"Possession is nine points of the law", goes the early seventeenth-century proverb. What would happen to our understanding of possession if we had no verb to express it?
Scottish Gaelic (and other Celtic languages) has no possessive verb. I quote from "Gaelic made easy", by John M. Paterson (1952):
We know that when you want to say that a person has anything, you put it as being "at him". Thus THA TAIGH AIG IAIN, A house is at John, or, John.....THA FIOS AGAINN GUM BHEIL AIRGIOD GU LEOIR AGAIBH, We know that you have plenty of money; or [literally], knowledge is at us that money galore is at you.
What would happen if we took away our English verb 'to have'? In Gaelic, we're stating the facts - there's a house and it's with John. There is some money and it happens to be in your pockets. To me, this sounds less permanent, accepting the transient nature of the world by the very grammar used. It makes me think that the things we talk about owning don't really belong to us in the first place - they belong to someone else and we're borrowing them for a while.
It's easy to forget that, really, everything is a gift; everything we use, borrow, eat. How about giving up the verb 'to have' for the day?
(You might want to check out the Story of Stuff for more on this topic)
Saturday, 13 September 2014
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Gypsy storytelling
Should sustainability be an abstract concept? I went to a talk by Damian le Bas last weekend at Greenbelt on Romany language, storytelling and culture and I asked him how he would express the concept of 'sustainability' in Romany.
The answer he gave all of us was surprising at first. For all the precious lessons that Romany people have learned from the past about travelling light, for their low carbon footprint, there's no word for sustainability. Granted, Romany is an evolving language, but there's no English Romany word for 'sustainability'. According to Damian, English Romany is not often used for abstract ideas; more for saying "I'm going up the hill to catch a rabbit".
However, the Professor chipped in, there is an international Romany constructed word, dur-shayipe; sort of 'long term ability to carry on, etc', which can be used in the context of sustainability. They both agreed, though that it's a word with little currency.
This got me thinking. Should something so vital to our existence be relegated to the realm of the abstract? Where's the concrete language to talk about what we mean?
The answer he gave all of us was surprising at first. For all the precious lessons that Romany people have learned from the past about travelling light, for their low carbon footprint, there's no word for sustainability. Granted, Romany is an evolving language, but there's no English Romany word for 'sustainability'. According to Damian, English Romany is not often used for abstract ideas; more for saying "I'm going up the hill to catch a rabbit".
However, the Professor chipped in, there is an international Romany constructed word, dur-shayipe; sort of 'long term ability to carry on, etc', which can be used in the context of sustainability. They both agreed, though that it's a word with little currency.
This got me thinking. Should something so vital to our existence be relegated to the realm of the abstract? Where's the concrete language to talk about what we mean?
Saturday, 16 August 2014
The key to survival
"...a place where knowing your environment is the key to survival." *
We rarely think about how our knowledge of our surroundings is a matter of life or death. We reserve that for people living in the more out-of-the-way places, where the weather is more severe, and the natural landscape hazardous.
But it's not quite true.
I know that if I walk across a certain road at the wrong time, my life is in danger. I know that this particular alleyway is narrow and dark and should be avoided at night. I know to be wary of certain wild animals. I know that these berries are tasty and these berries are deadly poisonous. I know how to keep food so that it won't go off. I know, more or less, the things which will help me preserve my life and those which will bring it to a more rapid end than I'd wish.
This is true for me, someone who lives on the edge of a medium town in a pleasant county.
Knowing our environment is always a key to survival, wherever it is. We need to understand that our environment isn't somewhere 'out there' where the wild things are, and see that it's here, right where we are.
* I took this from the concluding statement of BBC's Human Planet episode, Arctic life: in the deep freeze. It's currently available to watch on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rrd7r/human-planet-3-arctic-life-in-the-deep-freeze
We rarely think about how our knowledge of our surroundings is a matter of life or death. We reserve that for people living in the more out-of-the-way places, where the weather is more severe, and the natural landscape hazardous.
But it's not quite true.
I know that if I walk across a certain road at the wrong time, my life is in danger. I know that this particular alleyway is narrow and dark and should be avoided at night. I know to be wary of certain wild animals. I know that these berries are tasty and these berries are deadly poisonous. I know how to keep food so that it won't go off. I know, more or less, the things which will help me preserve my life and those which will bring it to a more rapid end than I'd wish.
This is true for me, someone who lives on the edge of a medium town in a pleasant county.
Knowing our environment is always a key to survival, wherever it is. We need to understand that our environment isn't somewhere 'out there' where the wild things are, and see that it's here, right where we are.
* I took this from the concluding statement of BBC's Human Planet episode, Arctic life: in the deep freeze. It's currently available to watch on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rrd7r/human-planet-3-arctic-life-in-the-deep-freeze
Saturday, 5 July 2014
These are a few of my favourite...
...words. I did a quick straw-poll on Facebook this week, asking a simple question:
What's your favourite word?
