Happy New Year!

Here's something to start the year.

If you are a word-nerd like me, who could have very well gone into studying languages rather than sciences* (only for my love for the genesis of words), here are some sites that are ultra-useful:

relatedwords.org

onelook.com/thesaurus

powerthesaurus.org

thesaurus.com 

etymonline.com

*I am terrible at speaking new languages, but reading and listening comprehension is good. I think that's due to the ability to trace the origin of things, asking the 'why' and the 'how' questions, as one has to do repeatedly in research. And so in the case of words, trying to trace the etymology of how they came to be, and why that combination of words to begin with. Actually, even before research came into life, this interest of tracing the genesis of words had already lit a spark. Our childhood games during dinner was when dad would ask us to guess meanings of very technical terms in Sanskrit/Hindi/Marathi/English, sometimes scientific terms, sometimes even genus and species names. And although it began as a game as a kid, there was this quick realisation that it's very useful to remember complicated scientific terms for exams.

Later, as I started research and teaching, it became quite clear that breaking down words is a very useful way of explaining complex terms to non-experts. It's also an interactive way of turning a word inside out, and quite fun. In fact, nothing compares with seeing the awe and comprehension on people's faces when you break down a lofty-looking unbreakable mass of alphabets, and say to them, don't worry, you sillies, it's just a compound word made of smaller words. It works even in case of commonly used big words, because unfortunately, no one taught us this skill in the school. Take the example of 'environment'. When you break it down, it becomes environment = en (in) + viron (turn/circle, from the verb veer) + ment (phenomenon) = the phenomenon of being enveloped. Doesn't that sounds almost magical? Okay, okay. Maybe not magical, but definitely interesting and revealing. Interesting enough to almost study the topic. Something that envelopes us needs to be studied, right?

The better part of this breaking down comes now. Closely related languages have common words. And many commonly used words in English actually come from French or Latin (or other languages), and so, it becomes that much easier to grasp those new languages if you were to be exposed to them suddenly the way I was. Reading French was made so much easier because it's crazy how many words it shares with English. And so, environment becomes environnement (but of course, pronounced differently than English). 

The best part, however, is this: many technical terms in science (and maybe other disciplines too) have been literally translated into Hindi (and maybe other Indo-Germanic languages too) (or who knows, maybe being from the same family of languages, the creation of words is independently similar in English and Hindi? Although this second explanation seems less likely to me). So environment = en+vironment+ment = परि (round/circle) + आवरण (envelope) = पर्यावरण . By the way, परि in Sanskrit/Hindi and Peri in Latin/English sound similar and mean the same, don't they? Well, turns out they are actually related. Check this out.

This is when the magic begins. You start wondering about the history and the geography and the movement of human beings as carriers of cultures and languages. You start wondering about who put the first string of alphabets together and how did it gain a critical mass to be understood and used; you start wondering whether languages be taught and learnt this way, and whether other subjects could be learnt this way; you start wondering is a common language a boon or a bane, and can having a diverse set of languages with diversity of rules around word formations and etymology reveal better ways of understanding, learning and communication? When you start asking such questions, a word doesn't just remain a word. It becomes a pearl that carries with it a secret from the past and, perhaps, a message for the future? A pearl of wisdom that's constantly moving and evolving and is a messenger of the history of time.

A very happy new year to you all!