May 10, 2021
Inspired by a comment on a recent post. Discuss:
It never fails to amaze me that ALL the books ever written are made up of just twenty six letters.
I first saw this statement as a response to a post on another author’s blog hop post, and a small piece of me died. A little more of me shriveled when shortly after, I saw the same statement on Facebook. I had to restrain myself from answering and starting a war on social media. Here, I can express myself.
Now, I understand what the folks who shared the sentiment were trying to say. Language is a marvelous thing. The way we can arrange shaped to have meaning is amazing. Even if the lines and shapes are sometimes incorrect, our minds can translate them to the correct meaning.
But here’s my problem. At its face, the statement is English-centric and ignores the differences between languages. The Russian alphabet has thirty-three letters, the Spanish one has thirty. Then you have Japanese, with different written languages and seventy-one or more characters. Are they any less important than English when it comes to writing?
But can the English language be used to translate every other language using those 26 letters? The answer is, not
really. Take Irish, for example. The word AMAINIRIS (“ARM-AN-ERISH”) means the second day after tomorrow. There isn’t an equivalent word in English. There is overmorrow, but that’s only one day after tomorrow.
Let’s throw in how the same word can have different meanings in different countries. In Nigeria, the word ‘hammers’ is the act of coming into big money. It has nothing to do with power tools.
The point being, words are more than twenty-six letters strung together. Language is words and context and color. Books are more than words.
What do you think? Let’s talk about it in the comments. Don’t forget to check out the other authors on this hop and see what they think. Just check out the links below.
And, until next time, please stay safe.
May 10, 2021
Inspired by a comment on a recent post. Discuss:
It never fails to amaze me that ALL the books ever written are made up of just twenty six letters.
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
