Alphabetti….Spaghetti

I have always loved words…imagine my delight when the pasta treat in the featured photograph was released onto the market…

I was quite ill, on and off, when I was a little girl so I couldn’t really rush about like your average toddler. I had asthma, and the treatment for it, in the seventies, when I was growing up, was somewhat … hit and miss.

Television programmes were limited so consequently, in order to give me something to do that didn’t involve buzzing about like a fly in a jar, my mother thought it would be a good idea to teach me to read early.

I don’t remember the actual process, but I do remember looking at a comic and suddenly I could see what the characters were talking about and hear their voices! It was literally as if my mother had handed me the key to a magic kingdom that unlocked wonderful worlds of talking animals, little girls like me, adventures and – well, you get the idea.

I read voraciously – and still do, actually, devouring these wonderful worlds and untold universes created by talented authors…I gain a lot of pleasure from owning books as well, although I have a Kindle too.

But also…words are tools. Words are ingredients. I love whipping up ideas into something readable, humorous or informative and I love the trickery of words… alliteration is a favourite, if you hadn’t already guessed, onomatopoeia, ellipses, similes, metaphors … I could go on and on… a whole host of word bricks that can be used to build something wonderful.

And as you build, so you can take apart… “Etymology” is the study of words, something I enjoy, finding the links between languages that point to a simpler time when we were all part of a common culture.

For example: “pitar” is Pali for “father” – Pali being an ancient Indian language, but look! “Pater” – Latin for “father”, “pere” is French, “padre” Spanish. All these different countries linked by some wonderful word roots! Another interpretation of the World Wide Web, perhaps …

I was fortunate enough to learn Latin at school; that opened another door of understanding, as I like to take words apart for their meaning… rather like extracting a nut from its shell…

Anything ending in “ology” means the “the study of”, anything with “Bio” means “Life”… hence the Study of Life. Just a little example, but once you have the key then it is something you can always notice and have fun with…

Words are good. Words are tools but can also be used as weapons. Use them wisely and kindly, and as my old headmistress used to say:

“If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all…”

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