markets) and these terms made me smile...

Morroccan 'business/merchant terminology' or market-speak

Rabaja! (here are cheap things)
Reclame, reclame! (discount, discount)
Agilana! (come here)
Lem are lee haina (I have the best here)

...and I have to say the edible goodies on sale at their markets look darn fine - licks lips. Especially those pyramids of olives and orange blossom water... and sweets...and mint teas...

I found this online...

Wordsmiths, that is, people who live in a universe of words and are seriously obsessed by it, have often published lists of their most favoured words. The author, Williams Espy's list contained: 'gonorrhea', 'lullaby', 'meandering', 'mellifluous', 'murmuring', 'onomatopoeia', 'wisteria'... For me it was cornucopia. Roll these words round your tongue, they are sharp and silvery against the teeth; whisper them, speak them full- throatedly; these words delight your senses like a sip from a vintage Beaujolais.

In the last few decades there have been many competitions held in newspapers and Radio inviting people to send in their favourite English words. The results in the Sunday Times competition showed that 'parakeet', 'chrysalis', 'sycamore', 'antimacassar', 'chinchilla', and 'doppelganger' were among the top ten words. These words were obviously chosen for their sounds and not for their meaning.

It would seem that a word perceived to be beautiful has to have two or three syllables (this is not necessarily true of English words; in our language too, words of two or more syllables are, phonetically speaking, much more attractive: 'sansanhat', 'muzmahil'). There are, of course, other criteria: the vowel sounds varying from syllable to syllable, but this is the territory of my friend, Khalid Ahmed, and I do not wish to step into it.

Khalid Ahmed is a wordbuff, a wordaholic and a wordsmith; he is a polymath. He is a linguist and an etymologist and he can tell you, with great ease, how words can be pressed, squeezed and manipulated into all kinds of shapes when they travel from one country to another and from one culture to another. For years he has been showing us how an Amharic word finds its way through Slavic languages into Persian and how a Sanskirit word sneaks into Greek or vice versa. I wonder if he is as amused as I am that given the prominence of alcohol in British society, the word alcohol is not originally English, but another import from Arabia.

Read further at: http://baithak.blogspot.com/2006/05/zia-mohyeddin-sounds-of-heart.html

What are your favourite words ?

One of mine is 'tumultuous' which always brings to my mind a vision of a dramatic sky... grey, with lots of clouds, and a possible hail storm. I like hail storms.

I'll post my Top 5 after some more thought.
Some 'new' words discovered in my current reading include: apostates; argot; ennobled; elegiac
.

here are some of the words I like the sound of when read, or said aloud, and their meanings...

embellish
symbol
swoon
bucket
doggeral
create
caramel
freeze
fresh
brazen
play
lummus
empathic
strelizia (flower)
macerate
luscious
.
hmmm... now if I knew other language...

I LIKE THE SOUNDS OF

1) OOPS
2) NAKED
3) CULTURE
4) BOING
5) FISH

here are some words, from what is recorded by europeans, of the EORA language dating around 1790-91. Eora were the indigenous people and dialect of the Sydney region.

naa ~ to see
bourra ~ a cloud
tuggarah ~ cold (as in Tuggerah Lakes)
gwee-yong/gooiyong/guiyong ~ fire
yanarda ~ moon
kami (camy) ~ a spear (it's interesting that this is similar to kami/karma)

Traditional Aboriginal Art Symbols

Traditional symbols are an essential part of much contemporary Aboriginal art. Aboriginal peoples have long artistic traditions within which they use conventional designs and symbols. These designs when applied to any surface, whether it is on the body of a person taking part in a ceremony or on a shield, have the power to transform the object to one with religious significance and power. Through the use of ancestrally inherited designs, artists continue their connections to country and the Dreaming.

