 For Authors: January 05, 2022 Issue [#11157] |
This week: Words: What we have to work with ... Edited by: Fyn  
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In the common words we use every day, souls of past races, the thoughts and feelings of individual men stand around us, not dead, but frozen into their attitudes like the courtiers in the garden of the Sleeping Beauty.~~ Owen Barfield
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.~~Marcus Garvey
The word was born in the blood, grew in the dark body, beating, and took flight through the lips and the mouth. Farther away and nearer still, still it came from dead fathers and from wondering races, from lands which had turned to stone, lands weary of their poor tribes, for when grief took to the roads the people set out and arrived and married new land and water to grow their words again. And so this is the inheritance; this is the wavelength which connects us with dead men and the dawning of new beings not yet come to light. ~~Pablo Neruda
The word humility (also human) is derived from the Latin humus, meaning the soil. Perhaps this is not simply because it entails stooping and returning to earthly origins, but also because, as we are rooted in this earth of everyday life, we find in it all the vitality and fertility unnoticed by people who merely tramp on across the surface, drawn by distant landscapes. ~~Piero Ferrucci
It seemed no amount of praying could diminish the plague's wrath. By the time city officials realized it was the rats that were causing the disease, it was too late, but Venice still enforced a decree by which all incoming vessels had to anchor offshore for a full forty days before they would be permitted to unload. To this day, the number forty - quaranta in Italian - served as a grim reminder of the origins of the word quarantine. ~~Dan Brown
To observe the world carefully, to write a lot and often, on a schedule if necessary, to use the dictionary a lot, to look up word origins, to analyze closely the work of writers you admire, to read not only contemporaries but writers of the past, to learn at least one foreign language, to live an interesting life outside of writing. ~~Lydia Davis
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According to lexicographer and dictionary expert Susie Dent, “The average active vocabulary of an adult English speaker is around 20,000 words, while his passive vocabulary is around 40,000 words.” The English language contains roughly 200,000 words give or take - as there are also slang words, area-specific words, less used words, or ones no longer in the general usage of the majority of people. The English language is basically a hodge-podge of words with Teutonic, Latin, Greek, French. Norse, Slavic, Danish, Italian, Middle Eastern, and a long-dead language referred to as Aryan roots. As people spread out across the continents in their firstly, hunter-gatherer roles and secondly as parts of differing groups intent on expanding territories, they brought their words with them. Some became assimilated into the language of the taken over. Words changed, evolved, and/or vanished as people spread out further and further.
Language can be tracked from 5500+ years ago and we find today that across different spoken languages, that there are many similar words or words having similar root beginnings. As writers, it is important to not only have, and use, a large vocabulary, but also to understand and have a grasp of where our words originated. For anyone interested, there is an excellent book by Owen Barfield called "History in English Words." While it reads much like a textbook, it is full of fascinating facts, word origins, and tales of why and how words we use came to be.
For example, the word 'curfew' comes from Old French cuevrefeu, from cuvrir ‘to cover’ + feu ‘fire’.The original use of the word, however, dates back to the 14th century, where a "curfew" was an evening bell that warned people to cover their fires for the night, to prevent their homes, and their neighbor's homes, from accidents. Even before that, it was the time for soldiers to bank or tamp down the fires so that the flames could not be seen from a distance letting enemies know where they were. Because the fires were basically the only light source, all had to be where there were to be for the night so they weren't wandering around in the dark.
Owen Barfield says, “There is no surer or more illuminating way of reading a man's character, and perhaps a little of his past history, than by observing the contexts in which he prefers to use certain words.” Something useful to keep in mind when divulging a character in the course of a book. People speak differently, one from another. With some it may be the use of regional colloquialisms or like Henry Standing Bear in the Craig Johnson 'Longmire' series who never, ever uses contractions when he speaks.
Nothing against the fine folks of Michigan, but I remember finding words used here to be words that are not words at all. One example is 'anyways'. Another is 'these ones' or 'those ones' instead of simply these or those. And yet, if I were writing a Michiganian character, I might want to use phrases such as these within the character's speech.
Knowing the history behind the language we speak can only be a positive addition to not only our vocabulary but how we use the words themselves. As important as layering is within writing, a knowledge of the backstory (so to speak) can add nuance and depth to our writing.
As peoples spread across the globe, as varying groups held sway, their language meshed with every language in their path. Consider how the Romans spread out to Britain. As did the Saxons and the Vikings. Spain tried. Wllian the Conquorer came over from Normandy. Words shifted, meshed, fractured, and then the resulting word mixes became part of all languages involved. There are texts and tomes devoted to how the spread of Christianity changed many words in languages across the world. In part, during one specific period of time, the Roman Empire had much to do with altering the language. Or, working with established languages, borrowing where it seemed prudent to have things be 'their' way and yet, seem to be 'not so different' from the way they had always been.
Language is a constantly evolving beast. New words become part of the lexicon, other words are retired as overused or cliched. The greater our understanding of language, its history and its evolution are, the better writers we will be.
Thanking Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  for some addition information. :)
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| Wishing all not a bright and shiny new year, but one of clay for you to mold and refine as the year progresses. One that can be adapted and refined. One that, not being all shiny and new, won't get scratched, dinged, or tarnished. I wish you one where you can smooth and soothe edges, have a say in its design and, when all is said and done, have created your year, your way andare left with a unique piece of art. ~Fyn |
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