I have a great interest in Language. When I was about ten or eleven years old I decided I would like to increase my vocabulary so each day when I got home from school I would spend ten or twenty minutes with the dictionary. I would randomly choose a page and then with my eyes closed I would point out a word on the page. If the word was new to me, I would memorize the definition and pay close attention to the pronunciation. I repeated this two more times so that I had three new words each day. I would try to use the word in conversation with my family, but that didn't always come to pass, so I would use the words in school with the nuns. I loved to use words that they didn't know, I think in many cases we were both becoming educated. When it came to vocab tests on the "State of Ohio Every Pupil Tests" I was a whiz.
When I went to high school, we had to take Latin as one of our subjects, no one was exempt. From 'amo,amas,amat to translating Caesar, we all studied Latin! Almost every Latin text book had this opinion written in it," Latin is a dead language, as dead as it can be, first it killed the Romans and now it's killing me." I survived it, but not with out struggles. When I was in Rome, Italy a few years ago and walked up the stone paved embankment that Caesar trod to get to the Forum on that fateful ides of March day in Ancient Rome, I wished I had paid more attention during those high school days. A large percentage of our language (English) is derived from the Latin.
I have spent many years studying and teaching Linguistics. Linguistics is the science of language, including phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. When I was introduced to one class as a teacher of Linguistics, one of my students went home and told her parents that she had a new teacher and she was going to teach them about linguine.
English has more words than any other language. The word smiths estimate that there are more than a million words in the English language at this time. That's more than two or three European countries' languages put together. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist. When Shakespeare wrote his plays nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the sixteenth century, English was the native speech of between five and seven million Englishmen.There were fewer than 50,000 words at that time. Since the first people that landed at Plymouth Rock and established colonies there, were English, it became the language of our country as well.
When you speak English, you speak words from many different languages. Our language is often referred to as a polyglot of languages. It is thought that practically every language of the world has contributed something to English. Latin derivatives are of course the most common and can probably account for about 80% of our words but many of our everyday words are derived from the Greek, French, Native American, Spanish, German, Italian, African, Czech, Chinese, and Japanese to name just a few.
The first Anglo-Saxons were illiterate. The present generation of English users have more ways to write and record it than ever before. But alas! I am very concerned about the careless use and abuse of the language that is taking place today. The world of technology has ushered in an abomination of language usage. Grammar is totally ignored by many of the Tweeters, and Face Bookers, correct spelling has fallen by the wayside. We have over a million words, as I stated earlier, but we are reduced to using the symbol of a heart to express our love, emoticons to express our feelings, and abbreviated wrds to x-prs r thts. Oh,my.
We talk, write ,and discuss at length, the progress of our students and the quality of education they are getting. We've spent millions on testing materials through the years to make our judgements, but the students still say,"Me and him... Him and her... 'should have went... we are done... vee-hick-el... his pit-cher is in the paper...we was... How could our children spend 12 years in schools and not be able to speak grammatically correct sentences? Is English becoming a dead language? Are our kids killing English or is English killing our kids?
What is the future of the English Language? Do the changes in the English Language among the young, mean corruption and deterioration of the language? Will we still have those among us that can weave some of the million words, that we have to choose from, into lasting works of poetry, and writings that inspire, soothe, comfort, amuse ,entertain, or teach us? I hope the changes in language can revitalize it while helping us keep the beauty of the words that we now enjoy.Ciao.
ciao
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Six Pack of Snow
It seems like ancient history now, but fifty-six years ago when we moved here from Springfield, Ohio. As the movers were bringing our possessions into the house they stopped to ask me where they should put the Flexible Flyer sled and the two sets of skis. They laughed and advised me to put them in the crawl space or attic. They assured me we would not be needing these items here in Louisville. They went on to talk about the scarcity of snow in this part of the country! While the six kids were growing up we did, in fact, have little use for our skis and sleds. It was not that we didn't have any snow, it was just that we didn't have enough to warrent waxing the skis and dragging out the Flexible Flyer.
Doc worked from three in the afternoon until eleven or twelve at night so he stayed up late and slept late in the morning. I used to kid him about the fact that he never got to see the snows we had because they usually just covered the grass, not the streets and usually melted by nine or ten in the morning. Gone by the time he awakened.
During the first year that we lived here, I sent the kids out to get the bus to go to St. Pius to school ( St. Martha had not been built yet) and Marie Chanbers called me up and said,"I see your kids out waiting for the school bus. Didn't you know they don't go to school today?" "Why?" I asked.
"Because of the snow!" she said.
We had maybe,2/10 ths of an inch!! I was astounded. Everything shut down because of the few flakes of snow!
Now, I'm not saying it has been quite that bad for the last fifty years but things really changed big time this year! I* heard on the news that Louisville had had five inches over the normal amount for February and it is only the 14th. day of the month.
The city has really learned how to deal with snow . Now for a day or two in advance they spray the streets with brine and inform all city employees that are part of the snow crew to be prepared to work 12 hours on and 12 hours off. They have the city streets and highways covered 24 hours a day. I was awakened at 3:30 AM by the snow plow going up and down Mamaroneck Rd. By 8AM the street was covered again so they were back. I must say they have done a good job.
Nevertheless, it is rather hard to navigate the roads and side walks and approaches to buildings and places because of the icy patches that somehow or other escape the salt and brine. I, personally love the snow. I love how it cleans up the landscape. Everything looks so pristine, all the dirt and grime of the city is blanketed with its fluffy white cover of snow and it takes on new characteristics. It seems so peaceful and soft. I can remember as a young girl walking to church, before dawn, in the early morning after an overnight snow fall. You could listen to the silence and feel the feathery touch of the snow flakes on your eyelashes and the soft cushion of snow under your booted feet. I always felt safe under the comforting blanket of snow on the trees and shrubs.
