One thing that’s really a problem with the English language is that it is such a sponge, soaking up bits of languages from all over. The word commando is Afrikaans. The word typhoon is Chinese. Tsunami is Japanese. Garage is French. Kindergarten is German. Unless you spend your life in academia, exposing yourself to all the oddities of our language, you end up feeling really stupid when you mispronounce a word simply because you don’t know which language it derives from. (Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.)
I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I do find myself wondering how anyone (beside chronic academics) can not sound like an idiot when among said academics. Does it matter? Do these brilliant people know how to start a fire with two sticks and a piece of dried cow manure? How about finding water in the desert with only a piece of string and a beetle? Or fixing a broken distributor contact with a vacuum windshield wiper hose? I mean, what counts for smart anyway? I challenge anyone without a computer and Internet connection to pronounce floccinaucinihilipilification. Or explain what the heck it means. So there.
I don’t even know what brought this on, but I’m glad I said it.
So there.
3 comments:
Do I detect a sense that someone has pronounced your intelligence worthless based on your ability to pronounce said long word? How dare they?
I want to watch you find water with a beetle and a piece of string someday. I think I know what would happen, but I'm too scared of the rhinoceros beetles around here to catch one and prove it.
I’ve always been a highly paid speller, not a pronouncer. In my early pre-typesetter days I could find misspellings in both French and German, without knowing either language, just how they should look. A fluke gift I suppose.
As for rhinoceros beetles, you don’t use them to find water; they’re the source of water!
Bleah about the rhinoceros beetles.
Glad you get paid for your spelling skills.
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