I speak English most days. I know enough of the language to convey my message to others. I also know that “I ain’t seen anything”. In fact, I don’t “seen” on most occasions. I either see, or I saw, when appropriate, depending on where I’m sitting on the see-saw board.
There are parts of the English language that require extreme concentration. I understand the eight parts of speech. I’d say verbs are my favorite, but I really appreciate a good interjection.
Oh!… Wow!… Oops!
I’ve been working with an editor this year, and she’s a complete whiz when it comes to English. She has a master’s in English. I have to watch my every word around her, I’ll tell you.
There are things in the English language, like independent and dependent clauses. Which, I think, is entirely appropriate at this time of year. I imagine Santa and Mrs. Claus are quite independent, but their annoying cousin, Elmer Clause, and his wife, Betty? The ones that drop in during the warm North Pole months for a stay? They are dependent Clauses. They tend to eat Santa and Mrs. Claus, right out of house and home. Sugar cookies and all.
Another thing about English. I don’t know why those verbs always have to be so tense.
But. I’m getting off track. The reason I started this was because the word “diphthong” came up in my “Word of the Day” a while back. Whenever I hear the word diphthong, I get this picture in my mind of some schlep with really big-toed shoes, baggy suspender-pants, tripping down the sidewalk, falling into open manholes.
That’s not a real diphthong, though.
Here’s what it is, the definition from the online Dictionary. To read this to the end requires great skill if you ask me. So forge ahead, if you dare.
diphthong
diph·thong| | ˈdifˌTHäNG, ˈdipˌTHäNG |
• A vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another
• A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel in the same syllable.
• A diphthong, also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. For most dialects of English, the phrase “no highway cowboys” contains five distinct diphthongs. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue doesn’t move and only one vowel sound is heard in a syllable. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables—for example, in the English word re-elect—the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds.
So. There it is. Now when I hear the word diphthong? I still get this picture in my mind of some schlep with really big-toed shoes, baggy suspender-pants, tripping down the sidewalk, falling into open manholes.
This whole concept bothered me a little bit, so I looked up some examples of diphthongs, to try and sort things out.
Bake. Cry. Go. Pair. Year. Rain.
I don’t feel that when I pronounce these words, that my vowel sounds, the ones that start near the articulatory position for one vowel, are really moving anywhere, especially not toward the position for another.
I just bake. Or go. Or cry. Like right now.
I haven’t heard the word “bake” move vowel sounds since I lived in the south — the people down there ba-a-a-ke cookies — where “bake” becomes two syllables.
So yes, when I say I speak English, I mean this in the loosest of terms. I merely dabble.
Yet, no matter what language we speak, we should always remember just how influential our words are. You see, the thoughts we think and the words we speak have tremendous power. Words are a form of energy. As soon as they come out of our mouths, those words have a high impact on the way on the way others perceive us and our situations.
Words affect how we feel and think. They can either empower us or put us down. We should choose carefully. Today, may we speak in truths, and may we do it compassionately.
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“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.”
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
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“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
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“I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.”
― Matt Groening
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What kind of a thong could this possibly be?
