LOVE OF THE LANGUAGE. ENGLISH AND LOVE OF THE LANGUAGES. SPANISH FRENCH AND PORTUGUESE

I  am a traveller, so it is only natural that I hear various languages in my travels, some common, some uncommon and some rare.
The most common languages for me are English and Spanish. The uncommon languages are the indigenous languages, some with few thousands speakers such as Ticuna in the Amazon or Kickapoo spoken by the tribal members in Nacimiento in Coahuila, Mexico and Eagle Pass, Texas, USA.
I regularly read two writers, one a Czech linguist, Jakub Marian, who is multilingual and Anu Garg an American of Indian origin whose English is erudite and a pleasure to read.
As an anthropologist, the spread of the language also gives me help about understanding of the languages and cultures.

I have fun asking people of Cochin whose language is Malayalam which is a Dravidian language about the origin of the Hindu holy language Sanskrit. Many of them do not know.
Sanskrit traces its linguistic ancestry to Proto-Indo-Iranian and ultimately to Proto-Indo-European languages, meaning that it can be traced historically back to the people who spoke Indo-Iranian, also called the Aryan languages, as well as the Indo-European languages, a family of several hundred related languages and dialects. Today, an estimated 46% of humans speak some form of Indo-European language. The most widely-spoken Indo-European languages are English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, each with over 100 million speakers.

Sanskrit manuscript on a palm leaf. 11th Century, possibly from Nepal.

Jakub Kurians map

The origin of the word I from the original PROTO INDO EUROPEAN to the multitudes of languages in Eurasia.

He has many maps and I like to peruse through them now and them, such as what percentages of people can hold a conversation in French in various EU countries (a minority, except of course Francophone EU countries: can you name them ?)

Anu Garg the Wordsmith.

He is an Indian who came to the USA to study and then stayed to become an American citizen. His columns on English language are sheer pleasure and at the same time, his moderated comments reveals the gentle, liberal, educated side of the american public (rather than the "normal" vitriolic, illogical comments in the websites from the USA)

I was visiting a childhood (australian) friend friend of mine in Kuala Trengganu in Malaysia who then introduced me to the daily column that Anu Garg writes. Each week he chooses a theme for 5 words and he would explain in his well researched, logical and somewhat humorous manner and include a thought for the day.

he said :

For as long as I can recall, I enjoyed reading. I literally read books from cover to cover. Then I started wondering where words come from. Who made them up? Who said that that opening in a wall was to be called a window? Then I discovered that each word comes with a biography. These words have fascinating stories to tell, if only we take the time to listen. For example, the word window comes from Old Norse in which it meant wind's eye. How much more poetic can you get?

• Balakrishnan, Suneetha (23 March 2013), "Word Hungry", The Hindu

A large vocabulary is like an artist having a big palette of colours. We don't have to use all the colours in a single painting, but it helps to be able to find just the right shade when we need it.

Each morning actually a few minutes past midnight Miami time and as such early in the morning in Europe and 12 hours later in Malaysia (when I am travelling) I would promptly received, Monday to Friday, Anu's explanation of the word of the day.

Let me find a good example for you 

whicker

PRONUNCIATION:

(HWIK-uhr, WIK-) 

MEANING:

verb intr.:
1. To neigh.
2. To laugh in a half-suppressed manner.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1656.

USAGE:

“She whickered, that soft, chortlelike noise that passed for a laugh among her people.”
Steve Perry; The Vastalimi Gambit; Penguin; 2013.

See more usage examples of whicker in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I and the public know / What all schoolchildren learn, / Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return. -W.H. Auden, poet (21 Feb 1907-1973)

Doctors and Words

I read Medicine in London and later on went back to study Anthropology. I remember so many of my teachers of Medicine so eloquent in their manner of speaking.

As students we were allowed to attend the clinical rounds at the Queen Square Neurological Institute and I remember with great pleasure professors presenting and talking about the neurological diseases in a manner befitting of west end theatre actors. 

Before they discuss the case under scrutiny they would delve into the history of the disease. (rather dramatically, I remember the professor talking about a distant cousin of Queen Victoria who kept a meticulous diary, describing: This morning I woke up and I could not see out of one of my eyes.. thus he closes the original diary in his hand and says: first ever description of Multiple Sclerosis, even though THAT frenchman Charcot gave it the name la sclerose en plaques!

I loved being a student in London, England. Thank you. and to this day I say:

quoting Samuel Johnson

If you are tired of London, you are tired of life..