maryland vocabulary

crab
trees
old bay
495
catholic school
metro
snow
the bay

word of the day

Heard: bevy

Noting from real conversations, the artful and appropriate use of a exemplary word.
Word of the day.

this book was swelligans

image source

Once I finished Harry Potter, I had to find something to fill the void.

The day after I finished book 7, I wandered down to our library to find something else to read while I was still on a reading kick. I was still feeling fiction.

I'd never read Hemingway, and he seems like kind of a big deal, and this book wasn't too imposing looking. So I picked it up for a go. During lunch, I read the first half. I was going to save the second half for the next day, but at the end of the day I bolted downstairs, checked it out and finished it as soon as I got home.

That guy has got talent. Only one thing happens in the entire book, and you just had to know how the one thing turned out.

terrible English words

Jeggings.

Signage.

Resource. (when used as a stae of being verb or whatever. eg, "We would like to resource you"

Ajudication. Not really; that word is cool.

Collate.

Linkages.

outliers

I really want to read this book Outliers.

When I went to email someone to ask if they had it, I wanted to refer to the author as well, and I couldn't remember his name. This is so frustrating, because I knew it.

As usual, I was appalled at the retrieval area of my memory. I told myself sit there until it came to me instead of googling the author. How will my brain ever learn otherwise? It probably took a full three minutes.

As I sifted through the possibilities, I wrote them down to help myself recall his name.

I feel like it's a really weird way to remember something (I remember learning this an off-beat philosophy of language class), but it has helped me in the past.

Redman

Dave Redman

David Sedaris

Malcolm

Malcolm Doyle

Malcolm

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell.

most beautiful word in the English language

Do you remember reading Tolkien on this?

Dictionary.com is talking about the most beautiful-sounding word in the English language.

Short article here.

you know them

In my head, I think of them as "pastel words".

If you maintain a somewhat-girly blog, or if you read what they write, you know.

To have the right aura, you need the right words.

The goal is to sound engaging yet intelligent, maintaining the ultimate goal: to be charming on a computer screen. Most of the time, they are. But it still forces a search for adjectives.

As a reference, any of these will maintain that charming read:

adorable
autumn (opt for this over "fall")
crush
dreaming
enchanting
inspiration
magical
mish-mash
musings
obsessed
purple
rad -believe it or not
revel
sweet
whimsical

Please notice this is roughly alphabetized.

how to... write for job-getting

My preamble for this post is that I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just thinking through how I've written coverletters in the past and how I'm writing them currently and how I think I should be writing them.

Please don't mistake this for advice.

Coverletters.

My writing in general is nothing to brag about. Yet. It works, it's usually grammatically correct, and it usually makes sense. I'm working on it. My plan is to keep writing and eventually be a tantalizing writer.

Thus far, in my job-pursuing writing, I have erred on the side of being too professional. When I'm applying for jobs, it usually involves multiple people, layers of hierarchy, and attaching documents for emails. I have no complaints with this system, but because of it I tend to also sound professional and cool. Though I hope I don't slide into bland.

Now into something like my dozenth cover letter in this season of job searching, I am beginning to self-assess. I've also consulted my brother who does grant writing for a living. For my own writing, I've concluded:

- More explanation. Explain in vivid, simple language what each item means
- More details. Mention relevant projects and duties in the cover letter. I usually reserved much of this for the resume.
- More of me. Sincerely explain why I want this job.

I'm trying to embrace the difficulty of crafting an eye-catching coverletter. I like how the structure is less rigid than a resume. As I learn how to compose a better letter, this freedom should end up to my benefit.

the World in Words

Today, I was a work. I was getting ready to mop. I plugged in my ipod and started playing one of my favorite pod subscriptions. I yelped as soon as it started and ran to find someone to tell.

It was feature-length piece on an American family who had gone to Indonesia to translate the Bible. And I knew them! It was a couple from Wycliffe, and some of you may know, I worked for Wycliffe last year as I finished university.

