If you have looked into the lantern at least three times (possiby less), you know the music from Mantra is varied and has the capacity to be melodious or cacophonous with as much likelihood as it being in a meter which is scarcely to be discerned.
In what was mistaken as a passing topic, I got into a deep discussion about linguistics. Some forensic analysts, in particular, are of the opinion any given person’s linguistic patterns are as individual as fingerprints and exactly as impossible to hide.
Horse pucky.”
~ Sherman Potter
Cast Your Votes
As is less my wont than usual and much to Mantra’s chagrin, I found it odd I had the deep-seated desire to pen some prose. All this oddity led me to jump at the chance to see who else may be in my particular vein du jour. You may recall the last time I had this wondering…
Click to try it!
I had to love the result because it originates from the end of the era of the writers and authors I love the most. I looked over each of the pieces I am writing now, and that all-curious niggle would not recede. I popped in a short poem, fully expecting some of the bizarre results from the last at bat. Surprise!
Vladimir Nabokov. Definitely a pleasing result.
The two disaparate passages I chose from my opus brought entirely disparate results. Ray Bradbury and Ian Fleming. The first clearly in my realm of contemporary authors, and the second I would not have chosen for pleasure nor style. Still, the word choice and content did point directly into Mr. Fleming’s fields of expertise.
Your point?
Regardless which work I choose, I do not get the same author, although repeated efforts of the same text produced the exact same answers. Herein, lay my argument: Over time, our linguistics choose a path.
The first tine of the fork is the original path. Birth place, childhood location and people, education and reading choices assert influence on the way we speak, and subsequently write. My linguist acquaintance believes it is the only tine. Whilst I can concede this tine can leave indelible traits on our language, my world is not so monochromatic.
The second tine is one where the major influencer is imitation. For example, actors cast in vastly varying roles may use language appropriate to the setting, historical context and the character’s linguistic influences. Authors do this as well, and for precisely the same reasons. Argument #1.
The third tine is scholarly. Some individuals never stop learning. Others cannot relax without a book, magazine or cereal box in their hands. Still, others work in fields which change rapidly, requiring extensive study. All students’ linguistics are in a constant state of evolution and metamorphosis. Authors read not only what brings pleasure, but also what they write to develop and refine both style and form. Argument #2.
The fourth tine is globalism. Bearman of Beartoons gave me a wonderful compliment. He contacted me for my address to send me some loot, which I happily supplied. “Wait, you’re in the United States?” I nearly fell of my stool. Having read me for years, he never once caught onto my American language handicap. Argument #3.
World travelers and those with globally diverse friends must have a malleable lingo to liaise with others whose grasp of their native tongue may not be profound or whose dialect may require more literal language. Invariably, dialects and colloquailisms are transferred. When anyone moves from one country to the next, or even far distances within the same country, these transfers move as well. Argument #4.
Even though four is square and solid, a fifth argument comes to mind. Media. Whilst millions of viewers are currently glued to a small screen gobbling up the dramatization which passes for news today, let’s look instead at those whose choice of content originates from outside the writer’s predominant locale. Virtual travel has a similar effect as global travel. Before there were screens, books offered this exact travel. To assume one would only read or consume media orginating in one’s neighborhood is asking for five eggs on the face.
Sound off, my lovelies.
Which three authors did your writing spawn? Is it different from the last time? Did you try some old writing?
#linguistics #poetry #amwriting
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