THE BEAUTY OF LANGUAGES

By Dode Sescri

WORDS TO ELATE

Sixteenth Agenda

Copyright © 2016 DODE®

Smashwords Edition

No part of this book should be redistributed without prior permission from the author, both in print, portable digital format and online.

Disclaimer

All readers are welcome to challenge the contents of this book, and should process them with their uttermost intellectual capabilities before they can assess them for reference purposes because they are largely a work of the author’s own imaginations.

The stories given as examples in this book do not represent Factual or historical events but have been used fictitiously to bring out the literal aspects of discussions and also demonstrate authors intended thoughts and ideas exemplarily. Do not take them too seriously.

This book is stacked up of numerous mini chapters the author refers to as linguists. Each linguist stands for each idea or topic of discussion.

You will also find some non-English words, the author has used them only for the sake of enhancing description. They are not a result of typo.

Table of Contents.

Contention

Linguist-1- one word for many

Linguist-2-numerouse variations

Linguist-3- my wish

Linguist-4- direct translation

Linguist-5- inferior versus superior languages

Linguist-6- fighting stuttering

Linguist-7- simplicity of language and meaning

Linguist-8- my language my life

Linguist-9- English is hard

Linguist-10- the difficulty of learning a new language

Final clause

More of Wotes

Footnotes.

Contention.

Languages as we know them are many and unevenly spread across the globe, some countries have more languages by a square area than others, some languages are very old while others are relatively young, few are written down and learned through regular academic programs, many more are not of any record set, which means they are only spoken by word of mouth, all in all each person wants   to learn a few languages if not many to expound on their knowledge, as part of a plan to visit a foreign nation or simply for fun, whatever the reasons may be.

This article does not teach readers how to learn a particular language, it only highlights the beauty of the complexity and the vastness of the number of languages spoken across the world.

Just remember that some of the most beautiful of languages are those that have not yet been put into writing.

Linguist-1- one word for many.

One beauty of language is that one word can be used to describe many things, conversely many words can also be used to describe the same thing. For instance when you say something is good or bad they will try to imagine the physical form/ appearance of that description. When you say something is good, what exactly do you mean? Words such as good or bad are too ambiguous to be left in a standalone mode, describe it at least a little further. When you say it’s bad, what do you mean exactly, people may ask, if it’s good how good is it, if it's bad, how bad is that bad of yours?

Here is a list of words that can be used to describe both good and bad, please don’t skip the list, go through all the names, examine each word after another and see which one does not fit into the category.

Words used to describe something that’s VERY GOOD.

Fantastic; Absolutely fabulous; Great; Brilliant; Enormous; Amazing; Fascinating; Wonderful; Awesome; Impressive; Terrific; Cool; Stunning; Stupendous; Staggering;  In-effable; Electrifying; Intriguing; Excellent; Outstanding; Perfect;  Marvellous; Superb;  Exceptional; Nice; Attractive; Pleasant; Wowing; Worthy; Magnificent; Lovely; Best; Neat; Respectable; Satisfactory; Fresh.

Words used to describe something that’s VERY BAD.

Terrible; Horrible; Disgusting; Ugly; Unbearable; Gross; Clumsy; Repulsive; Filthy; Dirty; savage; Unholy; Brutal; Shrieking; Lousy; Lowly; Lurid; Despicable; ill; Evil; Abominable; Atrocious; Awful; Corked; Corky; Crummy; Deplorable; Disobedient; Distressing; Dreadful; Fearful; Frightful; Hard; Hopeless; Horrid; Icky; Incompetent; Lamentable; Mediocre; Naughty; Negative; No-good; Painful;  Pitiful; Poor; Rotten; Sad; Severe; Stinking; Stinky; Unfavourable; Unspeakable; Unsuitable; Worse; Worst; Uncomfortable; Spoiled; Stale; Regretful; Invalid; Inferior; Harmful; Risky; Unhealthy; Unfit; Unsound; Counterfeit;  Defective; Unworthy.

