1. antique
2. assailant
3. daiquiri
4. whortleberry (I spelled it wrong)
The End.
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
The History of Spanish in 10 Words
I have written or presented about this topic at least 3 times in school, and it still amuses the hell out of me. I have distilled it down to 5 words, but I just found a paper that lists the whole 10, and I think it's worth recording these down while the information still bubbles and frolicks around for me when I talk about it.
-Spanish is one of the Romance languages which means it comes from Latin. Other Romance languages include French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, and Portuguese, unfortunately.
-Fabular means to tell a tale which has morphed over the years to become the verb hablar, to speak. There are many words which begin with 'f' in Latin that changed to 'h' in modern Spanish. Exceptions are words with a diphthong after the 'f' like fuente (fountain), fuerza (force), and fuego (fire).
-Greek preceded Latin, which means the terms are older, but most likely filtered through Latin to become part of Spanish. Besides being used in technical and scientific words, many words from Greek are related to Church like católico, bautizar (baptize), cátedra, diablo, himno (hymn), and iglesia, meaning church.
-Sistema is a specific type of Spanish word which is from Greek, is a cognate with the English word, and appears to be female (ends in -a) but is actually masculine and uses 'el' in front of the word. Other words include mapa, dia, tema (theme), and clima (weather).
-After the Romans, Goths came to Spain and ruled for a while. They conquered by battle, and once they were in charge, they settled into the Roman lifestyle, and did not add many words to the language. The words they did contribute were mostly about war, like guardian, tambór (drum), guante (glove), armadura (armor), arma (weapon) and the word for war itself, guerra.
-The Goths also left behind their names, so pervasive in modern Latino names that it's breath-taking. In Scandanavian languages, "Olofson" means son of Olof, and in Scottish, MacDonald means 'son of Donald.' Since the names are in reference to their family or father, they are called patronyms. In Germanic Goth tradition, this is denoted by adding -ez or -oz to the end of the name, so 'son of Rodrigo' turns into Rodriguez. Other names include: Marquez, Gutierrez, Estevez, Lopez, Ramirez, Vasquez, Alvarez, Sanchez, Velasquez, and Ruiz (also meaning son of Rodrigo).
-From 711 to 1492, the Moors ruled Spain. They advanced all fields including science, math, architecture, and gardening. Arabic vocabulary came into every aspect of Spanish, but since the Spaniards had no context for Arabic language, many of the words were learned incorrectly. In Arabic 'al' is a definite article meaning 'the.' When a word like 'ah-kuhul' was spoken, Spanish speakers assumed the 'al' part was integral, and so Spanish has many words beginning with 'al.' Alcatraz (pelican) alameda, almendra (almond), ajedrez (chess), the Alambra (the red, referring to the color of the building).
-Algodon means cotton. If you take off the 'al,' you can see that godon and cotton are the same, but godon is voiced and cotton is voiceless.
-Another Arabic addition to Spanish was the word guadal (wadi in Arabic), meaning river. For some reason, many rivers have 'guadal' in the front, and then a Spanish word describing the river. Rivers with this pattern include Guadalcanal (channel river), Guadalajara (river of stones) and Guadalupe (wolf river.) Feo means ugly so Guadalfeo means Ugly River. I actually saw a sign for this river driving with my housemadre in Andalucia.
-In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella finally finished their Reconquista (reconquering) of Spain back from the Moors, which freed up their money to fund an expedition to the new world. Cervantes had not published Don Quixote, and Shakespeare had not published his plays, but imagine that sailors leaving Spain spoke in that style with 'thou' and 'mighteth' called Early Modern Spanish. Whatever 'natural' path the evolution of Spanish may have taken after they left Spain, Spanish in the New World stopped moving forward in many ways because it had to blend with the native languages it was encountering.
-In Spain, the informal second person (tú, you) is used all the time with friends or strangers. In Mexico, my host parents were Don Amando and Doña Epifanía, which is the equivalent of calling modern day people Lord and Lady. The formal third person (usted, he, she) is used to conjugate with everyone except for very small children, where tú is acceptable. When I mentioned this, the people in Spain said the old-timey formality sounds very silly to them.
