Sandy Supposes....

Expressions

Blogging Circle of Friends "
DAY 2758 June 5, 2020

Ray Bradbury asked, “Why the Egyptian, Arabic, Abyssinian, Choctaw? Well, what tongue does the wind talk? What nationality is a storm? What country do rains come from? What color is lightning? Where does thunder go when it dies?"

         

         

         

         

         I've always considered weather to be emotional and reactionary. In Canada, it's definitely fickle, moody, capricious, and unpredictable.

         Clouds are described as being brooding and angry. Winds howl, shriek and batter. Rain pummels and slashes. Snow whips. Lightning strikes. Even the word stormy portrays harsh, punishing, mercurial conditions.

         Clouds float and billow. Breezes caress. Rain pitter-patters,dances, splatters. Snowflakes swirl, scamper, sparkle.

         Does weather also express itself with language? Again, I believe it has a body language or an emotional language. We recognise dark, co-joined, low-lying clouds to be ominous and threatening. Several white, fluffy, wispy, high-in-the-sky clouds permit sunshine to reign. We attribute our actions to the changing weather. To strike, or slash, or pummel, or caress connotates human motion.

         Are words spoken and understood? Who speaks cloud? Does thunder only boom and clap? Do winds whisper, or shout? Is sunshine mute?

         All man-made dialects reflect emotions and are used to communicate. We all experience weather no matter where we reside and we all bemoan or praise it, too. It's an integral part of our lives, inescapable. We bestow our feelings upon it in an attempt to accept it. Perhaps we empathize and personify weather.

         For a positive, smiling person we say they are sunny. The scowling, upset, maybe angry person is said to be stormy. People with fast reflexes may be compared as being quick as lightning. A change of mood is akin to a cloud passing over.

         Do we assign a storm to a country we associate with turmoil? Does rain originate in a beneficent nation? Where does snow call home? A brutal, totalitarian state? Can we assign hurricanes and tornados to areas of political unrest, or atrocities perpetrated against its citizens?

         Hmmm, where does thunder go when it dies? Does it die? Does it lay low to recharge? Is it always in cahoots with lightning? Are they an exclusive, mutual pair? Is its trademark boom and clap described that way in other dialects? In French, is it
'le boom' and 'le clap?' In German, it could be 'das grossboomenclappenruckus.' Perhaps thunder speaks German? It does sound guttural and harsh. Often, it is prolonged and we all know the Deutsch love their immense compound words. As always, I merely speculate...