Monday, September 1, 2008

Weekend Word Wonderings -- Silly Stuff I Belabor While at Leisure


If I had to get into a fight, I'd rather get into a fight with a Tim than with a Tom. The vowel sound, to me, makes Tim sound less tough. (Tinny even. Perhaps even tiny.)

However, I don't feel the same way about Jim and John. Jim sounds, to me, as tough or more tough than John.

(This is what it's like in my head all the time, that is, when I'm not obsessed with alliterative combinations such as Palin pregnancy paternity political.)

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4 comments:

LL Blackwell said...

So it sounds like you get words stuck in your head in the same way others get tunes stuck in theirs.

I remember the day I learned how to say "orange juice" in Italian and wandered around mumbling "spremuta d'arrancia" (or however you spell it) to myself all day long.

June Casagrande said...

That pretty much describes the birth of my interest in languages. A week or so into my first-ever French class I was walking around campus saying, "Je suis, je suis." I didn't yet have a single word to in my arsenal to finish the sentence. But I was hooked.

Joel said...

I've been off for about a week, hanging out with my kid, being away from work and even mostly from checking in on the internets. This was a great way to get back into it. Thanks.

Wonderful title.

Words roll around--and pop up oddly and linger enigmatically--like this in my head all of the time and it's good to know I'm not alone. And, as is probably already clear, this kind of weird series is my favorite. Looking forward to more.

Slightly askew, I heard a bit on Radio Lab the other day about how words naturally make music. I think this is it.

June Casagrande said...

Glad to hear you like this type of stuff.

When blogging, I and I assume everyone else has to occasionally stop and wonder: Does anyone under the sun give a dang about this blather?

Checking out the link now ...

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