Great article! Language is the medium is the message. I can't stand people who are sloppy with their language. They use pronouns and change subjects mid paragraph. It drives me nuts.
And women! Women speak from emotion. I don't understand that language. It is foreign to me. Sure, people piss me off and I'll swear (English is great at swearing.) But I don't communicate that way on a regular basis.
I recently wrote a poem on my substack using Australian slang words. It was a lot of fun, but impenetrable to understand for anyone but an Aussie.
Language to me is a tool, a font of humor and wisdom, and also easily misused by the Bumbledicks. What Kamala Harris is doing to the language is a crime! Go on YouTube and look up "Hitler phones Kamala Harris." It's hilarious.
German actually has more emotions than English, which is odd for a culture that has no sense of humour. I love Aussie slang. It's closely related to Irish and Scottish slang, which makes sense given the history of the place. I saw the poem, by the way. Loved it. Texan is brilliant for using metaphors (colder'n a cow's udder in a blizzard).
Never been to Germany, but used to listen to Deutsche Welle regularly while they were still on shortwave. I spend two nights each in Brussels and Amsterdam on a trip in 2003. I was interviewed on Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal and got to hear myself on shortwave after returning to the US. They ceased operations the end of the year.
Rufus, Aussies are funny with their deadpan humor. The way Aussies name places is particularly odd. Alice Springs in the center of the outback, doesn't have any springs. The first telegraph worker there died of thirst and so did four workers putting up the telegraph poles. Reminded me of the Bogart exchange with the French policeman in Casablanca.
Policeman, "Rick, why did you come to Casablanca?"
In my experience, humble though it may be, men are linear thinkers, and so good with machines and computers. Women are non-linear thinkers, and so excel at intuition and language. This is not to imply monopolies, only that there is an innate propensity towards one or the other. Men are good hunters because they focus on a target and marshal resources toward that end. Women are good at tasks that require controlling conceptual variables, such as emotions and sensory input. I'm not sure if I expressed this to match what I'm thinking. I will ponder it and see what comes out.
My grandmother was full Welsh, and she was an amazingly intelligent and steadfast woman. I will concede that Welsh women are a breed apart, and I will likely include Cornish women in that category.
English spelling and pronunciation is kinda strange. Take "ow". Okay, then "owl". But make it "bowl" and the "o" sound is different. "Bowel" sounds like "bowl" should be. "Bow" can be pronounced either way depending on what is being described. Context is everything. Puns make a lot of jokes out of this English conundrum. I make a lot of word jokes in my writing. English is hilarious.
You should try teaching English as a second language to folks whose language is 1-letter, 1-sound. The homonyms are bad enough, but the heteronyms (bow, lead, object, present, contract, etc.) are really fun. Bow is OW, but boa has 2 syllables, though boat only has one. And diphthongs, ugh! Don't get me started on this...
Let's not forget George Carlin talking about words in many of his routines. The seven words you cant say on television being one such classic. I miss that guy, he would have really roasted the Bumbledickery going on in this world nowadays. By the way, thanks for the term Bumbledick, it is now a permanent part of my vocabulary.
So glad you like Bumbledick. To give credit where due, I got it from the play "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," by Preston Jones, one of his Texas Trilogy.
I consider Carlin one of my mentors. I only met him twice, but he was exactly the man you see on stage. His bit on "Euphemistic Language" is like scripture for me.
"Pre-board? What is that? To get on before you get on?" Har har har!
I would say that men think in pictures, schematics, maps, etc. Women think with their feelings. They don't often do well with maps. I was also taught that english is the dominant language of business, science and medicine because of all of the many descriptive nuances available in the language..
You are correct re: men and women, but in both cases, they visualize the situations and outcomes they wish to convey, and then encode them in language for transmission to others.
English is the global standard for almost everything, in part because it easily borrows lexicon and grammar from other languages and incorporates it seamlessly into its own. English is primarily a Germanic language with strong Norse influences at the root, but it has swallowed large amounts of Latin, Greek and French in law, science and diplomacy, respectively, along with the grammar from each. Interestingly, there are 57 words borrowed directly from Malayu/Indonesian, like ketchup, orangutan, and compound (a group of buildings). There is a huge global industry to teach English as a Second Language for business communications, and any doctor that doesn't speak English fluetly should be immediately shunned.
