http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8?fs=1<\/a>\nAfter watching it, my comment to the Ogre was that we can never really know what English sounds like to non-English speakers because this video (in which the only recognizable word is \u201calright\u201d) still sounds familiar. It sounds familiar because it retains the cadence of American English. At first, the Ogre disagreed and said that English must sound to foreigners exactly like any other foreign language sounds to us\u2026basically, like lyrical gibberish. I totally disagreed and told him to go watch the video, which he did. When he came back, he said that I was right, American English (and British English, to a lesser degree) have a unique cadence that is remarkably different from the cadences of other languages\u2026and not just the famously lyrical Romance languages. German, Polish, Greek, and Russian all have a lyrical quality to the foreign ear. (I\u2019m leaving the Oriental and African languages out because they are so completely other. I think Japanese sounds like someone repeatedly stuttering the letters K and T and I don\u2019t have enough experience with the African languages to make a judgment.) We tried to pinpoint exactly what kind of cadence English has. I insisted that it\u2019s not musical at all, it\u2019s heavy and nearly clumsy. Then the Ogre whipped out this really interesting passage from an article written by our old Latin professor, Dr. Karl Maurer, a brilliant and bizarre man.<\/p>\n
English meter is based on mere stress accents. As Robert Graves once said, in words that apply to both iambs and to alliterative Saxon verse, English has \u201cthe meter of the tugged oar and the marching footstep.\u201d It is thus a barbarous thing, compared with Greek meter; but it can get much closer to naked living speech. Only English can have a Shakespeare, a Frost, or a Hardy.<\/i><\/p>\n
I thought this was a wonderful way of putting it. English does have a barbarous sound, a sound of marching, drums, and the beating rhythm of the human heart. And it is precisely that rhythm which makes a master like Shakespeare possible; someone who can make the language sing, make it beautiful and lyrical, and then all at once cut through to the heart of us by writing lines so attuned to the innate cadence of the language that they seem to dispense with the need for words altogether. Although Shakespeare\u2019s histories were never my favorite, I still remember being fascinated by some lines in Henry IV, Part 1.<\/p>\n
The land is burning; Percy stands on high;<\/i>
\nand either we or they must lower lie.<\/i><\/p>\n
Words aside, it seemed to me that the rhythm of the words themselves bespoke Hal\u2019s desperation. Years after reading those words I remember them with absolute clarity, even if I had to hunt for their location (it\u2019s Act III, scene iii in case you\u2019re wondering). \u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n
After the Ogre left for work I kept thinking about language and the beauty of it. In the movie Donnie Darko<\/i>, Drew Barrymore\u2019s character talks about a famous linguist who once said that the most beautiful words in the English language are \u201ccellar door\u201d. (This checks out, according to the all-knowing Google.) That part has bothered me for years, because I do not think those words are beautiful. There are so many absolutely lovely combinations of words out there, and I\u2019ve always been annoyed at the choice of \u201ccellar door.\u201d What about \u201chalf-light,\u201d \u201cmidsummer\u2019s eve\u201d, \u201cdim crescent\u201d? All of those words are far more lovely and pleasing to the ear than \u201ccellar door.\u201d But perhaps it\u2019s not the sound of the words that I\u2019m hearing; perhaps it\u2019s the association behind them. Perhaps I can\u2019t get over the fact that when someone says \u201ccellar door\u201d what I think of is, well, a cellar door. Maybe I find \u201cmidsummer\u2019s eve\u201d beautiful because visions of Titania and Oberon reclining in a bed of moss\u00a0 springs into my mind when I hear those words. And really, isn\u2019t that what language is supposed to do?<\/p>\n
I hated reading critics like Richard Rorty in college. I despise it when people deconstruct language; when they try to separate sound from meaning, meaning from intention, intention from the author. All those deconstructionists ruin the very thing they are trying to understand. Poets choose their words carefully, with the utmost precision, because only those words said in that particular way can accurately convey what they mean. Language is mysterious and beautiful, and all the critics and philosophers in the world can never say anything more true, more beautiful, more penetrating and insightful than this:<\/p>\n
The dove descending breaks the air<\/i>
\nwith flames of incandescent terror<\/i>
\n of which the tongues declare<\/i>
\nthe one discharge from sin and error.<\/i>
\nThe only hope, or else despair<\/i>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-<\/i>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To be redeemed from fire by fire. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Disclaimer: This is a bit of a departure from my usual subject matter, but after all I can\u2019t spend all my time considering the opportunities for grace one finds in a dirty diaper. A while ago, Simcha put up a very interesting post about what English sounds like to non-English speakers. Even if you don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[202,178],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-language","tag-literature"],"yoast_head":"\n
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