Tongues and Tongues: Favorite Words 2: place names

Monday, April 13, 2015

Favorite Words 2: place names

I don't know if these are good places, but these are good words. It's easy to think that someplace named so well must be worth visiting. The words open up grand landscapes, each with its own echoes and imaginable, if hazy, history.

Zimbabwe
Kyzyl-Kym
Zanzibar
Coquitlam
Tegucigalpa

If you based your travel plans solely on the sounds of the place names, where would you go?

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The What and the Why

This blog explores language-related themes and topics from a common-sense, science-friendly (but not always explicitly scientific), descriptivist perspective. (What is language, how does it work, and how do we work it?) I'm not interested in a prescriptivist approach to language, one that deals in thou shalt nots or worships arbitrary standards of linguistic "purity." Language belongs to us all, not just to the self-appointed experts, the prigs, and the taste-makers. Language is far richer and languages far more admirable than the finger waggers know.

The Who

I love words, Language (as a symbolic system and a universal human faculty), and languages. I've studied plenty of languages, some dutifully, some less so: Russian, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Old English, Finnish, Sanskrit, and Korean. I have two degrees in linguistics: a Bachelor's (1988) and a Master's (1997). I was a nonfiction book editor for 11 years, and currently I edit fiction. I've been a volunteer tutor of English language learners and GED students. I write (mostly) kids books for hire, and sometimes I work on my own fiction writing.

I believe that Language is the ultimate expression of the innate human genius and that languages are our most miraculous and useful cultural inventions.