OH shOW me a shOWer that rOcks the bOAt & we’ll have a gO at it even thOUGH us poor sOUls can barely spell sounds to lOOk at them! Some sound the same but look different and look the same but sound different and then there’s some that only get spelled ONE way WON time in the whOl-E mess😳
Well done! How about: The terms of the contract may cause revenues to contract. Or...the lawyer said, "I object to that object being shown to the jury!" Or...Never spin axes on their axes.
Contronyms are a particular favourite:
The Oversight Committee apologized for their oversight.
The nation was sanctioned because its actions were not sanctioned.
The forensics team dusted the shelf before dusting for prints.
Have you listened to any of the NewDiscourses presentations from JamesLindsay? His commentary on the exoteric & esoteric meanings of terms favored by those who would like to believe themselves progressive or liberal was interesting.
I won't offer a link [bad practice and I don't want to condition myself to link-clicking]; the title is TheNeedForLinguisticDisccipline and is only ~15 minutes.
You are not the first to mention it to me, and I will certainly make some time to listen. My work schedule shows some light towards the weekend. Thanks for the head's up! English has some very interesting esoteric aspects that make it a very intriguing pursuit. In a Universe composed of vibrations, being able to make coherent vibrations makes us part of the process of creation.
It wasn't particularly revelatory, but I spotted the difference between equality & equity immediately, among other linguistic manipulations.
Lindsay claims the vocabulary/terms used by TheWokeness has a meaning for insiders & a different one for outsiders; I thought it relevant to your article.
On the subject of connotation, I've been playing a word association game with those brave enough to try, the four words being education, democracy, science & truth; the responses were both telling and disconcerting, FWIW.
How do those who are blind since birth learn to visualize in their brains?
Having known several such blind people, they don't visualize what they can't see, they organize their perceptions of their spaces in three-dimensional arrays in their brains, much of which is left available by their largely dormant visual cortices.
Most of the blind folks I know also think in pictures, and even have colors, but they don't know the names for the colors, and the pictures are formed by touch and a form of sonar. It's quite fascinating. Being able to see has nothing to do with being able to visualize.
Speaking of which, blind folks don't see words like sighted people do. They have an entirely different relationship with written language.
That would be known as partial blindness. There is also a primitive part of the eye that seems to function separate from the retina. Or it could just be the third eye.
I started learning Braille at one point so I could help a friend design a Braille line printer but the project floundered and I got distracted, so I never got beyond partial Grade 1.
Great article! Language is the medium is the message. I can't stand people who are sloppy with their language. They use pronouns and change subjects mid paragraph. It drives me nuts.
And women! Women speak from emotion. I don't understand that language. It is foreign to me. Sure, people piss me off and I'll swear (English is great at swearing.) But I don't communicate that way on a regular basis.
I recently wrote a poem on my substack using Australian slang words. It was a lot of fun, but impenetrable to understand for anyone but an Aussie.
Language to me is a tool, a font of humor and wisdom, and also easily misused by the Bumbledicks. What Kamala Harris is doing to the language is a crime! Go on YouTube and look up "Hitler phones Kamala Harris." It's hilarious.
German actually has more emotions than English, which is odd for a culture that has no sense of humour. I love Aussie slang. It's closely related to Irish and Scottish slang, which makes sense given the history of the place. I saw the poem, by the way. Loved it. Texan is brilliant for using metaphors (colder'n a cow's udder in a blizzard).
Heading to YouBoob now...
Why does Germany have stand up comedy bars if Germans have no sense of humor?
Wanna hear an actual German joke, as told to me by Ignatz in a German gasthaus?
Why is the Austrian flag red/white/red?
So they don't have to think about which way to hang it.
Pass the snuff, wouldja?
It is pretty easy to tell if the eagle is upside down or not.
I see you are German.
Half Welsh, quarter German, quarter mongrel.
I looked it up online, never seen one in person.
Vonu, To torture the tourists.
Why would tourists illiterate in German frequent domestic comedy bars?