-When the ships arrived in the Americas, the sailors were assaulted with new smells, animals and foods. Although they became the ruling class, Spaniards adopted many words for unfamiliar objects adopted from the native languages. The umbrella term Nahuatl is used to describe Aztecan languages found in Mexico, and many terms are recognizable from this family of languages. Tomate, aguacate (avocado), cacahuete (peanut), chicle, coyote, chile, and chocolate are all from Nahuatl.
-Many place names in Mexico are also fiercely Nahuatl, like Teotihuacan, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Tlaquepaque, Mazatlan, and Tenochtitlan. My favorites are Popocateptl and Ixtaccihuatl, which are volcanoes.
-English has become the global language. With technological advancements being created and popularized in English-speaking places, this phenomenon has exploded, but many modern terms have been borrowed by other languages rather than using equivalents from their own lexicons for a long time. Shoppers can buy 'los bluejeans' and stores advertize 'el look.'
-All languages have rules which are called phonological constraints. In English, tpeek and sbar are not acceptable, but many consonant sounds can be smooshed together, as in the word strengths (/streŋθs/). In Spanish, one of the constraints does not allow words to begin with 2 consonant sounds, like 'sp.' Spain itself is called España for this very reason. Living in Mexico, I saw ads on TV for toys based on Espíderman 2. A friend of mine once did a presentation on Esnówboarding.
As previously mentioned, Nahuatl is an umbrella term for the native languages of Mexico. In reality, Mexico has sixty-two official languages including Zapotec and Mixtec. When rebel groups like the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) sit down at talks with the government, trying to represent the concerns of all the small indigenous groups, language is a huge obstacle.
-Basque is a weird language. It existed before Latin, it is not related to the Romance languages. It is a pre-Indo-European language, which is OLD.
-Like a neighbor borrowing sugar from the north, Spanish has borrowed words from Basque twice, both for the same reason. Sometimes in a language, a word gets too many connotations, or a previously neutral word gets mixed up with slang insults, and sullies the normal use of the word. In English, everybody giggles at old songs with the word 'gay' in them, for example. Spanish had this problem with its basic words for left and right. In Latin, dexter means right, and sinister means left. Over time, dexter developed the sense of righteousness and good, while sinister, in contrast, became untrustworthy and evil. To avoid giving ominous directions, Spanish borrowed the Basque word 'izquierda' to mean the left direction, which is why it looks all crazy pants compared to derecha, which is derived from the Latin dexter.
-The second borrowing from Basque comes from the dubious delegation of distinguishing the right hand from the left. On Earth, 11% of population is consistently left-handed. In order to avoid implying that left-handers are evil (but you know they think it anyway), the word zurda was added to Spanish to describe southpaws. I love that word. It makes me want to lead a revolution with that as my nom de guerre. ¡VIVA ZURDA! Like that.
There you have it, a lovely little conquest, reconquest, boat trip and movie-going experience of the Spanish language.
1. Fabular
-Spanish is one of the Romance languages which means it comes from Latin. Other Romance languages include French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, and Portuguese, unfortunately.
-Fabular means to tell a tale which has morphed over the years to become the verb hablar, to speak. There are many words which begin with 'f' in Latin that changed to 'h' in modern Spanish. Exceptions are words with a diphthong after the 'f' like fuente (fountain), fuerza (force), and fuego (fire).
2. Sistema
-Greek preceded Latin, which means the terms are older, but most likely filtered through Latin to become part of Spanish. Besides being used in technical and scientific words, many words from Greek are related to Church like católico, bautizar (baptize), cátedra, diablo, himno (hymn), and iglesia, meaning church.
-Sistema is a specific type of Spanish word which is from Greek, is a cognate with the English word, and appears to be female (ends in -a) but is actually masculine and uses 'el' in front of the word. Other words include mapa, dia, tema (theme), and clima (weather).
3. Guerra
-After the Romans, Goths came to Spain and ruled for a while. They conquered by battle, and once they were in charge, they settled into the Roman lifestyle, and did not add many words to the language. The words they did contribute were mostly about war, like guardian, tambór (drum), guante (glove), armadura (armor), arma (weapon) and the word for war itself, guerra.
