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rabarrington@hotmail.com
Hey you...
We had a HUGE fight while driving into the city. We can’t be together without a dictionary. It started with the word “milk.” Then it was “sure.” We are stuck on pronunciations today. Other days it is how the word is spelled, or the meaning, or the derivation, or how valid the word is in today’s society. We quarrel (wrangle, bicker, clash, fight) loud and vigorously. You would think (assume, believe, imagine, sense, consider) it was about ( apropos, in relation to, concerning, regarding, on the subject of) something very important (central, significant, essential, imperative, key).
It is.
Words are weighty. They have nuance. They can cut. They can bruise. They can change a life. They can be part of a lie or they can be the golden truth. Words and how you use them connote your social status. They can show your intelligence, or lack thereof. We react to them. If I tell you that my name is Mildred. You will treat me a specific way. Crystal, Bridgette, Carly, Maude, Dorothy, Gail, Bobbi, Lulu…each one evokes a different person.
Take the word “gold.” Here in the Midwest we pronounce all of the letters. In the East they say “goed.” Rodeo or row-day-o. Once on a road trip I ordered pie in southern Indiana. I got pi…the word went high at the end and whistled off into the air. Town names can be tricky. You will almost always guess wrong. The accent will be in a different place. Some of the letters aren’t even pronounced at all.
This tizzy infects the solar system too. My aunt told me that when she was in school Uranus was pronounced like “your anus” as in butt. Now we say Ur-an-us’.
Newsreaders annoy me. They must all attend the same school or something because they pronounce most words with the accent on the first syllable. On a rainy day grab your um-brel’-la, not your um’-brel-la.
Don’t get the wrong idea here. I’m not into perfect speech. There are those who consider each and every word before they speak, and they are fond of using obscure words to try to trip you up. I’m into fluidity. I love regional accents. I like the sound of languages that I cannot speak.
Language (words) is elastic. Words change over time. Good thing that we dropped those th’s of Old English! Slang becomes “real” language. Using the correct word is powerful.
Have intense, excitable fun with words. Just don’t kill each other over them.
You haven't killed Bryce yet, have you?
Audie
