I posted this status update today:
I was going to pull weeds in my yard. It was raining. And I was kind of doing it "because". Because it was cool outside, because the rain would make it easier. Because my yard was more WILD than LANDSCAPED.
However, the jellyfish was not related. It just popped into my head. I was like, why. Why are jellyfish a thing? And then Why. Why would I think of jellyfish and why they are a thing?
Because I was weeding soon after this I had a pretty large chunk of time where I really had nothing to do but think. There is a reason I don't do this very often. I thought - when the world was created were there "committees" that worked on certain projects, you know, like church. And so we get the serious animals...the horse, the cow, chickens, fish, birds. Then someone in the sea life department sneezed and the girls were like, gross, and the boys were like, cool - let's make it a thing. And then the sea life department just took a giant leap off the crazy cliff because have you seen what lives in the water. There is some weird stuff.
Then I wondered how language developed. Because.
How did people first decide that a certain string of sounds together would represent certain objects or ideas? How do new words evolve? How did some words make the cut? What words never became words. I wonder about the group of scientists sitting in a room developing a special salve that can heal skin disorders and someone says "Let's call it ointment." And was that guy really popular so people went along with it, because that is a terrible word. Who baked a delicious pastry and said "That is so moist" and why didn't anyone say "That doesn't sound good, find a new word." Or did they, but it was so funny that when they retold the story of what a loser the first guy who said moist was eventually the word stopped sounding strange to some people and eventually it just became what we call soft squishy cake?
Then I went back to animals and the people who name them. And I wondered about the Aardvark. Why does he need two A's. One of them is silent. Is that really necessary? And then I thought about Possums. And Opossums. What is up with that?
And who decides how a certain string of letters should sound. Why is capacity "ku paa sit ee" instead of the way I said it in my head for 20 years "cap uh city"
And this whole time my title for this post has been bugging me because that just doesn't look like how brain should be spelled...I disagree with you, language makers. Brane. Because.
The choice for me. Drug-free...
** Post shower update:
1. Why can words that are so unrelated be so similar, for example, testicle and tentacle
2. Do we Bear our testimony or do we Bare it?
3. Are there some words you picture as images when you say them, and some words you picture as printed words. Of the printed words do you picture them that way because they are "concept" words or do you do it because you are "really smart" or do you do it because you are "crazy"
