Show off your smarts with this bit of orthographic trivia—capitonymns, words that are spelled the same, pronouned the same, but change meaning if the first letter is capitalized. Like March and march.
Don't You Just ♥ Words?
—Capitonyms—
Ionic
Relating to Ionia a region of Ancient Greece, as in Ionic columns.ionic
Relating to a chemical ion (an atom with an unequal # of protons and electrons)Job
A Biblical character who undergoes great suffering.job
Work, or a task, often for which one receives payment.May
The 5th month of the year of the calendar year.may
An auxillary verb used to express permission or possibility.Lent
For Christians the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sundaylent
The past tense of the verb lend, to give something to someone for a period of time.Polish
Relating to Poland, its people, land, or culture.polish
To give a surface of an object a glossy sheen.Scotch
Relating to Scotland in the UK, its people, land, or culture.scotch
To put an end to something, often a rumor, idea, or plan.Turkey
A country in the Meditteranean region.turkey
A large fowl Americans eat for Thanksgiving.Welsh
Relating to Wales in the UK, its people, land, or culture.welsh
To renege (go back) on an agreement
Play a game with your book club. See if you can come up with a few capitonymns of your own.
In a 30 Rock episode, Jenna stars in a movie, but no one gets the title—"Rural Juror." Jenna keeps calling it "rurur jurur," a hilarious combination of words, which made me want to try a few of my own—Worry Weary ... Arrow 's Error ... Fear of Furor...
Okay, not as funny as Jenna's, but then Tiny Fey's not exactly writing this blog. Still, it got me to thinking about the act of speech, a complicated process that depends on how we shape our hard and soft palates, open our glottis, move our tongue, shape our lips—and the order in which we do it all.
We perform these oral gymnastics with ease in our native languages, almost instinctively, because we've been doing so since childhood. And that's what makes tongue twisters so much fun: they confound our ability to perform our usual verbal gimmicks. Selling sea shells, Peter Piper's pickles, and the wood chuck chucking. Say them fast and you trip up—because you can't move your tongue to the proper position fast enough.
My favorite piece of linguistic trivia isn't quite a tongue twister, but it's close enough to have actually altered the way we say a common word or two.
Don't You Just ♥ Words?
—Thunder—Old English for thunder was thunner—an awkward word due to its phoenetic demands. Say it quickly...and you'll know why the "d" slipped in. It has to do with a slight mistiming—as we move our tongue from the "n" to the "r," says linguist Charles Barber.
This transition calls for two simultaneous movements of the speech organs: (1) the nasal passages are closed by the raising of the soft palate, and (2) the tongue is moved away from the teeth to unblock the mouth-passage. [If there's a mistiming], if the...nasal passages are closed before the tongue moves, a "d" will be heard....
Thus the "d" found its way into the word because it was easier to say. Thunder was was first noticed in the 1300s, but it took another 300 before it was accepted as standard English.
Thimble and bramble are two other words affected by a similar phonetic mistiming, says Barber. They both acquired a middle letter "b."
End of lesson, end of blog post...except to reference Charles Barber's The English Language: A Historical Introduction, Cambridge UP, 2000, p45.
My friend Gordon showed up again with more word fun—this time JANUS WORDS.
Since it’s January, named after the Roman diety Janus—who faced both backward and forward, looking to the past and to the future—we’ll take Gordon at his words.
Janus words are self-antonyms, or contranyms. They're spelled AND pronounced the same but have opposite meanings.
Don't You Just ♥ Words?
Cleave — to stick together; to cut apart
Clip — to hold together; to cut off
Custom — the norm; unique
Dust — to remove dust; to lightly sprinkle
Fast — held firmly in place; moving quickly
Oversight — to watch carefully; not noticed
Quantum — tiny, in physics; very large, as in ”leap”
Sanction — to approve; a punitive action
Temper — to harden; to soften
This is just a smattering. There are lots more.
English—what a great language to have fun with! Here’s a silly little grammatical conundrum for which I have no explanation . . . except that it’s idiomatic. Nonetheless, rules are rules—and rules must be obeyed.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
You can say
Take the garbage out. —or— Take out the garbage.