4. Rodriguez
-The Goths also left behind their names, so pervasive in modern Latino names that it's breath-taking. In Scandanavian languages, "Olofson" means son of Olof, and in Scottish, MacDonald means 'son of Donald.' Since the names are in reference to their family or father, they are called patronyms. In Germanic Goth tradition, this is denoted by adding -ez or -oz to the end of the name, so 'son of Rodrigo' turns into Rodriguez. Other names include: Marquez, Gutierrez, Estevez, Lopez, Ramirez, Vasquez, Alvarez, Sanchez, Velasquez, and Ruiz (also meaning son of Rodrigo).
5. Alcohol
-From 711 to 1492, the Moors ruled Spain. They advanced all fields including science, math, architecture, and gardening. Arabic vocabulary came into every aspect of Spanish, but since the Spaniards had no context for Arabic language, many of the words were learned incorrectly. In Arabic 'al' is a definite article meaning 'the.' When a word like 'ah-kuhul' was spoken, Spanish speakers assumed the 'al' part was integral, and so Spanish has many words beginning with 'al.' Alcatraz (pelican) alameda, almendra (almond), ajedrez (chess), the Alambra (the red, referring to the color of the building).
-Algodon means cotton. If you take off the 'al,' you can see that godon and cotton are the same, but godon is voiced and cotton is voiceless.
6. Guadalfeo
-Another Arabic addition to Spanish was the word guadal (wadi in Arabic), meaning river. For some reason, many rivers have 'guadal' in the front, and then a Spanish word describing the river. Rivers with this pattern include Guadalcanal (channel river), Guadalajara (river of stones) and Guadalupe (wolf river.) Feo means ugly so Guadalfeo means Ugly River. I actually saw a sign for this river driving with my housemadre in Andalucia.
7. Doña
-In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella finally finished their Reconquista (reconquering) of Spain back from the Moors, which freed up their money to fund an expedition to the new world. Cervantes had not published Don Quixote, and Shakespeare had not published his plays, but imagine that sailors leaving Spain spoke in that style with 'thou' and 'mighteth' called Early Modern Spanish. Whatever 'natural' path the evolution of Spanish may have taken after they left Spain, Spanish in the New World stopped moving forward in many ways because it had to blend with the native languages it was encountering.
-In Spain, the informal second person (tú, you) is used all the time with friends or strangers. In Mexico, my host parents were Don Amando and Doña Epifanía, which is the equivalent of calling modern day people Lord and Lady. The formal third person (usted, he, she) is used to conjugate with everyone except for very small children, where tú is acceptable. When I mentioned this, the people in Spain said the old-timey formality sounds very silly to them.
8. Popocateptl
-When the ships arrived in the Americas, the sailors were assaulted with new smells, animals and foods. Although they became the ruling class, Spaniards adopted many words for unfamiliar objects adopted from the native languages. The umbrella term Nahuatl is used to describe Aztecan languages found in Mexico, and many terms are recognizable from this family of languages. Tomate, aguacate (avocado), cacahuete (peanut), chicle, coyote, chile, and chocolate are all from Nahuatl.
-Many place names in Mexico are also fiercely Nahuatl, like Teotihuacan, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Tlaquepaque, Mazatlan, and Tenochtitlan. My favorites are Popocateptl and Ixtaccihuatl, which are volcanoes.
9. Espíderman
-English has become the global language. With technological advancements being created and popularized in English-speaking places, this phenomenon has exploded, but many modern terms have been borrowed by other languages rather than using equivalents from their own lexicons for a long time. Shoppers can buy 'los bluejeans' and stores advertize 'el look.'
-All languages have rules which are called phonological constraints. In English, tpeek and sbar are not acceptable, but many consonant sounds can be smooshed together, as in the word strengths (/streŋθs/). In Spanish, one of the constraints does not allow words to begin with 2 consonant sounds, like 'sp.' Spain itself is called España for this very reason. Living in Mexico, I saw ads on TV for toys based on Espíderman 2. A friend of mine once did a presentation on Esnówboarding.
10. 62 (Sesenta)
As previously mentioned, Nahuatl is an umbrella term for the native languages of Mexico. In reality, Mexico has sixty-two official languages including Zapotec and Mixtec. When rebel groups like the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) sit down at talks with the government, trying to represent the concerns of all the small indigenous groups, language is a huge obstacle.
