Words, words, words?

Yes, words are highly important to me. Now that I’m learning to be a counsellor, they have become even more so. I think we don’t often spend enough time picking the right word to put into a sentence. I well thought out word and its appropriateness can have a profound effect on a listener. I’m particularly interested at the moment in the tone in which words are said but I haven’t often thought about how words actually feel in my mouth…I shall be having a go of that today! Thank you x

I first read this to this tune (NSFW, sort of).

@Hawaii_Jake Interesting thought Jake. Contemplate life without words. Politicians can’t debate, quarterbacks can’t audible, authors can’t write, we can’t fluther, we can’t swear when we get hurt, Hallmark is out of work, and biggest of all, “Does he like me?” never happens. The ramifications of this go on forever.:)

I am a self-proclaimed logophile, but I do prefer the written word to the spoken. I feel I am more adept at the former.

I come from a family of writers and worshipers of words. My own writing path began at a newspaper, led me to a magazine, then led me, perhaps inevitably, to ad agencies, where I happily worked as a copywriter and creative director for 35 years.

I once had a boss whose favorite expression was, “When you’re out of words you’re out of work.” Fortunately, I never ran out of words. They put many a loaf of bread on my table and car in my garage. Currently I’m working on a collection of short pieces about my experiences in advertising hoping they will make a book.

I completely love words. I always have. I love their sound and the fact that I can create new worlds just from words on a page (or a computer now).

In Shakespeare’s time, the language was more fluid. He invented so many words that we even use today. The OED lists Shakespeare as the first use of more than 2,000 words.

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can’t you understand
Oh my little girl

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

I graduated an English major (including studying a good bit of literary theory) and have been a reader all my life, so I’m no stranger to the enjoyment of language. There was a time, though, sometime after I graduated where I started to feel hemmed in by the written word and really started to turn my attention to nonverbal ways of communicating (painting, dance and and other arts). I didn’t actually paint, mind you, but I just started to recognize the benefit of those modes of communication for one’s own feeling of freedom and lightness. Words had become something of a burden in that sense—in the linear nature of their coding and decoding and in their engagement solely with faculties above the neck. Perhaps it’s a little different with the spoken word, but I didn’t think of that as an option at the time.

In recent months, I’ve latched on to a (particular) universal truth that lumps all happenings in the world into a single pile and also describes the ultimate truth as wordless (e.g. “The tao that is the true Tao cannot be spoken.”) So I regard words as vehicles that can only carry the water so far, and tend to evaluate statements of truth or revelation (i.e. particularly poignant or powerful passages) using this new yardstick.

It’s a good trade for me personally. I think I tended to intellectualize literature more than feel it, and that really got me out of balance. So, maybe it’s more to do with me than words, but this is the direction I’ve taken.

Words are wonderful and glad that you have found them.
You will be immensely happy to find numbers. Numbers go to Infinity. How far do numbers go? You do the numbers. . . .
Don’t feel odd if you like even numbers. Keep numbers out of soup.
And, it is square to multiply a number by itself, but not gay. . . .

I’m a wordsmith type myself, yes, love words, writing, poetry, reading and humorous wordplay.
My mother was quite talented with words, also a musician, my father was an Architect, I am a writer/comedienne at heart and my daughter is a painter. The creative DNA just keeps morphing along in our family. :-)

A CNBC survey showed that 46% of Americans are opposed to Obamacare. But ask them about the Affordable Care Act and only 37% are opposed to that. Never mind that they are just different words for the same thing. A rose by any other name would indeed smell just as sweet. But any florist knows that the same 12 flowers called “one dozen long-stemmed roses” will outsell “one dozen long-stemmed turds” every day of the week.

It’s good to know that I’m not the only logophile out there. Much like @Seek_Kolinahr I prefer the written word to the spoken. Although you would not be aware of it through these answers I actually am more proficient using the written word than the spoken.

Language is more than a bunch of words. Words would be useless without a hierarchical syntactic structure to put them in. When we can’t think of a specific word for a situation, we paraphrase, and that seems to work.