And the list goes on forever, as we can see it's better to use either one of these words for people to understand you better than to simply say something is good or bad. Which words can be appropriately used to describe something in the place of the common words of “good” and “bad”? They all seem to fit, but many of them can better represent an idea or object if used appropriately.

The English language has evolved so much over the millennium, owing to the fact that it can be tweaked and moulded, adding new phrases or tweaking old words to form new ones. The English language is probably the most flexible of all languages owing its ancestry to all the others that came before it. With few to no rigid verbs, sentence structure, easy comprehension, unlike French where you have to know the conjugation of every verb before you can use it in your desired manner. English the native language of the angles and Saxons has spread so much to become the most widely used language in the world.

Even in areas where other native languages are spoken, English is often used for official purposes.

Linguist-2-numerous variations.

VOCAL CORDS

One thing you'd discover learning a new language is difficulty in saying the words correctly, the native speakers of that language will jeer you often, mock you saying that your communication skills are poor, you are just not pronouncing the words correctly, maybe your mother-tongue emphasised different parts of the vocal cords, French people speak more through the nostrils than through the voice box, other languages like Arabic stress the throat, which does most of the pronouncing , the first time I heard a Somali man speaking, I thought he was gaggling and was about to spit on me, so I moved aside, while a friend saw this and eased me down saying, stay calm man they are just having a chat.

Another feature is the tone and body language that accompanies the words, when you listen to certain people, from some tribes speak, you might think they are quarrelling, they yell and throw hands at one another, making it look like they are about to get into  a fight. "fool ya"  this is simply the norm, like saying hello, good morning,  I wondered if this this is how they speak in a normal conversation, how it's like when someone is angry, I'd like to witness one incident of quarrel or argument.

Another factor is pacing of words, speed of intonation, the Numar tribesmen speak so fast that a person can easily utter three hundred and fifty words a minute, they are nomads, so they  have a famous phrase that says, "throw in your words quickly before the maize seller deceives you,"

The Bakole  on the other hand are very slow speakers, their neighbours dwellers of the rainforests, have most of their language depleted through isolation from the outside world, their vocabulary is so few that you can learn their entire language in a single week.

The Bakole are farmers who have long summers and short winters, they say we will wait for a hundred moons to pass before the rains come, they often speak calmly and slowly so as not to offend their guests, speaking with a loud voice and quickly is a sign of restlessness which is a vice in this part of the village.

In some other tribes, there is a lot of whistling and clicking, you would not say more than five words in a row without having to whistle or click.

There are some languages that are like tongue twisters when you hear them for the first time, it’s like when you are asking a child who is learning to speak to distinguish between kitchen and chicken, when you ask him to say one, he calls upon the other.

They talk so fast, throwing their hands into the air, you can't tell whether they are singing or talking, a Yankee was walking over there and watched them as they spoke, standing on the furthest corner of the beach, "obviously here on a vacation" he then turned to the guy standing beside him and said, "these rappers, they don’t know what they are saying." and moved on with his surfboard firmly clenched under his armpit.

They churn in Three hundred and fifty words a minute, that’s the gentleman speaking only not to mention the….

Some languages are very beautiful, when you hear the natives speak you might think they are singing, some other languages are spoken with lots of enthusiasm and are accompanied by lots of nonverbal cues, tonal variations, alliterations, gestures etc., such that a first time listener might think there is a quarrel going on, and the speakers are about to fight.

Listening to these communities speak, so exciting even if you don’t understand their conversation, its sweet like music.

Linguist-3- my wish

I wish I could speak a thousand languages and interpret ten thousand tongues, how would the world be like if you could hear and understand everything, citizens of every country, say for example.  At least for now, just a handful, hope for a dozen,  after that a hundred plus then when efficient well enough in all these pragmatics go for a thousand, never mind, I would never go crazy for reading all that. Life in these days is so boring that learning new languages seems to be the best way to pass time, it’s the most exciting way I think. How interesting my life is going to be learning something new each day, for all the non-written languages I wish I could cascade them on a piece of paper and read them to others. I will travel as far as my tuk-tuk can take me and learn as many languages as my mind can uphold.