*Bonus Words* Zurda & Izquierda
-Basque is a weird language. It existed before Latin, it is not related to the Romance languages. It is a pre-Indo-European language, which is OLD.
-Like a neighbor borrowing sugar from the north, Spanish has borrowed words from Basque twice, both for the same reason. Sometimes in a language, a word gets too many connotations, or a previously neutral word gets mixed up with slang insults, and sullies the normal use of the word. In English, everybody giggles at old songs with the word 'gay' in them, for example. Spanish had this problem with its basic words for left and right. In Latin, dexter means right, and sinister means left. Over time, dexter developed the sense of righteousness and good, while sinister, in contrast, became untrustworthy and evil. To avoid giving ominous directions, Spanish borrowed the Basque word 'izquierda' to mean the left direction, which is why it looks all crazy pants compared to derecha, which is derived from the Latin dexter.
-The second borrowing from Basque comes from the dubious delegation of distinguishing the right hand from the left. On Earth, 11% of population is consistently left-handed. In order to avoid implying that left-handers are evil (but you know they think it anyway), the word zurda was added to Spanish to describe southpaws. I love that word. It makes me want to lead a revolution with that as my nom de guerre. ¡VIVA ZURDA! Like that.
There you have it, a lovely little conquest, reconquest, boat trip and movie-going experience of the Spanish language.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Elsewhere on the Internet: Wordnik.com Secret Word Game!
Hey!
Every Wednesday morning starting around 9:30am, @Wordnik gives out clues for a secret word on wordnik.com that has a pronounciation by "hap_e_wordnik" (see screen shot below). They give out 3 or 4 clues, each of which describes a different definition that the uncommon or obsolete word has. As soon as someone gets the right word, the game ends. If no one gets it by the end of the clues, they give a *BONUS CLUE* which usually has quotations around letters, meaning the word is an anagram of those letters.
Today's bonus clue included the quoted letters "new lid" which I anagrammed into the correct answer! I've been able to do the final sudden-death anagram part before, but always sent my response after one or more people had already figured it out. This week, I was the first! I won! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
They will be mailing a prize to me which was previously secret and unknown to me, but now I will reveal it! (I hope that's okay)
It's a notebook with wordnik.com and other words on the cover! It's so cute. It's going to be so cute I won't feel worthy to put my little lists in it, but I will do it anyway.
Thanks, Wordnik! I feel so nifty now. <3
Every Wednesday morning starting around 9:30am, @Wordnik gives out clues for a secret word on wordnik.com that has a pronounciation by "hap_e_wordnik" (see screen shot below). They give out 3 or 4 clues, each of which describes a different definition that the uncommon or obsolete word has. As soon as someone gets the right word, the game ends. If no one gets it by the end of the clues, they give a *BONUS CLUE* which usually has quotations around letters, meaning the word is an anagram of those letters.
Today's bonus clue included the quoted letters "new lid" which I anagrammed into the correct answer! I've been able to do the final sudden-death anagram part before, but always sent my response after one or more people had already figured it out. This week, I was the first! I won! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
They will be mailing a prize to me which was previously secret and unknown to me, but now I will reveal it! (I hope that's okay)
It's a notebook with wordnik.com and other words on the cover! It's so cute. It's going to be so cute I won't feel worthy to put my little lists in it, but I will do it anyway.
Thanks, Wordnik! I feel so nifty now. <3
Monday, November 22, 2010
Spelling Bee: SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!
1. beau
2. pomade
3. flummox (I spelled it wrong)
Lovely evening with the Robert. Hot cider in the lounge. I taught a guy that Seatac is a portmanteau of Seattle and Tacoma, which he had never realized. Someone had to spell OHMAGODITS cabotage. When I spelled flummox, I had a picture of the 'm' taking up a lot of space, but I couldn't figure out if that was because it was an important part of the word, or because there were 2 m's. I chose poorly.
