my favourite things about languages

[kaberett]

-- that they are like blankets or warm jumpers or soup: full of potential. Because they can be beautiful and intricate and handed down through generations, or they can be new and designed particle by particle, or they can be both. (Everything old is new again.)

That they are fuzzy: there is a thing I want to work into a poem at some point, which is that gift means present and Gift means poison and there's obviously something in there about poisoned chalices, about how the act of giving (and giving and giving) can destroy us, about how the things we choose to give as gifts can be toxic to the recipients, about generosity and care and gentleness.

That they taste, that they have different mouth-feels, mouth-shapes. That I know how to be polite in German and imperious in English; that my poetry is English but my lullabies and prayers are German.

That they are the tools by which I communicate: hello, I'm a person. Would you like to make something?

That I have the choice, every day, whether to use them to heal or to hurt; and in choosing to help I remind myself that I am human, that I am real, that I am here.

Comments

[jelazakazone]

Oooh, I love this post.

I speak Italian and English and Italian feels SO VERY DIFFERENT in my mouth. I have a friend whose mother spoke Spanish and father spoke English. He always felt Spanish was the language of the heart:D

[alexseanchai]

Damn but I want to read that poem you haven't written yet. I'm not sure I could get all the layers--'Gift' as poison is German, yes? No habla German--but I want to read it.

[kaberett]

Yes, German!

I think this is one that's going to brew a while; as of today the thing that Wants To Happen Right Now is something about apples and stars and the Earth...

[milkymoon]

...I think many of the same things about languages too. Even different dialects of the same language have certain feels to me (I associate colours and textures with different languages and dialects of those languages). Some of my profoundest thoughts have been written in French, rather than English, and I've often wanted to use a French word instead of an English one but there's always the risk that non-French-speakers wouldn't recognise the word.

...and yes, I would love to see this in a poem, with the bilingual play on words between gift and Gift, and everything else you'd like to express that comes from this relationship you have with languages and the importance that both German and English have to you - how spirituality and expression and comfort are expressed with different words and how they feel in your mouth and in your heart.

[inoru_no_hoshi]

<333 languages.

That they taste, that they have different mouth-feels, mouth-shapes.

Yes. So much this. Even when I only know a few words and am still trying to find the pronunciation "key", this is the truest thing.

[kaberett]

Yes! I sometimes wonder if it means I'm a synaesthete, but I can't imagine relating to them any other way. I don't know how I'd speak without recognising the taste of elegance.

[jjhunter]

<3

[surpassingly]

<3333333333333

[kaberett]

and where, o where, is home?

[surpassingly]

Here--
always here.

[glass_icarus]

♥

[silveradept]

They do taste differently, languages. Hello, shall we make something?

It will be beautiful.

[kaberett]

Yes. Yes, it will. <3

[steorra]

"that gift means present and Gift means poison"
And in Swedish, "gift" means "married".

[kaberett]

Oh, lovely! Thank you for... giving me that, heh :-)

[steorra]

You're welcome :-)

[shanaqui]

That they taste, that they have different mouth-feels, mouth-shapes.

Yes and yes and yes.

I feel lost without knowing Welsh: I know some words and I know they articulate for me things English doesn't (hiraeth for the home-longing for Wales, cwtch for the safety in a cuddle), but circumstances shaped my mouth and mind for English. I want to learn Welsh, but I don't even know how well I can.

[kaberett]

Yes - the not-knowing, the displacement, the ache - yes.

[pretty_panther]

I agree so much. I learned German and French (though my French is ahead by miles, sadface. German and its cases defeat me) and they sound and feel so different to me. I can express my passion and anger and despair in German and French seems more wistful, calm, loving and yet French can cut someone down like no one's business. And then there is my limited Spanish vocab which consists of how to get food, drink and travel on holiday and rant at sports people. They are so different and yet their mother nations sit right next to each other. Tis fascinating.

Then there is English 'I'll um, have some of this and some of that and a bit of that on top. There, done' XD

[umadoshi]

This is lovely. *^^*

I have a bit of that sense of languages feeling so different, but no knack for learning them. I've tried French, German, modern Irish, and Japanese to wildly varying degrees, and my brain is still firmly monolingual. It makes me sad. :/