The Hebrew and Greek languages had lots of words to say the word "love". you knew you were talking about a deep intimate love with one word, and a brotherly love in another. sometimes I feel like I'm trying to explain the magnitude of my feelings and really can't find the words to accurately describe it-like i need to create new words to explain it or read a thesaurus everyday to learn new words (they we dont use on a regular basis, and then have to define it to others). that's probably why swear words are so attractive in our culture-they explain something that we just can't find words for (especially at 13).
(random side note: up till right now, it feels that what I am writing is a Rob Bell video and someone could be videotaping me as I walk and share this like in a subway station or something).
so i am feeling let down by the language we use on a daily basis. i want the words to describe all that i am internally meditating on and I am stuck. Anyone want to join me and we could resurrect Koine greek?
4 comments:
How about pig latin? mmm...kay?
Perhaps the reason why the words for the various forms of love were eradicated are because English was not a language of convenience. Hebrew was a language of a religious and ethnic group in a particular geographic area, so words were allowed to grow and change as needed. It was convenient for people to add words when it was necessary, like the way we hella add slang terms to our vocabulary.
The Greeks did their share of seek-and-destroy conquering, but were largely kept in check by the Roman empire. At a certain point, the language of the Greeks (or all the various ethnic groups absorbed by the Greeks) ceased developing and stayed very much the same until today.
English, however, doesn't find its roots in Hebrew or Greek. Most of the Latinate words in the English language come from French, which came from vulgar Latin (the language of the soldiers). Most of the other words come from a High Germanic base and the Anglo-saxon languages of the same roots. In essence, our language is a version of Roman Ebonics with Cockney slang thrown in for good measure. The English language originated in the British Isles, which were constantly under siege from the Romans, the Germans, the Vikings... the list goes on. Our language is A) a mutt and B) not nearly as technical as the other languages.
The Oxford English Dictionary (my very best friend) defines love as That disposition or state of feeling with regard to a person which (arising from recognition of attractive qualities, from instincts of natural relationship, or from sympathy) manifests itself in solicitude for the welfare of the object, and usually also in delight in his or her presence and desire for his or her approval; warm affection, attachment. Keep that in mind.
English words are often abstract, and require pronouns, articles, etc, to fully comprehend the intended concept. Rather than the type of love being evident in the word, it requires those modifiers, and is best understood in a phrase or idiom. We are basically saying the same thing as the French fraternité if you say "love your brother", or brotherhood. It's the same idea, but it can conveyed in two different ways in English.
That's why I like English. There are so many ways to say the same thing, and I am quite fond of words themselves. I would suggest that you make up your own words for the types of love you want to express, because English is a living language, one which changes every day. However, I decided I won't tell you that because if everyone went around making up words, our language would fall apart (it's already a bit janky, because there's no governing body as in French, Portuguese, etc). Instead, I suggest that you discover the roots for these words, use them, or find the English equivalent.
I'm really annoyed that I only speak one language fluently. I want to learn three; one Romance language (that is, descended from Latin), one Slavic (Russian, and I'm working on that one), and another Germanic one, like Dutch or Afrikaans. It's all useless, really, but I like to know what everyone's talking about.
Okay, this ends my armchair linguistics lesson.
To echo Shannon, let me quote my friend Bill (Bryson, that is) from The Mother Tongue. . .
"Webster's Third New International Dictionary lists 450,000 words, and the revised Oxford English Dictionary has 615,000 [note: The Mother Tongue was written in 1990], but that is only part of the total. Technical and scientific terms would add millions more. Altogether, about 200,000 English words are in common use, more than in German and far more than in French. The richness of the English vocabulary, and the wealth of available synonyms, means that English speakers can often draw shades of distinction unavailable to non-English speakers. The French, for instance, cannot distinguish between the mind and the brain, between man and gentleman, between 'I wrote' and 'I have written.'"
Russian is on my list of languages I would like to learn also. Along with Fresian (I've heard it is the closest modern relative of Old English).
Jonathan - Slavic languages are rich, complex, and beautiful. I love Russian so much.
I have a friend in England who studies linguistics, and apparently can read Old and Middle English really well. He knows more about words than I could ever dream of, and I'm incredibly jealous.
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