2. pomade
3. flummox (I spelled it wrong)
Lovely evening with the Robert. Hot cider in the lounge. I taught a guy that Seatac is a portmanteau of Seattle and Tacoma, which he had never realized. Someone had to spell OHMAGODITS cabotage. When I spelled flummox, I had a picture of the 'm' taking up a lot of space, but I couldn't figure out if that was because it was an important part of the word, or because there were 2 m's. I chose poorly.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Elsewhere on the Internet: Geek the Library
Geek the Library is a site meant to promote libraries, to emphasize that they need our support, and continued funding. I liked the concept instantly, so I decided my thing is "I geek word origins." I wrote up a little explanation and submitted it, but then I read other entries... and then all talk about their geekery and then how the libraries are vital for supporting their continued geekery. What a foolish panda. Anyway, it seems like a good site, and I haven't done anything for the site or libraries recently, but I think it's a good angle to try to attack the problem.
I don't know how I heard about this site, but it initially reminded me of "It's a Sickness" which has lovely Alan Cumming as its MC, which makes it extra wonderful.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Spelling Bee: Queen of Third Place
1. marginal
2. flack / flak
3. nightingale
4. dynamitard
5. deasil (i spelled it wrong)
6. bagatelle (i spelled it wrong)
7. apparatchik
8. iambelegus (i spelled it wrong)
9. kobold (i spelled it wrong)
I got 3rd again. I am so good at almost getting prizes. Also, Mike visited the bee. Hi, Mike!
2. flack / flak
3. nightingale
4. dynamitard
5. deasil (i spelled it wrong)
6. bagatelle (i spelled it wrong)
7. apparatchik
8. iambelegus (i spelled it wrong)
9. kobold (i spelled it wrong)
I got 3rd again. I am so good at almost getting prizes. Also, Mike visited the bee. Hi, Mike!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Spelling Bee: At Least I Got to Spell A Lot
1. pension
2. abundance
3. ebullience
4. epiphytic
5. gangue (I spelled it wrong)
6. deshabillle (I spelled it wrong)
7. ziggurat
8. dizen (I spelled it wrong)
Robert won. Good job Robert.
2. abundance
3. ebullience
4. epiphytic
5. gangue (I spelled it wrong)
6. deshabillle (I spelled it wrong)
7. ziggurat
8. dizen (I spelled it wrong)
Robert won. Good job Robert.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Spelling Bee: Give up Before Battle
1. grieve
2. retch
3. poussin
I gave up before the bee started, so I laid on the grenade for the newcomers.
2. retch
3. poussin
I gave up before the bee started, so I laid on the grenade for the newcomers.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Short List: Songs with Definitions in Them
1. This Way - Dilated Peoples ft. Kanye West
"I want a good girl, she want a gentleman. We saying the same thing like a synonym."
2. Not Big - Lily Allen
"Now I'm gonna do to you what you did to me, gonna reciprocate."
"I want a good girl, she want a gentleman. We saying the same thing like a synonym."
2. Not Big - Lily Allen
"Now I'm gonna do to you what you did to me, gonna reciprocate."
Monday, September 6, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Spelling Bee: The Family that Spells Together
My Words:
1. lore2. vegetal
3. splenic
4. parget (i spelled it wrong)
Conn's Words:
1. inherit
2. hearth
3. pharaoh (he spelled it wrong)
I tied for 3rd with about 6 other people
Monday, August 9, 2010
Spelling Bee: Happy Times
1. biscuit
2. convertible
3. acquaintance
4. dihedral
5. mallophaga (i spelled it wrong)
I got 3rd place!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
New Term: Anticipicaketion
Anticipicaketion
/æntɪsɪpəkajkθən/
n. the unfortunate state of being in which one must wait for it to be time to eat cake.
Related terms:
Caketicipation
/kajktɪsɪpajθən/
n. the state of being in which Dr. Frankenfurter sees you shiver, waiting for cake. (obsolete)
Justificaketion
/dʒʌstɪfɪkajkθən/
n. the reasoning that leads one to justify eating cake. i.e. "I had a salad for lunch and I've never seen a cake like that before."
Friday, April 16, 2010
FACT: Word Game on the Bus
Every day when I look at the glowing red sign at the front of the bus I think, "If there was an extra 'e' on that sign, that would anagram to 'Sequestered Pot.'"
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Free Rice Evidence
Free Rice is a great site where you can take endless vocabulary tests!
If you don't like vocabulary, you can take everlasting multiple choice tests on Art, Chemistry, Geography, Language Learning, and Math. Every time you get an answer right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme. It is so good.