We had to go to school, weather or not, there were no school buses and so we all walked. The recesses on the snowy days were fabulous. We made slides that we would line up and run and slide on.We played a game called fox and geese. Somewhat like duck, duck goose except we made a large circle in the snow with cross roads in it and the game of chase was great fun because you had to stay on the tracks. We were forbidden to throw snow balls on the playground so we saved that activity for after school play at home. We chose up teams and built snow forts and had snow ball fights, we had our home made slides there too. Those were the days, my friends!
Louisville has adapted to the snow pretty well this year. This winter does remind me of the winters in Ohio because the snow hasn't melted within 24 hours of falling. It has stayed put and more snow has fallen. I think this is the sixth snowfall we have had since the 1st of February. The railings of the deck have about 8 or 10 inches of snow piled up on them. I have tried to keep the bird feeder filled because of course the birds have nothing to eat. A large variety of birds have come to the feeder because the rural areas have so much snow that the birds come into the city to visit the backyard feeders. We've even had a hawk! I have a bird book and I record the visits of the unusual visitors. It's very entertaining for me.
Long will be remembered the Winter of 2010. ciao
Doc worked from three in the afternoon until eleven or twelve at night so he stayed up late and slept late in the morning. I used to kid him about the fact that he never got to see the snows we had because they usually just covered the grass, not the streets and usually melted by nine or ten in the morning. Gone by the time he awakened.
During the first year that we lived here, I sent the kids out to get the bus to go to St. Pius to school ( St. Martha had not been built yet) and Marie Chanbers called me up and said,"I see your kids out waiting for the school bus. Didn't you know they don't go to school today?" "Why?" I asked.
"Because of the snow!" she said.
We had maybe,2/10 ths of an inch!! I was astounded. Everything shut down because of the few flakes of snow!
Now, I'm not saying it has been quite that bad for the last fifty years but things really changed big time this year! I* heard on the news that Louisville had had five inches over the normal amount for February and it is only the 14th. day of the month.
The city has really learned how to deal with snow . Now for a day or two in advance they spray the streets with brine and inform all city employees that are part of the snow crew to be prepared to work 12 hours on and 12 hours off. They have the city streets and highways covered 24 hours a day. I was awakened at 3:30 AM by the snow plow going up and down Mamaroneck Rd. By 8AM the street was covered again so they were back. I must say they have done a good job.
Nevertheless, it is rather hard to navigate the roads and side walks and approaches to buildings and places because of the icy patches that somehow or other escape the salt and brine. I, personally love the snow. I love how it cleans up the landscape. Everything looks so pristine, all the dirt and grime of the city is blanketed with its fluffy white cover of snow and it takes on new characteristics. It seems so peaceful and soft. I can remember as a young girl walking to church, before dawn, in the early morning after an overnight snow fall. You could listen to the silence and feel the feathery touch of the snow flakes on your eyelashes and the soft cushion of snow under your booted feet. I always felt safe under the comforting blanket of snow on the trees and shrubs.
We had to go to school, weather or not, there were no school buses and so we all walked. The recesses on the snowy days were fabulous. We made slides that we would line up and run and slide on.We played a game called fox and geese. Somewhat like duck, duck goose except we made a large circle in the snow with cross roads in it and the game of chase was great fun because you had to stay on the tracks. We were forbidden to throw snow balls on the playground so we saved that activity for after school play at home. We chose up teams and built snow forts and had snow ball fights, we had our home made slides there too. Those were the days, my friends!
Louisville has adapted to the snow pretty well this year. This winter does remind me of the winters in Ohio because the snow hasn't melted within 24 hours of falling. It has stayed put and more snow has fallen. I think this is the sixth snowfall we have had since the 1st of February. The railings of the deck have about 8 or 10 inches of snow piled up on them. I have tried to keep the bird feeder filled because of course the birds have nothing to eat. A large variety of birds have come to the feeder because the rural areas have so much snow that the birds come into the city to visit the backyard feeders. We've even had a hawk! I have a bird book and I record the visits of the unusual visitors. It's very entertaining for me.
Long will be remembered the Winter of 2010. ciao
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Don't tell me you can't teach an old dog new tricks! I finally looked long and hard at the picture that I uploaded and said to myself, "Self, you're supposed to use a flash." You must bear in mind that I had Versed yesterday when I had a procedure done at the hospital and it is some times referred to as Milk of Amnesia. Obviously I was having an amnesia moment when I uploaded that picture. NOW you can see the lovely lavender blooms and the purple leaves. See the Hippporock there in the corner of the table? That in reality, is a beach rock. I picked it up, one day, as I was walking the beach at Garden City, S.C. It looked so much like a hippopotomus that I lugged it around for the rest of my stroll and brought it home to join my numerous other hippos. Cool, right? My hippposham no longer has to hang his/her head in shame. Summer will be such joy. Ciao
The Snows of Louisville
I thought it was time to give an update on my 'Hipposham" You may remember how sad and dejected it looked when I last published its picture, but you can now see how well it is doing and how invigorating the Snows of Louisville can be! Lovely lavender blooms and added purple leaves for all to see! I know it will go on to be one of the show pieces of my large Shamrock garden that lives on my deck during the hot and humid days of summer.
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