And you can say
Take it out. —but not— Take out it.
___________You can say
Butter Mom up. —or— Butter up Mom.
And you can say
Butter her up. —but not— Butter up her.
___________You can say
Turn the lights on. —or— Turn on the lights.
And you can say
Turn them on. —but not— Turn on them.
Verbs and prepositional adverbs—you would think they’re like infinitive verbs—to be or not to be—you’re to never split one of those. I mean “you’re never to split one.” (But we all do.)
But prep-adverbs are different from infinitives. If you use a pronoun, you have to split them up”—not ”split up them.” Strange.
It's a wonder anyone ever learns English.
English—what a great language to have fun with! Below is a silly tongue-twister. It’s a hoot when you say it fast.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?sects | section | sex | shun
Sects shun sex in this section.
Even harder . . .
In this section, sects shun sex.
I'm a grown woman — and this is what I do for a living. Feel free to join in the fun. Leave a comment. Can you come up with any? Think of it as brain exercise.
English—what a great language to have fun with! Here’s a funny quirk that struck my husband Pete—a numbers guy, who gets a kick out of language.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
You CAN say…
This is good eating. —or— This is eating well.But you CANNOT say…
This is well eating. —or— This is eating good.Why?
Answer: The top two sentences seem similar in meaning; after all, we often use “good” and “well” interchangably ... but we shouldn’t.
Actually the sentences have slightly different meanings, which has to do with how the word “eating” functions and the difference between adjectives and adverbs.
• This is good eating = the food is tasty.
"Eating" is a noun.
Good is an adjective and precedes a noun—as in good book.• This is eating well = the food is healthy … or expensive & posh.
"Is eating" is the verb...as in "This—the thing I do—is eat well."
Well is an adverb and follows a verb.
So much for niggling rules of grammar. Is it a wonder anyone ever learns?
English—what a great language to have fun with! Below are several homophones, words that sound alike but have different meanings and often spellings (a few liberties taken, I know). Thanks for this one to my dear friend Gordon Higgins.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
gnu | knew | new | nu
Trapped in existential despair, the
new gnu knew he knew nada about nu.
Translation: The young wildebeest realized he had no understanding of the Greek letter N.
English—what a great language to have fun with! Below are homophones, words that sound alike but have different meanings. (I’ve taken a few liberties here.) My thanks to Gordon Higgins. He’s too, too clever.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
She wore two too many tutus to dance.
two | too | tutu | to
It's what I do for a living. Too, too sad. Anyway, hope you’ll join in the fun. These are mine. Can you find others . . . or come up with your own. It’s good exercise for the brain—honest.
Slough—a great word, and one that’s kept me running to the dictionary over the years. The problem is, it has 4 different pronunciations . . . along with 6 different meanings, and I can never keep them straight. Slough is the perfect example of a heteronym.
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
Slough — when it sounds like . . .
slow,
is a morass or swamp or . . .
despair (as in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress)slew,
is a sluice or drainage ditchSl-how . . . (or slouch, minus ch)
is a town near Liverpool, Englandsluff,
is a skin (as in snake)
and a verb: to discard, throw off—Okay, see how quickly
you can get through this—He decided, that poor snake, in a slough of despond to slough off his slough in the slough near the slough outside Slough.
Here’s what it sounds like…
He decided, that poor snake, in a slow of despond to sluff off his sluff in the slew near the slow outside Sl-how
Well...it's how I spend my days. How do you spend yours? Got any cool words? Please join in the fun by leaving us a comment.
English—what a great language to have fun with! Below are homophones, words that sound alike but have different meanings. (And, yes, I’ve taken a few liberties.)
Don’t You Just ♥ Words?
want | wantin’ | wanton | wont | wonton
My wont isn’t wantin’ to be wanton —
I just want a wonton. Want one?Translation:
I’m not usually fresh; I’m just reaching over you for a fried wonton.
These are mine. See if you can find others . . . or come up with your own. This is good exercise for the brain—so feel free to play along!