The other day, a certain person I was speaking with asked me what my highest level was, and I said 48 out of 60, which I was not sure was true. It lead to terrible confessions about me being a liar all the time, which is a fact. So I played on Free Rice this evening until it was true. This is my screenshoot proof.
If you don't like vocabulary, you can take everlasting multiple choice tests on Art, Chemistry, Geography, Language Learning, and Math. Every time you get an answer right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme. It is so good.
The other day, a certain person I was speaking with asked me what my highest level was, and I said 48 out of 60, which I was not sure was true. It lead to terrible confessions about me being a liar all the time, which is a fact. So I played on Free Rice this evening until it was true. This is my screenshoot proof.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Word Game: License to Spell
(That is a terrible name for this game. I've been trying to think of a more graceful one for weeks.)
There is a game I have created that I often play as a passenger on the roads of life. The game involves license plates and spelling but not anagrams. (It doesn't work with vanity plates like the one above that I came up with and I thought was hilarious when I was younger.) (It is also hilarious now.)
So basically, on most license plates there is a series of 3 letters like this:
You take the 3 letters, keep them in order, and try to come up with as many words as possible that have those letters in that order. They can be word-initial, they can be together or separate, but they must stay in that order. So for the above example, words could be have these possible orders: BQU_, _BQU, B_QU_, _B_Q_U, ___B___QU___, etc. Bequeath, bezique (it's a card game), Albuquerque, Bisquick... That combination is pretty hard, actually, my list is here: BQU.
You can use proper names, you can use company names, you can use hyphenated words, and compound words. If you're really stuck you can use a two-word phrase like "be quiet" just so you can get some satisfaction at having found at least one solution. It's not really about points, or length. Some of the shortest words are quite elegant, but the long ones can be impressive purely for their size.
The purpose of the game is to keep your brain occupied during silent two-person car trips, or to have something to do with the driver that engages them but also keeps their eyes on the road. When it's a really good combination, I try to remember them and make it a tag on wordnik.com. I haven't done that so much, but I'm working on it.
************************************************************************
You can also play this game in a stationary position, you just need 3 letters. The simplest way to randomly choose 3 letters is to ask someone in the room for their initials, or think of the full name of a famous person. I have made a list using my own initials, BMH. You can see the kind of liberties I took for the sake of creating a longer list.
I just asked a housemate for his initials, which are TGG, which seems to require an "ing" nearly every time to get all three of those letters in together. At first, I thought he said TTG, so I made a list of those, too.
Anyway, feel free to play. Some are easy and endless, some are impossibly hard, but most of them are a good combination of low-hanging fruit and satisfying brain teasers. If you want clarification on rules, or have a suggestion of how to take the game to the next level, lemme know.
There is a game I have created that I often play as a passenger on the roads of life. The game involves license plates and spelling but not anagrams. (It doesn't work with vanity plates like the one above that I came up with and I thought was hilarious when I was younger.) (It is also hilarious now.)
So basically, on most license plates there is a series of 3 letters like this:
You take the 3 letters, keep them in order, and try to come up with as many words as possible that have those letters in that order. They can be word-initial, they can be together or separate, but they must stay in that order. So for the above example, words could be have these possible orders: BQU_, _BQU, B_QU_, _B_Q_U, ___B___QU___, etc. Bequeath, bezique (it's a card game), Albuquerque, Bisquick... That combination is pretty hard, actually, my list is here: BQU.
You can use proper names, you can use company names, you can use hyphenated words, and compound words. If you're really stuck you can use a two-word phrase like "be quiet" just so you can get some satisfaction at having found at least one solution. It's not really about points, or length. Some of the shortest words are quite elegant, but the long ones can be impressive purely for their size.
The purpose of the game is to keep your brain occupied during silent two-person car trips, or to have something to do with the driver that engages them but also keeps their eyes on the road. When it's a really good combination, I try to remember them and make it a tag on wordnik.com. I haven't done that so much, but I'm working on it.
************************************************************************
You can also play this game in a stationary position, you just need 3 letters. The simplest way to randomly choose 3 letters is to ask someone in the room for their initials, or think of the full name of a famous person. I have made a list using my own initials, BMH. You can see the kind of liberties I took for the sake of creating a longer list.