So exciting! After I had gotten someone to share my excitement, I went back to mopping and got to hear Sue tell her story of working among the Berik people of Indonesia.

Later, when I got home, I got to email and fb all my Wycliffe friends and tell them that I'd heard the pod.

The show is called "The World in Words" and is run by this guy named Patrick Cox as a co-production of the BBC's "The World", as they tell you on the pod. Anyway, it's really interesting and all about language, linguistic politics, and language change.

misread, again.

If you read my blog when it was over at wordpress, you may remember this post about my shower curtain.

Well, the initial-glance strikes again.

I was walking along the thames and spotted a sign on the door of an auspicious building, "CCTV safe zone".

"Wow," I thought, "finally a haven in the city from those intrusive cameras peering at me. How great is that. And it makes sense considering the building..."

But I slowed down and looked again. Foiled. "City Safe Zone"; the shape of the typography had tricked my eye. And then I looked up and saw it. The faithful CCTV camera watching me.

i'm over it.

I give up. I'll acculturate.

I'll say something is "rubbish"; I'll call it "uni"; I'll say, "I have this friend called Phyllis". I'll say in a class, not "taking a class".

I am even thinking of softening my accent and going for a British/American hybrid. My American accent has sounded too open, so cowboy-cavalier lately when mirrored by my British friends' imitations.

This was, of course, necessitated when, last week, I said to another native English speaker. "Would you pass me that pitcher of water?" and he couldn't grasp what I was saying. Something about a picture? Jug. Jug. I should have said jug.

that's what she said

Some things people have thought about communication.

The word is not the thing.

This was one of the first things I learned as a budding young communication major.

"The word is not the thing" means that words are symbols. The essence of a chair is not the word "chair", "chaise", or the word for it in any other language. We gave it a name.

A word is a symbol means that words are things that we affix meaning to. A word doesn't tell us what something is- it just tells us what we choose to call it. Kind of like what Shakespeare was saying in his famous "a rose by any other name..."

It would follow that there are no words that are intrinsically good or intrinsically bad.

Language sets the barrier to thought.

This explores the power of language in shaping and controlling thought. The most famous theory on this is the Sapir/Whorf Hypotheses. Their theory suggests that one's language actually sets the parameters for thought. For example, can you think properly about something if you don't have a word for it? That idea, that language determines thought is called Linguistic Determinism.

Their theory is too strong for most in academia currently and instead there is talk of Linguistic Relativism. It says that rather than literally setting the boundaries of thought, language influences and shapes, as well as being a reflection of people's thoughts.

Does language limit thought or does language actually determine thought?

rocking the vocab

Am I just a nerd or do you love when someone compliments you on your language use?

I really like the English language, and I especially love those words that express a whole concept in one, succinct, little word. When I say something and nail it exactly as I wanted it expressed, it's very gratifying.

I'm not always the best at this, but it seems the trick is to use a middling-size impressive word, not one so great and long and archaic that you sound like a snob.

trolling (as in fishing around for something specific). Yesterday's word.

anomaly. Today's word. Not that impressive but yet someone noticed

Psalm 73:25-26

"Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:25-26, NIV

"The World in Words"

This podcast seems to have been hand-designed to interest me. I like everything they talk about, probably because they are talking about everything I like.

It's a podcast all about language.

A weekly podcast exclusively about languages around the world! It's put on by the BBC and Public Radio International (PRI). Patrick Cox is the guy who does the podcast.

He even came to Wycliffe to interview the president about the work Wycliffe does!

I have exhausted all of the episodes on my ipod. But, thankfully, I just discovered this podcast, and it's been going for a while, so I will have a while before I'll hit the only-one-weekly wall.

You can subscribe to it on itunes or find it at theworld.org

this one starts with a little quiz.

.
Digo. Tira. Guanano. Mewkwaki.
.

These are:
a. the names of four cities in Guatemala
b. four types of plants in the Amazon
c. four ancient Mayan gods
d. the names of four languages

Your answer please.