I'm not sure that any of the answers are words that get used very often, but they're an interesting mix of foreign, emotive, philosophical, onomatapoeic expressions. A lot were chosen for the way they feel to say; some for the meanings and a couple for their flexibility.
I wonder whether a piece of writing containing one of these favourite expressions would make the reader more likely to take notice?
Presumably someone, somewhere has mapped the nation's favourite words.
Here's the list I got:
- Bizarre
- Shenanigan
- Autumnal
- Lassitude
- Plinth
- Gloopy
- Lentosaema (airport in Finnish)
- Unheimlichkeit
- Crepuscular
- Quail
- Rationalise
- Delectable
- Defenestration
- Shagala bagala ('mess' in kiSwahili)
- Hobb
- Abominate
- Idyllic
- Slake
I should point out that one of my friends takes umbrage with this question of ' favourite words', as it subscribes, in his opinion, to false economic reason. We ought not, he tells me, reduce the massive complexity of language to mere words. Thanks, JB.
What's your favourite word?
I'm not sure that any of the answers are words that get used very often, but they're an interesting mix of foreign, emotive, philosophical, onomatapoeic expressions. A lot were chosen for the way they feel to say; some for the meanings and a couple for their flexibility.
I wonder whether a piece of writing containing one of these favourite expressions would make the reader more likely to take notice?
Presumably someone, somewhere has mapped the nation's favourite words.
Here's the list I got:
- Bizarre
- Shenanigan
- Autumnal
- Lassitude
- Plinth
- Gloopy
- Lentosaema (airport in Finnish)
- Unheimlichkeit
- Crepuscular
- Quail
- Rationalise
- Delectable
- Defenestration
- Shagala bagala ('mess' in kiSwahili)
- Hobb
- Abominate
- Idyllic
- Slake
I should point out that one of my friends takes umbrage with this question of ' favourite words', as it subscribes, in his opinion, to false economic reason. We ought not, he tells me, reduce the massive complexity of language to mere words. Thanks, JB.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
...is a foreign word
Nachhaltigkeit ist ein Fremdwort, writes Silvia Schaub in her article in Schweiz am Sonntag at the weekend.* 'Sustainability is a foreign word'. In German, Sustainability is a word taken from another language. A foreign concept, rendered into German by using the existing building blocks: nachhaltig, 'sustained, lasting, persistent' and keit, a suffix like the English -ness to turn it into a noun expressing the concept of being sustained or lasting.
It's clunky but functional - not unlike our English Sustainability. It's a construction; a concept that we're learning to live by because, as Silvia writes, it's better than the alternatives.
*'Ende der Monokultur - Zeitenwende im Garten', Schweiz am Sonntag, 9.März, pp. 50 - 51.
It's clunky but functional - not unlike our English Sustainability. It's a construction; a concept that we're learning to live by because, as Silvia writes, it's better than the alternatives.
*'Ende der Monokultur - Zeitenwende im Garten', Schweiz am Sonntag, 9.März, pp. 50 - 51.
Monday, 30 December 2013
Work parties
One of our big challenges is making our joined-up, fair and helpful vision of our world more fun. Reading through the cover notes to a CD of Georgian songs by the Rustavi Choir, I found an answer: Naduri - a work song. Not just a 'yo-ho-heave-ho' work song, but a song of endless possibility, creativity and competition.
"'Nadi' were villagers who voluntarily assisted their neighbours at harvest time. Competing groups of workers would begin in a slow tempo with alternating melodic figures, and as the work intensified and neared completion, melodic motifs became shorter and the alterations more rapid. The end of the song - and of the song - was marked by a slow finale sung in unison."
"'Nadi' were villagers who voluntarily assisted their neighbours at harvest time. Competing groups of workers would begin in a slow tempo with alternating melodic figures, and as the work intensified and neared completion, melodic motifs became shorter and the alterations more rapid. The end of the song - and of the song - was marked by a slow finale sung in unison."
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Nnoboa
I haven't had a chocolate advent calendar for a while, so this year was a treat. Every morning after breakfast now I get a snippet of the Christmas story and a tasty chocolate heart - just enough not to feel guilty about it.
Anyway, Divine, the fairtrade company who made the calendar, share a story on the reverse about the farmers of the cocoa co-operative.
"The farmers who have joined the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative have discovered how good it is to work together. In fact, they have a name for it - NNOBOA - which means, 'If you help me, I will help you'."
Sharing resources, ideas, experiences and problems helps people to create stronger businesses, fairer and more resilient systems all round.
Can we have more NNOBOA in the UK?
Anyway, Divine, the fairtrade company who made the calendar, share a story on the reverse about the farmers of the cocoa co-operative.
"The farmers who have joined the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative have discovered how good it is to work together. In fact, they have a name for it - NNOBOA - which means, 'If you help me, I will help you'."
Sharing resources, ideas, experiences and problems helps people to create stronger businesses, fairer and more resilient systems all round.
Can we have more NNOBOA in the UK?
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