Humpday Humpday
Schoolhouse Rock! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What a weird day
Who knew humps and Wedneses were one and the same?
What is a wednes anyways? let’s look it up in the dictionary shall we? Yea well wednes is not a word and if you break it down further, wed; to marry and nes; um… not elsewhere specified?
Ok well never mind that.
Today’s Mental Moment…
is about the English language.
Words.
Words and their meanings and how we have words that sound the same but are spelled different, words that mean the same but are not even similar, words which mean more than one thing..
Oh it goes on. It is maddening sometimes. Can you imagine trying to learn the English language? I mean if you didn’t already know it? It is really a miracle of sorts we can communicate effectively at all.
Well I could further posit, or offer further posits but you are in luck. Today I have Larry the Cucumber to help out. Some of you may remember School House Rock? Those little cartoon blurbs between cartoons on Saturday mornings where they tried to sneak in education? Like we didn’t notice but they were fun and I can say I learned a few things I may not have paid attention to in school. It’s really a crapshoot whether I learned them from TV or at school although I can remember some of the School House Rock even after all these years. Of course I remember school too, so who really knows? The nose knows, or something nothing like that.
So enjoy!
To your Mental State, whatever it may be.
(not to be confused with what State is home for your mental…and you.. ok ..)
Related articles
- Misused English terminology (termcoord.wordpress.com)
- A Dictionary of Victorian Slang (1909) (publicdomainreview.org)
- Name the 25 Most Common Three-letter Words (heslahhouse.wordpress.com)
I love how he plays the squeeze box with no arms and hands. Really cool. 😛 xxx
I know right? He;s a pretty amazing cucumber really… ♥
English is one of the hardest languages to learn, I’ve heard.
I see you managed to work in some more veggie tales…
It’s been much too long – Larry was pouting – and I sensed you were wondering if you would ever see him again… 😉
I actually was – trying to figure out how to fit them into your book review.
Larry and Bob? Veggietales? how about it was your admiration and ..ummm.. adoration of the Veggietales that keeps bringing you back for more??? 😉
But…but I should be honest…
oh.. well yea there is that right? I maybe ..what? wait..you DONT adore the VeggieTales? well then it must be me! .. I coulda sworn you loved your vegatables.. though 😀
did I really just misspell vegetables?
Ha!
I will take that as a yes.. fiddlefarts..
you could say something about surubbery and herring..with cucumber? no wait now I am mixing up my culinary cultures and ..stuff
oh I am on a roll tonight. shrubbery
Wednesday is the word we have today, after it has changed over the centuries from Wotan’s Day (Wotan=Odin), from Norse mythology… I guess you could say English stole it from them…. English doesn’t just borrow words from other languages, it drags them into dark alleys, knocks them down, and goes through their pockets for stray phrases…. Grand, ain’t it?…. 🙂
in a big bad kinda way –
(now to wonder whether I meant bad as bad or bad as good? ..;-) )
and thank you for the info – I really was curious after I wrote it and had not the time to look it up yet. Is English really English or is it something else all together?
English is 48% based on German, 40% Latin (Spanish, French, Italian, etc…), 8% Nordic, 4% Polish, Native American of many tribes, Samoan, Chinese, Japanese, and a variety of others, and, of course, 6% Klingon, and 6% Canadian….. I think that’s right…. 🙂
only 6% Klingon?
Well, it HAS only been around since 1976 or so, you know… in that short time, it’s already as common as Canadian…. 😉
oh – well in that case – sounds about right 😀
hahaha!! I have to wonder what stray phrases they find Ned! 😀
You don’t want to know…. 😉 Suffice it to say they make use of what they find, and don’t ask where it came from…..
Haha! those veggies!! I just love the way the poke- a fun at homonyms. (did I spell homonyms ritght? Ask Larry for me will ya?)
I dunno – not sure he does either 🙂
I suspect the reason we often don’t communicate properly is because we do so in English.
I believe you may be right..
True true true! My youngest is having great diffidculty learning to read..her teacher says she is “behind schedule” (to which I say poppycock) (actually I said “bullshit”, but nevermind), so I am upping the homeschooling after she gets home from the other school (eye roll), and our launguage is a hypocrit! All the rules we have that apply to ‘some’ words but not all words. It comes down to the fact that my girl isn’t able to memorize the words becasuse that’s bascially what we have to do when we are 6 since none of it makes any sense! *end rant*
Ohhhh this is such a sore subject for me… Please (and I know you want to know too my soul sister!) when is is “behind schedule” for a kindergartner who can;t read? Are you effing kidding me? My 6 yo has to write sentences every week – yes he is expected to write 3 sentences about a topic even though they cannot read – the are teaching them phonetically btw which can only end up..idiotoc at some point I say – so he has to write about snakes and use his sounds (no no NOT his letters cause the names for the letter do not matter anymore 🙄 ) and he wants to write abourt snakes – we are to let him sound it out and not help him because the point is not to be right its to see how close to right he is – how well he can … boy this is getting lengthy – so..snakes, he writes snacks, and asks me if its is right Bubbsy is a perfectionist so the thing is he knows it is wrong just not why and if I dont; help him he falls apart.. if it still doesn;t make sense he falls apart.. I tell him he is close but the a is long and to make it long it needs to no have the ck and it is like make rake take fake bake lake etc … he looks at me and says “ok can we just get on with it?” the next word was eat… and he told me is was the stupidest word he ever had to spell, besides snake. I am absolutely against what they are doing to kids as far as hammering the education in them.. Bubbsy went to tutoring in Oct after school recommended by heis teachers cause… he had problems sounding out some of the letters …2 x week… ITS KINDERGARTEN HELLLOOOOOOOO!!! what happened to learning all the good lessons in K ? like how to share and color and play? ug.. I feel for ya mama and for your little one – it it frustrating.. as far as the “behind” Bubbsy is one of the smartest kids hands down I have 1. given birth to and 2. ever interacted with… ok not being a biased mother ..I KNOW this kid is brilliant and he couldnt figure out some sounds and had to go to extra help tutoring after school.. I wish they had the emoticon here I would like to put to the way they teach our children the english language these days….