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Post by En on Nov 14, 2003 17:37:30 GMT -5
Heh. Well of course "cellar door" is beautiful. I dunno... maybe he thought it had pretty sounds? S, L, and R are considered the soft consonants, the poetically gentle ones, which is why so many elf names in Tolkien have those sounds, because they're lyrical-sounding to the English-speaking person....
*resists urge to invent fantasy land called Selardór and populate it with characters with unlikely pretty names*
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Ceridwen
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 18, 2003 7:34:22 GMT -5
Why are you resisting the urge? I, personally, would pounce on a book about a fantasy land called Selardor. I think it's a great idea. ;D
Today, my favourite word is: Propinquity. Such a pretty sound. I think, if it had a taste, it would be light and airy, like really well-made sponge cake. O, and it'd be strawberry flavoured.
I love the word Mellifluous. It makes me think of honey.
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Post by En on Nov 18, 2003 9:34:29 GMT -5
*chuckles* For you then, I'll work on it.
I'm in a nested-word mood. I love words that have words tucked away in them that add to the meanings of each other. Like, "disparaging" (say it out loud) has the sounds of the word "despair" in.
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Ceridwen
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 18, 2003 10:33:16 GMT -5
*drily*
Only, sweetie, if you have an American accent.
But words with seeds in them - what a concept.
It reminds me of the ee cummings poem 'Yguduh' - possibly the most amazing poem ever written. Ever. *Stands in awe* It uses the same idea, but it's words with seeds of emotions and actions in them, rather than other words. In a way.
You know what other word I adore? Lotus. Can't say why. I just do.
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MagPie
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Post by MagPie on Nov 18, 2003 17:27:04 GMT -5
Oooh, Lotus is a good one! On the botanical tip, I like "tulip."
and the disparaging/American accent thing is not true of ALL regions...like the Tri-State area, for example
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Post by En on Nov 18, 2003 18:14:15 GMT -5
*chuckles* It's a slim difference... ae versus e+(upside down e)... give me some leeway for clever consonance, would you? (says the person who had to explain the other night that "baroque and roll" really is funny) MagPie, how it it pronounced in the Tri-State area?
I often wonder how much the seeds inside words affect our interpretation of the words. Try it with "Jabberwocky" and you'll see what I mean... dunno about you, but I have very clear mental-sensation-image-thingeys when I consider what might be brillig and how slithy toves look.
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MagPie
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Post by MagPie on Nov 18, 2003 21:54:39 GMT -5
Well in most of the Tri-State area it would be...I don't know any of the symbols, but a short a, as in apple. But Upstate NY and parts of CT would say it with an a sound like in Mary, or just airy. Make sense?
Oh, and this struck me as a very odd coincidence...In the sad books thread, Calantha just made a post about this book she can't remember the title of, but it's all about a girl finding another world on the other side of her CELLAR DOOR! Cal used that phrase a good 3 times in her post and I thought maybe she had read this one and was making a reference, but I think it's a real book!
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Ceridwen
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 19, 2003 5:37:54 GMT -5
*fiddles with her hair in an embarrassed way*
Hey, sorry. From my standpoint here in Yorup, I made the awful faux-pas of lumping all you Americans into the same ginormous Pan-Accent. I do apologise.
But still. When I think of my concept of a US accent, and say 'disparaged' and 'despair' I can see what En means. It just doesn't work in an accent like mine, which is pretty much Irish farmer. ;D
" 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the borogoves And the momeraths outgrabe.."
Brilliant. I think of the gloaming (heh! favourite word time) of the day, and small, slimy (yet cute) creatures spinning gently, chuckling to themselves. Borogoves, to me, suggest mole-like creatures who are perhaps mimsy because they've suddenly come up into the relative brightness of the evening light after being underground for a while, and momeraths? Well, obviously momeraths are circular creatures who roll along on their edge, occasionally falling over (outgrabing). As for the Jabberwocky - well.. I have to say he's quite dragonish, but with a bit of the Balrog there too... *quivers*
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Post by En on Nov 19, 2003 15:44:01 GMT -5
Yeah... yeah, exactly on the "brillig" being gloamy... I have a sort of twilight image in my mind's eye, at that moment when colours are most saturated, right before sunset, and yet they are also in direct light in places, so that there are startling highlights at the edges of things, so that it seems the whole world has been gilded.
