I have a funny relationship with words. I’ve earned my living from them, never learned to spell confidently, drawn several trillion million through my eyes into thoughtful pondering but don’t seem to express myself with them eloquently, despite application, effort and editing. Yet I remain unfailingly committed to continuing to do so. Even the humble letter is a medium I willingly embrace. The curiosity and fascination stubbornly persists. To what end?
Some words just sound in your head like bells tinkling, or waves whispering, resonate too loud or always cause a hesitation and a catching of my breath because I know it takes an effort to pronounce them correctly and it often takes me two attempts with some.
Names especially, even very unfamiliar ones, like Marek, Tariq, and Kiki tinkle while Esme, Seth and Bess sigh. But not just names words like succinct, bamboozled, apoplexy or even onomatopoeia have a musical quality of their own.
Volume and resonance is the problem with some. They speak too loud and persist against resistance. The vocabulary of human shields, insitutionalized, deforestation, extrajudicial killings, inured, abducted, restitution and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They are voluminous, demanding even provocative. They spread commentary and only occasionally optimistically build hope.
Words like proselytise, oxymoron, hyperbole and Arkansas fit the pronunciation dilemma category for me at least. Like many others I have mispronounced them and been corrected. I have also learnt that having acquired them from reading not listening it is neither a fault nor an embarrassment.
Others must be revisited, memorized, recited in times of need, recorded for the peace of mind they bring, the clarity of thought they induce, the insistent call for action they demand, the sentimental memories they recall or philosophical ponderings they inspire.
Just recently I was reading an article about how reframing language can limit and scandalously alter thought patterns. If you can’t name something you can’t conceptualise it. If it is consistently renamed the original meaning fades and shifts. The changes in meaning and nuance that occur when language is sabotaged are long lasting.
Deliberate alterations made due to politically correctness (sexual assault not rape), pressure to conform to a narrow socially acceptable standard (happy holidays not ……) and direct renaming to shift values, opinions and perspectives (propaganda becomes publicity and lies transforms to fake news) forever modify the framework of communication and society. Language is actually insidiously adjusting the very way we think, perceive the world and conceptualise abstractions. The changes are reducing our capacity to interact, empathise and connect.
Currently AI impacts all aspects of our lives and it is growing exponentially. At this point writing on any digital device in particular, is more difficult. Spellcheck and grammar suggestions are no longer the norm with predictive text taking over. It doesn’t think like anyone of us. It’s the average of all of us!! What an idea. Do we want to be averaged into some kind of common factor of sameness for convenience? Aren’t a wider range of opinions, perspectives and thought processes more conducive to a harmonious, prosperous and diverse society?
In fact, it isn’t predicting but rephrasing and misconstruing at best, and dictating at worst. Even editing one’s own writing, which is a necessity for me, takes longer as it keeps not suggesting alternatives but actually replacing my vocabulary and expression and undermining my creativity. Thereby diluting or transforming my meaning not clarifying it. The language we are being restricted to is a Newspeak and as Orwell attempted to warn us, it is taking over silently and perniciously.
As languages disappear and many are, whole societies and communities lose their identity and the rich lexicon of the languages they use, with nuances and cultural connectivity, evaporates. Much of this stripping of the diversity of languages still spoken is engineered by regimes suppressing minorities to produce a uniform mass and invading and absorbing formally neighbouring countries. Language, like food and clothing, housing, structural systems contributes greatly to the identity of people and their capacity to relate to both the inner and outer world. This is a form of suppression becoming ever more apparent.
To end on a bit more of a positive note, I might say that reading obsessively is the only antidote I have so far discovered to reassure myself that literature still has the magical quality of transporting, informing and inspiring and that many exceptional modern authors are rising through the ranks to join the masters of previous times. Communication, connection and startling awe are still possible, if we choose to focus on literature not just the news, academia and social media.
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In the words of Peter O'Toole as Reginald Johnston in film The Last Emperor, "If you cannot say what you mean, Your Majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says." Gentle women too I propose.
Don’t even get me started on handwriting, the aesthetic beauty of alphabets and non-alphabetic scripts ….