Today at Wycliffe, they had a Scripture celebration. They dedicated Scripture for 11 different languages that were previously without any Scripture or what they had was little or poor.

One of these 11 was actually for a language in the continental US (didn't know we had languages left here, did you?). They have completed several Scripture portions in the Meskwaki language, which is the language of the Algonquian people.

A lot of Algonquians live in the Iowa area, and the languages has just several hundred speakers today. Having the language written down and having literature in the language will help encourage literacy in the language and keep it from dying out.

This is just absolutely incredible. Thousands of people can now hear God speak to them in their own language through his Word.

That's 11 down for Vision 2025!

da jesus book

“God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world, dat he wen send me, his one an ony Boy, so dat everybody dat trus me no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva.”

You might know it more along these lines: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

It’s John 3:16 in the Hawaiian Pidgin language.

More, you demand? Gladly:

“So den, wat bout us guys? All dose peopo dat wen trus God befo time, jalike dey all wen run one race. An now, jalike dey all stay standing aroun us, watching us run da race, an showing us how fo do um. So we gotta gemo all dat stuff dat make us run slow, you know, dat bad kine stuff dat jam us all up. We gotta hang in dea an finish da race dat God wen pick fo us.” - Fo Da Hebrew Peopo 12:1

Source: Da Jesus Book. Wycliffe Bible Translators. 2000.

Glossary of everything- linguistics

During my undergrad career, I took Introduction to Linguistics. It was fascinating. I never had realized how much about language one could study. I couldn't believe that I got to learn this stuff. I couldn't believe how unbelievably difficult it was to understand.

Seriously, we studied syntax, sematics, morphology, phonetics, phonemics, and I think one other one. The only one I could understand a little was semantics. I made it through the class respectablely enough, and scraped out with a B+, mostly thanks to a friend in the class who had been through a similar class and had a better grasp on things.

I still think linguistics rocks.

If you have never heard of the International Phonetic Alphabet, stop reading this post right now and run over and look at this chart. IPA is a chart that represents every known sound in every known language. Each symbol represents an language-sound. It's so cool.

When I was especially obsessed with my major, I started compiling all the interesting terms and concepts into this master glossary, divided up by subject matter. I made such a file for linguistics.

My computer is dead right now, and I had commandeered my out-of-town roommate's for the week (thanks, Katie! hope you don't mind!). But I stumbled across a printed out copy of my linguistic file. As a reward for reading such a long introduction here's a sampling:

Code switching- the way people change their way of speaking depending on different environments

Dialect- variation of a language (we all speak dialects)

Phonetics- the study of speech sounds; studies raw sound

Phonology- the interaction of speech sounds in an environment

Phoneme- word

Okay, that was pretty easy. Here are some of the crazier concepts.

Fricative- with friction

Diphthong- two sounds standing together as one, but is a single sound "(ex. "I")

Flap- the name of the "r" sound in the word "water"

Voiceless- vocal folds relaxed; buzzing at base of larynx, (ex. "s")

Africate- begins with complete closed vocal tract and ends with vocal turbulence, i.e. friction (ex. "judge")


Yup, linguistics for you.

Would you?

Imagine someone offered to let you live in the locale of your choice and would pay all your expenses for a year so you could write.

All you have to do is turn out some sort of book or literary work at the conclusion of the year.

Would you do it?

What would you write about?

A to Z

English is so great. It is funny to think that it's just one of nearly 7,000 languages. There must be thousands of words as great as the ones I like in English. Some alphabets have way more than 26 characters too. Wouldn't that be fun?

Great adjectives, A to Z.(currently accepting suggestions for x and y adjectives)

Antiquated

Blighted

Capricious

Detrimental

Efficacious

Fastidious

Glib

Harried

Incorrigible

Jovial

Kempt

Limpid

Meager

Negligible

Obliging

Precocious

Quizzical

Reputed

Sallow

Tawny

Ubiquitous

Veracious

Whimsical

Xanadu

Yon

Zealous

(as appeared in Philosophizings from the Flat)