Though I am conversant with only a few east African dialects, I wish I could learn all the African dialects, get to know their customs and traditions, speak their tongue,, what an exciting thin it would be?

Linguist-4-direct translation

To my surprise when most sentences cannot be translated directly from one language to another and still make sense, there are a group of phrases that can be translated into literary every known language (not minding the positions of the words in a line) and still make perfect sense. Often most of them turn out to be words that express negativity.

One word could also be available in another language, but inversely says something else, something different.

It's quite amusing that the phrases that can be translated from language to language and still achieve the same results are negative ones. (Further descriptions of this still to come)

Linguist-5-inferioer versus superior languages.

What we are experiencing today is the marginalisation of inferior languages by superior languages, the languages used for official purposes, for conducting businesses around the world are slowly killing the native tongues, some languages are disappearing as they lose grip of a fast changing world, when a child grows up they are forced to speak a foreign language at schools, a language they don’t speak at home, and by the time they grow into puberty they are unable to comprehend their mother tongue, since they are not preserved in books they are at the greatest risk of being lost, they remain at the mercy of the forces of globalisation.

“Our great-grand parents urged us to continue telling these stories,” remarked a Nyiika boy, they say, when the Europeans first arrived to the horn of Africa, in the early eighteenth-century local chiefs sent spies to them, to watch over their settlements from a distance, unfortunately no native spoke the language of the settlers at the time.

When one warrior saw ten European soldiers seated at a table discussing something he thought was fishy, he moved very close in order to listen to their talk, but he couldn’t hear nor understand anything. The messengers came back with this message. "the settlers & invaders don’t speak well like humans, they simply chirp like birds, and when you hear them call one another from a distance, they haul like baboons, they simply don’t know how to communicate well, the white man does not know how to speak like a human, we will teach him how to do so, the language of our tribe is the easiest in the whole world."  So, we shall have to send our children to live with them for a while in their camps, to deceptively act as their servants, learn their language then they'll run away, flee back to our village to reveal unto us their secrets, whatever hidden message they have, we shall know it.

Knowledge was passed down from generation to another by words of mouth, no system of writing had been invented in in this part of the world at the time, so you had to remember everything you are taught. Everything from farming, family business, the act of warfare, fishing, religious ceremonies were constantly drummed into the children's ears, those who had poor memories were regarded as a waste, an outcast to the community. In this part of the world, your memory was your treasure, your shield, your source of food and livelihood, everything.

The counting of some forest communities could barely  go beyond twenty, this is because they were hunters and gatherers, who lived in very small families, they grew no food and never kept large stock piles of property, food reserves etc. all food they hunted using their bows and arrows was consumed instantly when they later intermingled with other tribes who were farmers and cattle keepers, one story as was told very often in folk tales was of the great chief, he was very excited about his newly acquired wealth all his life he has been in the bush hunting game meat, now he has animals in his homestead, that can give him a regular supply of this vital source of life, both milk and meat.

But there was a problem, the agile chief didn’t know how to count such many cattle, so he invented an ingenious plan to overcome such a hurdle, he went out and picked a pair of white stones exact in number to his cattle , so when the cattle left the shed in the morning, he removes  the stones from the basket and drops them down side by, he stood there at the entrance, and as each animal walks  into the pen later in the evening, he drops the stones into the basket, he picks a stone when an animal walks into the pen and drops it into the basket, one after another, after another, when all stones are in the basket, he's relieved knowing that all the cattle are in the pen.

Linguist-6-fighting stuttering

A visitor asked those besides me, “what’s the matter with him, doesn’t he talk?

No! What then?

I am a stu-s-s-stu-te-re-r

Boy I was really determined to get it out, Now it has come back to haunt me again Since I didn’t want people new to me to notice that I had this problem, I really worked hard & tried to fight it. I wanted to keep it secret but all of a sudden it keeps getting me into trouble again and again. The expression on the people’s faces suggested empathy, "Oh no he has started again." You find people finishing words for you.