I just asked a housemate for his initials, which are TGG, which seems to require an "ing" nearly every time to get all three of those letters in together. At first, I thought he said TTG, so I made a list of those, too.
Anyway, feel free to play. Some are easy and endless, some are impossibly hard, but most of them are a good combination of low-hanging fruit and satisfying brain teasers. If you want clarification on rules, or have a suggestion of how to take the game to the next level, lemme know.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Man Who Made Lists: Not a Book Review
I was hoping this book would be a kickstart to me to attack the pile of language books I have languidly lying around my bookshelves, but not so.
The book goes through his biography, and I don't like how it's written, like the author had a Pastwatch-esque ability to know where Roget is looking and what he is thinking as he walks down the road or in the middle of a meeting. I know there are records and he could have explained it after the fact, but I just don't buy it and it distracts me to throw in details about the buildings he passes and their little histories.
Whatever. So I identify with him, and he was destined to go on the Cool Guys List from the first cracking open of the book. So his life is tragic, and it makes me worry that I can try to organize the world in my little way, try to contribute to some field, realize the kind words someone once told me, that I am "a solution in search of a problem." And I will contribute, probably, but it won't stop my life from being terrible for no apparent reason, and it won't stop me suffering from debilitating personal issues that don't allow me to appreciate my many blessings or accomplishments. What I'm saying is, I'm really looking forward to the rest of my life. Thanks, book.
I mean, Peter Mark Roget was a serious genius, and put his hands into all sorts of medical and botanical classification projects, and now his name is (oh my, better write this one down) synonymous with Thesaurus-type reference books, but those are just word indices and lack the vision that his original system had about who would use his book and why and how.
RESOLUTION: To seek out an original-ish version of Roget's Thesaurus, in a rare books room in Portland or elsewhere. To see the original layout, to see the systems and sub-systems. To touch a page, even if through gloved fingers. To be inspired or not by it. Begin.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Where is the Unialphabet?
Recently I poked and prodded around the internet, Portland libraries, and even had my mother in California send me a book in the mail to get an example of Delfín Carbonell Bassett's "Unialphabet."
Here is why: I think it's potentially brilliant. It's a simple gesture that could really change the mindset of students learning language.
Here is what it is, in theory: Instead of having and English/Spanish and Spanish/English division in bilingual dictionaries, put them all together in one alphabet, with some sort of key to distinguish which comes from which language. It breaks down the artificial wall, and lets the languages live in the same universe. It may lead to more 'Spanglish' writings, but it also stops kids from learning unconsciously that their language of reference can only be thought of one word at a time in the other language, one arrow going to Spanish, one arrow back to English. With the Unialphabet system, all the words are living in bunk beds next to each other, forced to recognize the others' presence AS WELL AS exponentially increasing the element of serendipity, finding words you weren't looking for, because now all the words are available all the time as the main words. It also can visually show someone "hey, English has a lot more words in the W section than Spanish, why is that?" pushing a student to think about the fundamentals of language earlier than the day some crazy word enthusiast, such as myself, pushes word facts down their throats without warning.
Here is the problem: The book my mother sent me was a Dictionary of Proverbs, which was on the list of books which used the system on Wikipedia. I know Wikipedia is not the king of information, but by god I thought I could trust it just a little further than I could throw it. Anyway, the red and yellow cover, as you can see, clearly divides it into two sections. One thing it does do is explain English idioms in Spanish, and Spanish idioms in English. Ok, that's good, but WHY ARE THERE TWO ALPHABETS. UNI! ONE! WTF! I want to love this, I want to write to Erin McKean and tell her for the Dictionary Society of America I want to write a proposal that encourages bilingual dictionaries to be printed unialphabetically for American textbooks, and pocket dictionaries! BUT I DON'T HAVE A REAL EXAMPLE!
In fact, the most true example of a unialphabet that I have access to is my very own "Mellifluous Verbosity," the list of all the words that make me happy.
So what now? Keep searching for my linguistic path, amuse myself with words, maybe email Mr. Señor Carbonell Bassett again, search for actual images of the Unialphabet in practice. Sigh.
Aspiring paleoverbologist out.
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