"Slithy toves" which "gyre and gimble" always evoke for me the smallish, lemur-like but very active monkeys that used to turn up in about every other National Geographic TV special. They move as lithely as snakes, and yet they aren't slimy, they're hairy, so there's a different look to the sliding movements. sliding+lithely? Slithy? Gyre is a real word, meaning (as Ceri said) turning, and "gimble" sort of audibly suggests "gambol" (playing by jumping around and dancing and such) and also "nimble" -- and gamboling nimbly sounds monkeylike to me, maybe because of the sheer quantity of time I spent wishing to be the next Diane Fossey when I was a kid.
Mimsy has changed for me in recent years, I think, though I can't pin it down; it seems more -- like something you'd do while lounging, dressed in brocade and smelling of an elaborate perfume, in the royal court of Japan around 800AD. I'm not sure why this is except possibly because I think mimosa plants are the same kind of luxuriously elegant, the way they fan out in fair light and close delicately when brushed. Well, and this brocade/silk/scent/elegance image also works in combination with the gilded/saturated twilight in the garden image from line 1.
So borogroves become carefully tended, aethetically minimalistic garden trees; they have broad boles from which slim, mimosa-like branches extend, like those street-lining trees in France, and they also have long, slim roots dropping into a little pond... heh... now that I'm thinking about it, bole+mangrove = borogrove. My subconscious is so sneaky
*continues through the poem, drooling slightly and dreaming of lovely romantic images*
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Calantha
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My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
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Post by Calantha on Nov 19, 2003 15:59:03 GMT -5
Oh, and this struck me as a very odd coincidence...In the sad books thread, Calantha just made a post about this book she can't remember the title of, but it's all about a girl finding another world on the other side of her CELLAR DOOR! Cal used that phrase a good 3 times in her post and I thought maybe she had read this one and was making a reference, but I think it's a real book! Yes, I read this post and it jogged my memory...it happens a lot . And yes, it is a real book although I doubt it is called Cellar Door, I think I'd've remembered that... Word word word... How's about tumid? It just about fits the mood I've gotten into today
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Ceridwen
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 20, 2003 7:14:04 GMT -5
Today Ceri is liking:
Detumescent Wrath (just the sound of the word, don't anyone panic) Peripheral Tympanum Ululation
En - what images. I particularly love the thread of thought about the mimosa, and the lounging around ancient Japan... adds a bit of luxury to my day.
Also, the word 'roundelay' is tripping through my brain today - reminds me of maypoles, and singing, and general joyfulness. It tastes like a cherry lollipop. ;D
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Post by En on Nov 20, 2003 17:34:49 GMT -5
Words do add luxury, isn't that amazing? I love idly translating bits of blandspeak into more interesting words... ye olde "Scintillate, scintillate, asteron minific" trick. ()
My word du jour: somnolence. *says it aloud* ssssomnoolence. Mmm. Like dark chocolate; the tongue rolls around it.
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Ceridwen
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 21, 2003 10:29:28 GMT -5
Today it's 'stertorian'. A word you can really roll your r's in.. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... ;D
Is it cheating to use an English word from, like, ages ago? Because for some reason the Old English word 'ymbeclypte' is in my head today. It means 'embraced'. Both of them sound beautiful.
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Post by En on Nov 21, 2003 11:32:36 GMT -5
Not at all, not at all. One of my all-time favourite words is from the modern French: fauteuil (pronounced sort of like "faux toy"). Not exactly a wing-backed chair nor again a pouf, but a chair you'd put in your salon, a chair that would be nice to flop in when you're reading. ;D
I'm also really fond of Greek in general for the reason that it's a kickin' good language for people who like to make up words Check it out: if I want to say someone sucks the light out of a room, I can call s/him a "photophage." If I want to invent the study of when peace does and does not occur in a certain area or community or between certain areas or communities, I can start a school of "kyriology."
I. Love. Compound. Words. ;D
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Post by Tange-Rhi-ne, Tange-Rhi-ne on Nov 21, 2003 18:22:29 GMT -5
Know what word I like? "Proclivity." I think it just sounds cool. And...well I kind of made this up so I don't know if it counts...but I like to say "fantabulous." It's fun! ;D
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