Say it with a capital L

[Ben-CS]

Say it with a capital "L"

Is anyone else here interested in Linguistics or Lexicography?

 

[Monique]

It is not a hobby or something, but sometimes I sure run into funny things :) for years I have been calling a squirrel an 'eekhoorn' in Dutch, I started speaking english and learned that 'acorns' fall from the tree. I never made the connecting until a lucid moment while walking in a forrest when I realized that both words (eekhoorn-acorn) are pronounced EXACTLY the same way.. though spelled so differently, with a different meaning though so closely tight together.

I don't know if this is what you mean by linguistics or lexicography (you: ) so I would like you to give an example :)

 

[RuroumiKenshin]

Oh, I LOVE linguistics. I'm planning on learning the egyptian langauage. Here's where you can too:http://www.ancient-egypt.org/language/index.html

 

[Loren Booda]

Upon capturing an Indian city, a British officer wired back to England "peccavi!" (My Mother's favorite, true-to-life pun.)

Practicing all aspects of linguistics brings wonderful coincidences everyday, much like the squirrel example above. I understand somewhat foriegn languages I never studied in school, I can trace the etymology of most English words back to their Latinate or Germanic roots, conjure synonyms more readily, compose poetry like equations and explore the intricacies of sentence structure a la Chomski.

Langauge is as much a puzzle as physics.

 

[Another God]

I have always been interested in how language can shape our thoughts, and how ideas get translated into a language which will never be able to express those ideas as well as they are experienced in the first place. I'm not sure if this counts as linguistics though.

 

[steppenwolf]

i'm reading a good book at the moment about synesthesia, hmm, have forgotten how that's spelt, anyway, it mentioned the phenomenon of losing the ability to communicate, usually after an accident or other traumatic event. it was quite hard to understand, these people just lose the ability to transform abstract ideas and emotions into a language. i think Ravel somehow got this condition, which is pretty devastating for a composer, he could still get ideas and inspiration just not be able to turn them into his 'language'; music.

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by Loren Booda
Upon capturing an Indian city, a British officer wired back to England "peccavi!" (My Mother's favorite, true-to-life pun.)

Forgive me, but I just don't get it. Could you please explain it to me?

 

[Monique]

Peccavi - confessing sin.. but I also don't get the pun..

The following page has some nice facts too: [Removed Broken Link]

 

[selfAdjoint]

Peccavi = "I have sinned" = "I have Scind" - you had to know the name of the city.