I must back up to yesterday first. I was awakened by a tapping and fluttering against my window this morning. It was more of an odd sound ... on that will awaken you because you can't identify it. We found a female Cardinal busy flying into our back window...more fighting with it than actually flying into it. I guess she can see herself and is spending time trying to fight off this other bird.
This behavior has continued now for two days..stupid bird.
Today I want to reflect on our language. First, the sound of works. Consider pronunciation only here.
Since put <> putt and but = butt then how are put and but related...phonetically now. This was one of the tricks of the language I ran into this summer trying to teach English as a second language.
Now, we have heard may jokes and seen many Slavic or Polish words that have more consonants than they should for the number of vowels. Well, I found out today what they did with all the vowels. They gave them to Louisiana to use. It appears that the French influence creates many strings of vowels that can be tricky to pronounce. These include
Bayou (consider y a vowel here and consider that's one to four in this word).
Boeuf (a Bayou in Louisiana)
Houma (another town in Louisiana)
Thibodaux (they just had extras for the end of this one)
There are lots more in this part of the world. Everyone should visit at least once to see how many you can find.
I am reminded by the James Taylor song playing at the moment and I leave you with this to ponder: The secret to life is enjoying the passing of time. I hope everyone can find that enjoyment.
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.
