Do you have a favorite word? Are words in and of themselves your friends? Are there some words that seem to just roll off your tongue and their onomatopoeia alone, makes you want to say them? As a kid were you thrilled when you learned how to spell Mississippi? As an adult are you secretly a little excited when you get to use a new word you’ve just learned?
For those of you who are ‘word-o-philes’, this makes total sense. For those of you who aren’t, about now you’re cocking your head to one side and thinking, is she crazy? There she goes. Off on a tangent again. And I wouldn’t argue with you.
Words are material in which we clothe ourselves. Sometimes they are armor with which we defend ourselves. My daughter went to live in Austria when she was 17 (thank you Rotary Club). When she went, she didn’t speak the language (German). One of her comments was that she felt so exposed. She said she felt like she had no tools with which to influence other peoples’ perceptions of her. So we use words to define some of the intangibles about ourselves.
I posit that there are some words that are just fun to say. The manner in which they are pronounced fits the emotion you are trying to express. How about balderdash? That’s not a word that people use very often. But say it. Just the way it comes out of your mouth makes it an expletive without having to add an exclamation mark.
I love inscrutable. You even feel like wagging your head and squinting your eyes a bit (you know, so people can’t see into the windows of your soul) as you express it. Oh, and how about inimitable? All it means is not open to imitation but it’s so much more fun to say inimitable . . . right there along with indubitably. Those are words that allow you to put your syllabic stresses to work!
Then there are those of us who read a lot. Sometimes we pick up words from the written page but have never heard them used aloud. . . . this can result in some interesting executions of a particular word . . . and yes, I mean that in both senses. I was on the vendor’s floor at a teacher’s conference a number of years back. I stopped the friend who was walking with me and pointed to a banner over one booth and asked her to read it aloud. I had read and knew the meaning of the word paradigm for years but had never heard it used . . . or at least hearing it used, didn’t associate it with the written word. If anyone would have asked me prior to that I would have pronounced the word was para-dig-um.
Which brings me to another point.
There are those who maintain that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. I would put it this way: English is probably one of the most difficult languages to learn to speak correctly but also one of the easiest languages in which to make yourself understood. No matter how it is mangled by syntax or accent or choice of words, you can usually understand the gist of what is being said, or get your general meaning across.
One big contributing factor in this difficulty/conundrum is that, like the population of our continent, our English has become a melting pot of linguistic genesis. Many words we simply adopt without bothering to translate so they follow the rules of the language of origin, not of English. “Garage” and ‘casserole’ are French words. Sauna is from the Swedish language. And, of course, many, many food words. Sushi from Japanese; spaghetti and pizza from Italian; sauerkraut from German. Hummus from one of the middle Eastern languages; taco, burrito, chili from Spanish. On and on . . . I’m certain you can think of dozens of examples.
So, try out some new words . . . say them aloud . . . see if they don’t feel like what you wanted to say. Words are fun people . . . make friends with them.
Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes . . . she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.
