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In Praise of the Codex Seraphinianus
The Codex Seraphinianus, created by Luigi Serafini and published in 1981, could very well be the panacea for all the major struggles in my life. It’s a manuscript written in a strange, made up language with an even stranger alphabet, and what accompanies it are some of the most disturbing and/or delightful illustrations you will…
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Language: The Canary in the Coalmine
One of the very first blog entries I ever wrote, back in December of 2012, was Express Yourself While You Can. In it I posited the theory that languages are the keepers of culture. I know I behave differently when I’m speaking Spanish, and we often attribute different traits, rightly or wrongly, to people who…
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Generational Changes
Recently I had the good fortune to meet a distant cousin. Her maternal great-grandfather and my paternal great-grandfather were brothers. And all this time she’s lived about 5 miles from me. Talk about a small world. That part of the family comes from France, and as we talked over lunch, a few things struck me.…
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Smile Means Chisel in Greek
As someone who majored in a foreign language in college (I wasn’t thinking at all about how I’d pay the bills upon graduation), I have spent a lot of time thinking about the things that get lost in translation. Words are not mathematical equations. The word for something in French does not “equal” the word…
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Vowels, Consonants, Climate
I just love National Public Radio! It constantly causes me to look at the world through a whole new lens. This story, in particular, almost made me late for work because I refused to get out of my car until I’d heard the whole thing. Language lover that I am, now I’m even more focused…
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“You Are My Woman-Stash. More So than Mouse.”
When you love someone, it seems as though you develop your own special language. This language is full of cultural references, but they often spring from a culture of two. You can speak this language in the presence of others and no one else will understand. The more you do this, the more special you…
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The Superfluous E
Every evening, my late boyfriend and I used to hold hands and take a three mile walk through a neighborhood we called “E-ville”. Everywhere you looked in this area you saw an unnecessary or misplaced e. Towne Centre. Ye Olde Fill-in-the-Blank. I have never understood this lack of self-esteem in Americans. We seem to feel…
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Walking Between Cultures
One of the things I love most about the virtual world of Second Life is that you get to meet people from all over the world. One friend, C.N., is a young man who is an amazingly talented artist from Vietnam. I met him just as he was finishing his secondary education and applying to…
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Growly Dreams
I enjoy watching my dogs dream. Their little paws run and they sometimes twitch and yip. I imagine they’re chasing squirrels. But tonight Devo was growling in his sleep. I called his name from across the room. I didn’t want to touch him in case he thought I was the adversary. (I’d like to keep…
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I Just Love a Good Glottal Stop
I was just listening to a friend who hails from Essex, England. What was he talking about? I have no idea. Oh, I could understand him. It’s just that I was so mesmerized by the sound of his voice that I really wasn’t focusing on the content of his commentary. He could read the phone…