I’m a big fan of words and the sounds that make them.
I find people who speak with well-chosen words fascinating, and I think it’s a sign of them being thoughtful and precise in meaning.

For the fun of the sound of words, in my experience nothing beats sanskrit.
The sanskrit alphabet is designed around all the sounds a human can make from wide-open-throat “aaaaahhh” to the sounds made with the lips and everything in between.
I find Sanskrit mantras to be amazing in their capacity to resonate with the nervous system (indeed, as they are intended to do!).

@dabbler Agreed. Nothing turns me on more than a bright, articulate, well spoken/written person with the ability to verbally play and spar in a perfect unfolding of improvisational flow. :-)

Since I learned English I fell in love with the language. I love the words and many of my friends are now English. When words are combined correctly I can almost compare a poem to a symphony.

@dabbler, you may enjoy the Battlestar Galactica theme song, seasons 2.5 and beyond. It’s a Sanskrit hymn, I believe. Quite beautiful.

I like words especially in the form of poetry. Poetry enlivens words and gives them fresh meaning.

@Seek_Kolinahr I did not know that! I must check that out…

@dabbler the Sanskrit alphabet has 17 vowel letters and 25 consonant letters. Humans can make many more sounds than that.

Make that 33 consonant letters.

Yes, the right word can make or break a situation.

@morphail It’s totally legitimate to combine letters, and if you allow that are there any sounds that one can make that you can’t represent with the sanskrit alphabet?

@dabbler Yes, plenty. Clicks, pharyngealized consonants, tones, creaky and breathy voice, various place contrasts, implosives, uvulars, etc. Just looking at English, Sanskrit has no letters to represent the dental fricatives in “then” and “thin”.

Of course there are plenty of sounds you can’t represent in the English alphabet either. Alphabets weren’t designed to represent every single sound in every language. (Except the International Phonetic Alphabet)

@morphail I see what you mean…
Now that you mention it, the defnition I got was that Sanskrit can letters can describe any “pure” sound that a human can make, rather arbitrary I’ll admit.
The “nice” sounds if you will, compatible with a calm/meditative state.

But you good point, humans make plenty of sounds that are not that sort. ...I certainly do.

@dabbler “pure” and “nice” are really subjective. Sanskrit has plenty of sounds I wouldn’t call nice, like the voiceless and voiced aspirates. From a linguistic point of view Sankrit has no purer sounds than any other language.

@morphail & @dabbler Sanskrit is just another language based on proto Indo European roots, so why should it be expected to be special or unique among human tongues?

@ETpro That’s what I’m saying

@morphail I know. I was trying to state agreement with you. Looks like I used a poor choice of words. :-)

@ETpro I knew you were agreeing with me. I was in turn agreeing with you

The Sanskrit alphabet does resonate with major nervous system ganglia, nerve bundles.
Sanskrit mantras definitely can change your mood and focus.

I make no claim that there are no other languages that can be used to produce a similar effect, but Sanskrit can be. Also, you could know nothing of Sanskrit and stumble upon the same sounds and experience these effects.

I believe that mantras can change some people’s mood. But I can’t believe that the sounds of Sanskrit can magically resonate with your nervous system. There’s nothing magic or special about the Sanskrit phonemic inventory.

If there is even one more post about Sanskrit on this thread, I will flag them all. If you wish to chat about Sanskrit, ask your own question about it. Read the OP. This question is not about Sanskrit.

Something equally as important as words is the rhythm created when you string them together. Ask any songwriter, poet, thespian, or rhetorician.

Perhaps that’s why I prefer my foreign films in the original language with English subtitles.

I don’t speek much, but I would like to be more confident and speek more.
Words are very important to me.

@AssyrianKing9 Welcome to Fluther. We type here, but it can help with being able to speak, as it exercises our minds in formulating questions and answers; and occasionally embarrasses us when we realize our writing wasn’t clear enough, and has been interpreted in ways we did not intend. I think if words are important to you then writing and reading what others draw from our writing is a great way to honor the importance of words.

@ETpro thank’s