Vonu, "Komodie" is German for "comedy." Tourists think the Komodie-Club is a commode.
I'll leave it to you to be the expert, it being asininity to me.
To get to the other side? Gemütlicheit, baby!
Har! Couldn't have said it better myself. German comedy is the inspiration for Douglas Adams' Vogon poetry.
A shaman, an iman and a rabbi walk into a German comedy bar...
The shaman says to the bartender, "Give me a litre of your best brew!"
The iman says, "I'll have a shot of Jägermeister!"
And the rabbi says, "Oy vey, you want I should drink with heathens?"
A work in progress.
No Catholics or Protestants?
You haven't been to Germany lately, I take it.
Never been to Germany, but used to listen to Deutsche Welle regularly while they were still on shortwave. I spend two nights each in Brussels and Amsterdam on a trip in 2003. I was interviewed on Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal and got to hear myself on shortwave after returning to the US. They ceased operations the end of the year.
Rufus, Glad you liked the Aussie slang poem. I've been on an Australia jag while I'm reading "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson.
Haven't read that one. Will have to look it up. I've got a couple of live ones here that keep me in stitches.
Rufus, Aussies are funny with their deadpan humor. The way Aussies name places is particularly odd. Alice Springs in the center of the outback, doesn't have any springs. The first telegraph worker there died of thirst and so did four workers putting up the telegraph poles. Reminded me of the Bogart exchange with the French policeman in Casablanca.
Policeman, "Rick, why did you come to Casablanca?"
Bogart, "For the waters."
Policeman, "But there are no springs here."
Bogart, "I was misinformed."
That's Aussie humor.
Not all women speak from emotion. Many of us are conscientious, deliberate and impeccable with our words
In my experience, humble though it may be, men are linear thinkers, and so good with machines and computers. Women are non-linear thinkers, and so excel at intuition and language. This is not to imply monopolies, only that there is an innate propensity towards one or the other. Men are good hunters because they focus on a target and marshal resources toward that end. Women are good at tasks that require controlling conceptual variables, such as emotions and sensory input. I'm not sure if I expressed this to match what I'm thinking. I will ponder it and see what comes out.
Rufus, Parallel parking proves that women are not linear thinkers.
Gwyneth, I've never met a woman like that except for my mother and her German relatives in Minnesota.
Ah, Minne-SOH-tah
Rufus, If you want to go to the most unemotional place and people on Earth, go to rural Minnesota.
Norman, "Hi, Ole. What you doin' in the tavern on a Wednesday?"
Ole, "Had to bury the wife today."
Norman, "Ahh. So, you're celebratin' then"
Ole, "Got a good deal at Knudsen Undertakers."
Norman, "That pine box special is a good one by jiminy."
Ole, "Ten coats of varnish on the pine. Real craftsmanship."
Norman, "Ja. That'll keep the gophers out."
Well, you have finally met another one, friend.
My grandmother was full Welsh, and she was an amazingly intelligent and steadfast woman. I will concede that Welsh women are a breed apart, and I will likely include Cornish women in that category.
Gwyneth, You are also the first Gwyneth I've ever met. Perhaps the Welsh men are the emotional ones. Hahaha. The sure like to sing.
English spelling and pronunciation is kinda strange. Take "ow". Okay, then "owl". But make it "bowl" and the "o" sound is different. "Bowel" sounds like "bowl" should be. "Bow" can be pronounced either way depending on what is being described. Context is everything. Puns make a lot of jokes out of this English conundrum. I make a lot of word jokes in my writing. English is hilarious.
You should try teaching English as a second language to folks whose language is 1-letter, 1-sound. The homonyms are bad enough, but the heteronyms (bow, lead, object, present, contract, etc.) are really fun. Bow is OW, but boa has 2 syllables, though boat only has one. And diphthongs, ugh! Don't get me started on this...
English is a mongrel.
That is precisely one of its greatest virtues.
It is a simple indication of the source of the corruption of those who use it.
Let's not forget George Carlin talking about words in many of his routines. The seven words you cant say on television being one such classic. I miss that guy, he would have really roasted the Bumbledickery going on in this world nowadays. By the way, thanks for the term Bumbledick, it is now a permanent part of my vocabulary.