In the end I realised I didn’t have to be perfect, I just let go, I also got ignore the pressure from others who try to rush me, to make you speak hurriedly.

Trying to force it out (the word out) is like trying to force a thick thread through a narrow needles eye, the more one tries to push it through, the harder it becomes getting it out. Just the same way a different needle is required an alternative word can still do the same job. The secret lies in what you emphasise as the famous artists puts it.

Some words and phrases strike your mind, they keep echoing in your ears for days, every time an opportunity shows up you are fascinated about trying them out.

Some of the words which gave me a hard time include this…

- Soda

- Zero

- sorry

I wish I could find a way to communicate effectively without having to speak fluently.

Linguist-7-simplicity of language and meaning.

EASY GOING PROFESSOR

A professor was trying to explain a psychological process the scientific way, in his newly published journal titled, "how people happen to like something". When perceptive action takes place, the left cerebral contact part memory archives it as first information impression, it is then neurologically linked to the subconscious section of emotional responses, and it’s later resubmitted to retrieval systems then…bla bla bla…”

Hey wait a minute, hold on, said one little man, professor when a person sees something good, they like it automatically, what is there to explain? You are even making it harder than it was before, people like things simply because they are good, and hate things that are bad, "end of story" You have a point professor but I think there is a better way to tell them that, I know what I am doing," remarks the professor, "Do you think you can teach me how to teach you?

Do your explanations simplify things or does it make simple descriptions harder? If you try to re-explain further what is simple, you will be making it harder than you found it this is already plain simple and straight to the point. So that’s why we go for hard-core activities there is nothing to simplify here.

Those who try to pack their work with utter professionalism end up diluting their once exciting writings with meaningless, dense jargon, you read an entire paragraph without understanding a thing.

Linguist-8- my language my life.

Some Brits say, “the Yankees have corrupted our language, the pure tongue of the angles & Saxons, they adopted it first then while trying to learn it well they easily corrupted it and then spread to the other parts of the world as if it were their own, they have brought great confusion to those who are trying to learn our language.

This is what has happened to us, the Yankees call crow a dove while the name of the crow they give it to a dove, they have absolutely swapped everything, every noun every verb and every vowel they have shuffled, even the sayings and proverbs have not remained unchanged.

The Yankees know no English only a surface layer & vocabulary, they can never purely speak the language of the Norsemen, the beautiful language of the angles and Saxons.

When The Angles said, the mayor goes back to town on his donkey,

The Yankees said, the mules have muck

When The Angles say, when the cock crows know its morning

The Yankees say when your Chihuahua beckons then know its breakfast

When The Angles say, pay your rent to your landlord on time

The Yankees say, send in your checks before you are zonked out,

When the angles say this is my lady she is a loving kind, chaste wife, I am very proud of her

The Yankees say this is my chubby, she is a hot, horny, curvy, girlfriend, I am very content/satisfied of her.

When the Angles say I am walking a few kilometres back to my home,

The Yankees say I am trekking a few miles back to my roots,

When The Angles say, prune your gardens early so they will not be infested with weeds and herbs

The Yankees say, grow weed in your backyard and use it to enlighten yourself.

When The Angles say, "thanks for the tool you gave me last night, it works like a miracle."

The Yankees say, "thanks for the gadget you handed over to me last night mafriend, it works like magic.”

Linguist-9-English is hard.

English is hard, though we try to speak it well, we still can't say the words correctly. If those fellows were to teach you your mother tongue today, I am sure after many years of study you still won't be able to say/pronounce the words correctly.

Only those people who do speak the language are the ones that can recognise the different ascents to it.

The beauty of English language is how easily it can be manipulated to achieve your understandings.

Our new translator we gave him an English name, instead of calling him Vashisto Wa*-;#@#-%^$%, Bartomwelowonje, we called him William Earth, Mr Earth, has then been working with us here for a pretty long time now, we are still looking for a way to consider him as one of the nominees out the international committee to fund names, he is a brilliant verbaliser & we do believe he stands a chance. Do stick with us for the mean time, Mr William is my right hand man when it comes to learning languages, combine your agility with occidental style.

