Portmanteau Words - they are interesting

Brunch = Breakfast + Lunch
Moped = Motor + Pedal
Liger = Lion + Tiger
Smog = Smoke + Fog
FedEx = Federal + Express
Spork = Spoon + Fork
Camcorder = Camera + Recorder

Got it? Portmanteau morphs or portmanteau words are formed by two existing words and their already existing meanings are combined in the newly formed word.

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Ambidextrous Vs. Ambisinister

Quite difficult looking words….aren’t they? Let’s start with ‘Ambi’ , which is common between the two words – Ambi is not a word but a root which means ‘both’ or ‘both sides’ . ‘Ambidextrous’ is someone who is skillful in using both the right and left hand equally well. Similarly, ‘Ambisinister’ is someone who is clumsy or unskillful with both the hands.

English borrowed the word ‘Market’ from Kannada Language

We so often use the words ‘Market’, ‘Marketing’ and rarely stop to think if this word is really from the English language. It’s very likely that ‘ Market ’ is borrowed from a South Indian language, Kannada during the British rule in India. Maaruva + Kaţţe = Maarukaţţe ‘Maaruva’ stands for selling ‘Kaţţe’ stands for a platform ‘Maarukaţţe’ – a place for buying and selling In Kannada, if people were to say I’m going to the market, they would call Market as ‘Maarukaţţe’. But in the recent past, we much rather hear people saying ‘Maarkeţţige’ (to the market) rather than ‘Maarukaţţege’. It’s like, the Kannada word gets added as a Loan word in English; and then again Kannada speakers use the English form of their word back in their language. BTW, if you have been wondering how to pronounce ‘ţ’ that I’ve been using for ‘Kaţţe’ Curl your tongue backwards to touch the soft palette and say T as in ‘eighT’. That’s called a ‘ Retroflex ’ sound. Now, getti...

Coming across 'Onamotapoeia' in the 1st Year of Linguistics

The first few classes of Linguistics and the strangest (funny to pronounce) word I came across was ' Onamotapoeia '. Looks like quite a complicated meaning to be unveiled, isn't it? But you have come across Onamotapoeic words ever since you were a toddler. Remember those 'Bow-wow', 'meow', 'tick-tock', - those are what it means. Words that imitate the sounds of what's been described. Words that resemble natural sounds like - the 'buzz' of bees, the singing 'cuckoo', the 'quack-quack' of ducks and 'oink-oink' of pigs. Onamotapoeic sounds can be understood beyond language barriers. They belong to the language that uses these natural sounds in their vocabulary and for that matter even a kid can interpret what that word stands for - we've all heard those bow-wows and meow meows. ~ ~ ~

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