So glad you like Bumbledick. To give credit where due, I got it from the play "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," by Preston Jones, one of his Texas Trilogy.
I consider Carlin one of my mentors. I only met him twice, but he was exactly the man you see on stage. His bit on "Euphemistic Language" is like scripture for me.
"Pre-board? What is that? To get on before you get on?" Har har har!
I would say that men think in pictures, schematics, maps, etc. Women think with their feelings. They don't often do well with maps. I was also taught that english is the dominant language of business, science and medicine because of all of the many descriptive nuances available in the language..
You are correct re: men and women, but in both cases, they visualize the situations and outcomes they wish to convey, and then encode them in language for transmission to others.
English is the global standard for almost everything, in part because it easily borrows lexicon and grammar from other languages and incorporates it seamlessly into its own. English is primarily a Germanic language with strong Norse influences at the root, but it has swallowed large amounts of Latin, Greek and French in law, science and diplomacy, respectively, along with the grammar from each. Interestingly, there are 57 words borrowed directly from Malayu/Indonesian, like ketchup, orangutan, and compound (a group of buildings). There is a huge global industry to teach English as a Second Language for business communications, and any doctor that doesn't speak English fluetly should be immediately shunned.
OH shOW me a shOWer that rOcks the bOAt & we’ll have a gO at it even thOUGH us poor sOUls can barely spell sounds to lOOk at them! Some sound the same but look different and look the same but sound different and then there’s some that only get spelled ONE way WON time in the whOl-E mess😳
Well done! How about: The terms of the contract may cause revenues to contract. Or...the lawyer said, "I object to that object being shown to the jury!" Or...Never spin axes on their axes.
Contronyms are a particular favourite:
The Oversight Committee apologized for their oversight.
The nation was sanctioned because its actions were not sanctioned.
The forensics team dusted the shelf before dusting for prints.
Have you listened to any of the NewDiscourses presentations from JamesLindsay? His commentary on the exoteric & esoteric meanings of terms favored by those who would like to believe themselves progressive or liberal was interesting.
I won't offer a link [bad practice and I don't want to condition myself to link-clicking]; the title is TheNeedForLinguisticDisccipline and is only ~15 minutes.
You are not the first to mention it to me, and I will certainly make some time to listen. My work schedule shows some light towards the weekend. Thanks for the head's up! English has some very interesting esoteric aspects that make it a very intriguing pursuit. In a Universe composed of vibrations, being able to make coherent vibrations makes us part of the process of creation.
It wasn't particularly revelatory, but I spotted the difference between equality & equity immediately, among other linguistic manipulations.
Lindsay claims the vocabulary/terms used by TheWokeness has a meaning for insiders & a different one for outsiders; I thought it relevant to your article.
On the subject of connotation, I've been playing a word association game with those brave enough to try, the four words being education, democracy, science & truth; the responses were both telling and disconcerting, FWIW.
Achoo! Sniff! Ah tink ah cobbed uh viruth
Your words are onomatopoeia to my ears.
How do those who are blind since birth learn to visualize in their brains?
Having known several such blind people, they don't visualize what they can't see, they organize their perceptions of their spaces in three-dimensional arrays in their brains, much of which is left available by their largely dormant visual cortices.
Most of the blind folks I know also think in pictures, and even have colors, but they don't know the names for the colors, and the pictures are formed by touch and a form of sonar. It's quite fascinating. Being able to see has nothing to do with being able to visualize.
Speaking of which, blind folks don't see words like sighted people do. They have an entirely different relationship with written language.
The ones I know have enough sight to see and identify bright colors.
That would be known as partial blindness. There is also a primitive part of the eye that seems to function separate from the retina. Or it could just be the third eye.
Their rods and cones have partial function but the retina is incapable of discerning details.
They have Braille.
That they do,
I started learning Braille at one point so I could help a friend design a Braille line printer but the project floundered and I got distracted, so I never got beyond partial Grade 1.
You are a Vulcan?
Half Vulcan, Vonusham. Live long and prosper, and may your ears always be pointed.
The only way you could see what they see would be mind melding.