I enjoy listening to people speaking English in their own native ascent, the way they pronounce words sounds beautiful, you hear someone speak, then after they are done and someone else repeats those words do you learn then that they were actually speaking English, not some strange other language, English is hard.

Linguist-10-the difficulty of learning a new language.

My experience with French

I have been to alliance Française and the experience was great, I would go to more classes, and speak French I'd say. in French, as many already know that, every noun or verb is either male or female as you attach its distinctive representatives, a wall is a female, a table is a male, what about a door, a knife, window, books, pen, telephone, cups, all are either male or female and you have to know which is which, a bizarre thing for beginners,

I was flabbergasted by this idea that every living thing has to be either male or female. All objects in the world, both the living and the non-living things.

I said unto myself, "so this is how the French see the world,  every object is either a male or female" it's like when you are in the  dining room you are using male spoon and a female bowl, you it on  a female chair next to  a male table

Learning new languages is awkward and funny, describing things in another language is like looking at the world upside down.

END OF LINGUISTS.

##

Final Clause

We have come to the end of our conversation, looking forward to connecting to you soon. We shall have more to discuss.

Please leave your thoughts & queries about this text in the comments section, if you have something that needs further elaboration or have got some burning question, you can always text me and I shall be more than happy to respond appropriately.

Write to me,

DodeSescri@gmail.com

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Thank you for your time.

More of WOTEs…

A Full list of other titles in the sequel.

WORDS TO ELATE.

- Where is my inkpot?

- Media Moner

- The Laments of a Lumberjack

- Mundi Politica

- So you still do that?

- Hand me that take this

- A world of fakes

- Show me some lab ethos

- Flying above five feet

- Techno Chimps

- Dazzling riches

- Your highness let me speak!

- Mechanical revolts

- My mirror is a liar

- The beauty of Languages

- Darwin and the apes

- Tell me something funny

- Sweep thy planet

- Savage amusements

- Hello King James

- Be Patient please

- My Adventures to great unknown

- Can you colour a rainbow?

- A deer's diet

- Speed bones

- The Roman Cultures of today

Footnotes.

My most used/favourite stylistic features

- Sharp contrast

- Heavy metaphor

- Extravagant exaggeration.

The reference to masculine characters In the above stories is not a biased motive to discriminate against any gender, it's just for the purposes of description, the authors repeated use of words such as he/him/man/king are just for the purposes of enchanting the narrative, if you feel offended by them then  feel free to replace them with whatever words you choose as you read along, these pronouns are NOT put in place to intimidate, you can also contact the author directly and specify which part should changes be made to and to what particular effect, the author respects all readers and will not misrepresent members of any class, age, status or gender. All readers are precious.

I am trying to avoid the inconvenience of having to jump from one side of the group to another as it easily puts the readers off, jumping from side to side, back and forth, here and there is really irritating, take for instance it's better to say, "the king came out of his castle, called the knights and asked him to take him out on a ride through the royal forests and left his son in charge of the castle,"  than to say, "the king/queen came out of his/her castle, called the knight/knightess and asked  him/her to take him/her out on a ride through the royal forest and left his/her son/daughter in charge of the castle"

Textual homogeneity- some aspects of the words, phrases and stories share lots of similarities with one another, the keen reader who repeatedly crosscheck between different tittles will definitely notice this trend, if characters are portrayed in such a sluggish manner that makes the text boring to the reader, then reader please remember to inform the author as soon as possible.

Cover image: Men from different cultures and backgrounds trying to conduct a meeting in one common language, theme by the Author

Table of Contents

Contention

Linguist-1- one word for many

Linguist-2-numerouse variations

Linguist-3- my wish

Linguist-4- direct translation

Linguist-5- inferior versus superior languages

Linguist-6- fighting stuttering

Linguist-7- simplicity of language and meaning

Linguist-8- my language my life

Linguist-9- English is hard

Linguist-10- the difficulty of learning a new language

Final clause

More of Wotes

Footnotes.