For example, body decoration using ancestral designs is an important part of many ceremonies. In central Australia inherited designs are painted onto the face and body using ochres ground to a paste with water and applied in stripes or circles. The modern paintings of the Central and Western Desert are based on these designs. Some of these symbols are:



While the most commonly used symbols are relatively simple, they can be used in elaborate combinations to tell more complex stories. For example, a Water Dreaming painting might show a U shaped symbol for a man, sitting next to a circle or concentric circles representing a waterhole, and spiral lines showing running water. The painter is telling the story of the power of the waterman to invoke rain. Further symbols will add to the depth of meaning. Today it is common for artists to refer to the 'outside' story which they provide for the general public, while the painting retains an 'inside' story accessible only to those with the appropriate level of knowledge.

Dots are one of the conventional symbols widely used and for many non-Aboriginal people these are what give Central and Western Desert art its distinctive character. Dots may represent many things - including stars, sparks or burnt ground. The base or floor of any Aboriginal design or painting is the preparation of the earth, or the ancestor being's involvement with the earth.

Amongst the artists of the Central and Western Desert art movement of the last 30 years, Johnny Warangkula was the first to use dotting as the background for his paintings. Because of the brilliance of his work, other painters adopted his style and conventions. As the Papunya painting movement developed in the 1970s, dotting was increasingly used to obscure meanings and to hide some of the symbolism that was not meant to be exposed to the un-initiated. It is therefore ironic that the technique of using dots, that many Western people regard as characteristic of contemporary Central and Western Desert art, should have as a major function the obscuring of meaning.

Rather than reveal their secrets to the marketplace, the artists developed ways of avoiding or hiding the sacred. The dots, which became markedly more prominent in Papunya painting from 1973, are thought to have been crucial. Dick Kimber identified them in 1981 as a prime means of 'eliminating some elements used on some sacred objects', while Judith Ryan has characterized them as 'masking', even 'camouflage'. For a further discussion of the use of dots, including some controversy over their interpretation, see the article by Tim Bonyhady Papunya Art - Papunya Stories.

more info: http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/culture/symbols.php

While integrity and honesty are most important content of any news... I was suprised to find how many languages are supported on the bbc news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/languages/ ...including Hausa, Somali and Kinyarwanda... I think it's a good trend.

The use and abuse of language as propaganda is long and ugly. And IMO here's a prime example of hijacking language and using it as an emotive (and as far as I know, unsubstantiated) tool/weapon of propaganda and division.

"This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom.."

George W Bush

quote:

Originally posted by FireFly:
...anything to do with the written or spoken word.

Interesting words, new words, archaic words, kreyol words, disappearing words, unusual words, expression, ebonics... you get the idea...

Just hit Reply to this thread.

You might enjoy my favorite podcast http://www.thewordnerds.org/.

I've learned a lot of fun and interested things about language from these nerds. :P

thanks SSC... I'll check it out. I love this kinda thing, especially word origins.

I've enjoyed many of the editions. Some of my favorites:

Our Favorite Words (45)
Race and Language (60)
Names & Identity (36)
The Power of Names
Insidious Idioms (41)

cool.... I'll check out the site today... I've been waaay busy [insert headless chicken icon here]

The Language of Quilts

[from http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/quilts1.cfm ]

Since the beginning of time, people have always needed to reach out to others. They need to express their thoughts, dreams, and needs. Today, we do this mainly by writing and talking. But there are many other ways people can communicate as well.

One way that they can do this is by using pictures or symbols. By using these forms, people can tell others what they are thinking about. They have used symbols to create things such as totem poles and tattoos. Each of these expresses what their creators believe about their world.

For example, in the African republic of Benin, the Fon people have made banners for centuries. They use symbols sewn onto the banners to represent events in their history, such as the good things their kings have done. When Africans were forced to come to America as slaves, they brought with them many rich traditions like this.

Many slaves did not have a chance to learn how to read and write. In some cases, they were not even allowed to talk to one another. They had to be clever, and find other ways to "talk" and tell their stories about everyday life.

Quilts — with their patterns and symbols — may have helped them to do this.

Find out more: http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/quilts2.cfm

Make your own Secret Quilt Message: http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/secret_quilt.cfm

Someone very special sent me a very special book on African alphabets.

Over the next few days/weeks I'll post parts of different alphabets and symbols and their meanings... from different regions and different 'ages' - some alphabets have only been recently developed to convey and capture early oral traditions.