“UGH, $#@%*+$@!.

“UGH, $#@%*+$@!.

(Steve Ember)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

Did you ever wonder where language came from, I mean after the grunts, groans, and other vocal cord sounds. Daily when I sit at  my computer working on one story or another, I’ll insert words in a sustenance, and marvel at the depth of my vocabulary…..until my spell check lights up like Christmas Tree, and makes all sorts of sounds. I write from my Works Word Processor, and it’s got an extensive vocabulary…..but I continually either fool it with my spelling, use of words and punctuation, or I’m writing in some foreign language.

I often wondered where the language that we speak here in the United States came from, and yesterday (February 5) I decided to research (just an a little) about the history of English, talk about fooling myself about the length and effort of research that I’d need. Initially I discovered that English is the most sought after language to master in the world, it’s is a major foreign language taught in most schools in South America and Europe.

School children in the Philippines and Japan begin learning English at an early age, English is the official language of more than seventy-five countries including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa. Countries with several languages use English as the official language of the country; India is a good example…..where at least twenty four languages are spoken by at least 1,000,000 people, yet English is used to communicate.

Exactly where did the English language come from, and why has it become so popular…..valid questions, and I can now answer them with a modicum of authority. I’ll warn you now; we’ll need to travel backwards in time (of course), thousands of years to an area of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe.

Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European, it’s no longer spoken, and these same experts have no idea what it sounded like. What language sounds like when it’s spoken never really occurred to me. I’ve been to Germany (Verboten), France (oui oui,) and Sweden (Sha VI Ta En OL) in English, “how much is a beer.”

Of course there were other words that I became aware of, but this is a family blog and a sense of decorum will not allow me to delve into the extensive foreign vocabulary that I posses. What has amazed me is the fact that languages seem to be intertwined, Latin disappeared as a spoken language, yet it left three great languages’ that became modern, Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English.

ALL OF THIS IS FASCINATING…..BUT

This is interesting, but I’m no closer to gaining my initial question…..words (baby) where in hell did they come from? Near the end of my research (after about eight hours), I was left about as much in the dark as when I started nosing around the vast info that I’d uncovered…..and you know what, words came from small groups of people who shared the same village or hovel where they lived.

An occasional grunt, and a guy pointed to a blunt ax became an “Ugh,” a stick became an “Argh”, food might have been a “Narg,” and “I gotta go to the bathroom” might have been an “Ahhhh.” Of course early people probably didn’t have a word to describe a toilet, and actually probably simply let er fly where ever.

Sports are pretty much the same, although I doubt they came from Neanderthal, well…..maybe some football players and weight lifters, each has its own language or way of communicating…..mostly to use short terms in the moment to identify an action that is happening, or one that’ll transpire shortly.

I kind of know the language of baseball a bit, I did it for 30 years, guess I should. I’m wondering if slang in sports isn’t for participants to identify that they are players of a game. Baseball is rife with all sorts of slang terms for really common plays:

Battery--term for pitcher and catcher

Backstop--catcher

Hot Corner--3^rd base

Southpaw--left-handed throwing pitcher

North paw--Jeff Popaism for a right-handed thrower

One in the wagon, two dragging--one out, two left to get

Heater--fastball

Duce--curveball

Meat--pitcher with little ability…..or having a bad day

Ride the pine--where I used to sit a really-lot

FOOTBALL

Fair Catch--receiver can call for a catch by waving his arms and hands

Fair Catch interference--when a receiver gets creamed by an opponent after a fair catch

False Start--when an offensive lineman move before the ball is hiked to the quarterback

Fumble--when a ball carrier drops the ball

Goal Line Stand--when defense is backed up to their goal line and is trying to keep offense out of the end zone

Hail Mary--Desperation pass usually at end of game when offensive team is behind

Out of Bounds--when an offensive player with ball goes out of field of play

Offense--team with the ball

Defense--team trying to get ball from offense

Blitz--when defense sends as many players as the want to catch and tackle the quarterback, also a term and act used by several amateur baseball team in a rite of passage, or an initiation

AND HERE’S SOME LU-LU’S FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

Batude--money clipped off to make change

Abligurition--spend large amount of money for food

Batta--extra pay

Bubulcitate--Cry like a cowboy

Dactylonomy--counting on your fingers

Deipnosophist--a good conversationalist at meals

Yesterang--something that was caught yesterday, the only word that made any sense

Weddinger--a guest at a wedding

Ergophobic--a person who fears work…..most of the athletes that I’ve met

Gongoozler--an idle person, or rubbernecker

Well there you have it; my spell-checker has crashed, overworked from all of the perceived misspelled word above. Remember the next time you’re speaking to a foreigner or an immigrant, speak slowly and use proper diction, they’ll appreciate it.

HAVE A NICE DAY!