• Word Sensitivities! (Warning, not for the faint-hearted).

    (Those with more sensitive ears may want to skip numbers 2 & 3.)

    I like words, as most writers do, and enjoyed the study of lingusistics immensely in college. I’m hoping to mix some more linguistics classes into my MA. Three interesting stories of words from yesterday (one serious, two TIC):

    1) Have you read the new issue of Wired Magazine? Apparently English is becoming spoken so widely in the East that a dialect of Chinese/English is starting to emerge: Chinglish. Unfortunately the current issue of Wired isn’t on the net yet, so no link.

    2) Spent a long lazy Saturday with my inlaws, where we discussed using the word “girl” as an insult (which annoys the hell out of me and is disallowed in my house). We also talked about the shocking sight of one of the neighbor’s KIDS wearing a NASCAR t-shirt that said “So and so is a fag.” I’m talking about a 7 year old people!

    3) Last word sensitivity: Kind of funny, TIC-style. Apparently my nephew was at the zoo and some platypus/anteater type thing was enjoying the cool breeze on his male parts. When Nephew asked “What’s that?” (because apparently it was very large and obvious), some teenager next to him said “That’s its 5th leg.” (Har har har). Apparently Nephew took him seriously, because as another child came up and asked the same thing, Nephew took it upon himself to educate this kid about this interesting body part called “it’s 5th leg.” Poor nephew (and moreso, poor sister in law, who was trying not to crack up!)

     

2 Responsesso far.

  1. All Adither says:

    That NASCAR t-shirt is insane. How did you keep from throwing a giant pillowcase over the kid?

  2. Allena says:

    I wanted to. I did. But you know what I did instead? I said something to him. I said something about “your parents let you wear that shirt with such a hateful word on it”? Or soemthing like so. Am hoping he questions his parents. Not that I expect much from someone who buys such a shirt for their kid.