What does that mean?

Have you ever uttered a sentence such that the initial sounds of several words got misplaced? Actually, a slip of the tongue. I am sure, you are not clear what I am talking about; let me quote some examples. By the way, the examples I am quoting were actually the errors made by Reverend William Archibald Spooner after whom the term ' Spoonerism ' is named. "You have hissed all my mystery lectures" Actually should have been - You have missed all my history lectures "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle). Sometimes, these Spoonerisms can change the meaning altogether, take a look: "Save the whales" instead of...Wave the sails "The pain is roaring" instead of.. The rain is pouring ~ ~ ~

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. ~ ~ ~

Whenever I come across a place name, I tend to wonder how did this place get this name!!! ' Delhi ' - I was told in one of my Linguistics classes that Delhi was derived from the Hindi language word - ' Dehleez ' meaning ' Threshold ', as it was a kind of threshold to enter India. ~ ~ ~

I have literally been procrastinating updating this blog of mine; even though it's my favorite. Procrastinating? You got it right.... delaying, postponing...... will update tomorrow, tomorrow and those endless tomorrows. ~ ~ ~

Knowing more about how words originate (Etymology) is interesting. I always wondered why my granny often called ‘ Socks ’ as ‘ Kaalcheelā ’, which literally in Kannada translates to Leg Bags. Kaal + Cheelā = Kaalcheelā Leg + Bag = Socks May be, when Kannadigas saw people (probably Britishers) wearing socks for the first time, they might have felt they wear some kind of woven bags on their feet. But isn’t it humorous to think – we wear bags on our legs (Leg + Bag)? Well, I know that bags are worn on the shoulders. BTW, I remember tying up plastic bags on my feet and walking in my childhood, just to make some noise :) Similarly, ' Gloves ' are called as ‘ Kaicheelā ’ = Kai + Cheelā = Kaicheelā Hand + Bag = Gloves It’s amazing to know how our perception of things shows up in the words in a language. If you have been wondering what’s ‘ā’ that I have been using here - The dash on top of a vowel indicates that it’s a long vowel. It means it’s ...

Remember, when you wake up in the morning - yawning and stretching yourself. Now, in a word, that’s what’s called ‘ Pandiculation ’. Well, you may or may not be pandiculating, but cats surely do pandiculate. Even dogs do. BTW, there’s one particular way my pet dog pandicualtes, that I like the best – ‘He stretches his hind legs on a cushioned chair and the front legs are stretched out on the carpet (on the floor). In all, he stretches out a 180 degrees. ~ ~ ~

First, let’s collect some words used in different languages to say Mother or Father. Mother: Mom, Mummy, Amma, Maa, Ammi, Mater, Mama, Matra, Mere, Awwa, Ammijaan Father: Papa, Paa, Padre, Pere, Pitaji, Appa, Pitra, Baba, Pater, Fader, Vader, Abbajaan Think about what were your first words as an infant. In most cases, children are taught to say words that stand for mother and father as their first words. And what do most kids do? Imitate. They observe the lip movements of whoever is teaching them those words. The easiest sounds for a baby to learn or imitate are Bilabials - sounds produced by closure or near closure of both the lips ‘bi’ + ‘labial’ Bilabial sounds as ‘ p ’, ‘ b ’, ‘ m ’, ‘ w ’ Please do not pronounce them as ‘pii’, ‘bee’, ‘em’ and ‘double u’ We are not speaking about English alphabets, but just sounds. So, they can be pronounced as - ‘ pa ’, ‘ ba ’, ‘ ma ’, ‘ wa ’ After, the bilabials, the next easiest sound for a baby are the...