{"id":38406,"date":"2024-02-25T18:29:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T18:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words"},"modified":"2024-02-25T18:51:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T18:51:03","slug":"favourite-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words","title":{"rendered":"Favourite words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Re-launching this column after some months\u2019 silence, I thought at first I should begin with an account of where I\u2019m at\u2014a tale of severe disability and financial hardship.<\/p>\n

But then I thought, no, not appropriate. Basotho have enough problems pelting down on their heads. On the subject of how I feel I\u2019ll just quote \u201cFull Moon\u201d, by the prize-winning Nigerian poet Romeo Oriogun: \u201cI have learnt to obey the past.<\/p>\n

I keep nothing. I own nothing . . . When I leave, I was never here. \u201d Oh, and to add that my reason for re-starting the column is entirely selfish: I want to write about topics (for example, the crisis in Gaza) that I can\u2019t address in my academic writing, which is devoted to African literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll begin with something light-hearted. Namely, favourite words.<\/p>\n

One of the finest achievements of BBC television\u2014some umpteen years ago\u2014was Dennis Potter\u2019s difficult, controversial drama series The Singing Detective.<\/p>\n

At a point the detective is ill and being treated in hospital and asks a bedside visitor \u201cWhat\u2019s the loveliest word in the English language?\u201d He answers his own question with the word \u201celbow\u201d and explains it\u2019s not only the word\u2019s mellifluous sound but its visual appearance in small-case letters\u2014the way the verticals and curves relate to each other.<\/p>\n

At secondary school my inspirational English teacher John Bristow gave a lesson on denotation. For example, the word \u201ctable\u201d denotes a piece of furniture on which, typically, food is served.<\/p>\n

An alternative term for denotation is signification and there is a whole number of philosophical texts that explore this. As an aside, readers who remember their Shakespeare will recall the use of the word \u201csignifying\u201d in Macbeth\u2019s terrifying, nihilistic \u201ctomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow\u201d speech.<\/p>\n

There are some words that imitate the sound they denote and these words are called onomatopoeic. Examples would be \u201cbuzz\u201d, \u201cclatter\u201d and \u201cwhisper. \u201d Apart from these, the sound of a word has nothing to do with the thing it denotes.<\/p>\n

And so a repulsive or horrifying thing can be denoted by a word that sounds quite lovely. Mr Bristow gave the example of \u201cdiarrhoea. \u201d The thing denoted is horrible; the word is very pretty.<\/p>\n

One could imagine in a children\u2019s tale a character called the Good Fairy Diarrhoea. One of my favourite English words\u2014for the sound and the look of it\u2014is \u201cshampoo.<\/p>\n

\u201d Another is \u201ccotyledon\u201d, though I can\u2019t for the life of me remember what this denotes or signifies (must get on to Google).<\/p>\n

And I have at least one favourite in French. There\u2019s a kind of riverine insect called in English a dragon-fly, with a long body and long slender wings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beautiful and harmless (unlike a mosquito\u2014and there\u2019s another example of a nice word for a horrible thing). The French word for dragon-fly is \u201clibellule\u201d\u2014 and that\u2019s even better than \u201celbow.<\/p>\n

\u201d So here\u2019s a game readers can play.<\/p>\n

Gather a few friends or family around and ask them \u2014 on the basis of the above \u2013 to list their three favourite words in Sesotho (or in isiXhosa or Amharic or whatever). It will be interesting to see if any of them come up with the same choice(s). Next week, deadly serious \u2014 a discussion of the Gaza crisis.<\/p>\n

Source: The Post<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Re-launching this column after some months\u2019 silence, I thought at first I should begin with an account of where I\u2019m at\u2014a tale of severe disability and financial hardship. But then I thought, no, not appropriate. Basotho have enough problems pelting down on their heads. On the subject of how I feel I\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":38405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[233,246,314,245],"class_list":["post-38406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-african","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nFavourite words - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Re-launching this column after some months\u2019 silence, I thought at first I should begin with an account of where I\u2019m at\u2014a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Favourite words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Re-launching this column after some months\u2019 silence, I thought at first I should begin with an account of where I\u2019m at\u2014a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-25T18:29:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-25T18:51:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2024\/02\/sm_1708873739.451343.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Favourite words\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-25T18:29:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-25T18:51:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2024\/02\/sm_1708873739.451343.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"African\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/favourite-words\",\"name\":\"Favourite words - 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