Languages and Words

I love languages and words and how they can spark thoughts. As I was publishing yesterday’s post, a song came into my head. I could only remember ‘Meat, nor drink, nor money have I none, yet I will be happy, heigh ho, nobody home, nobody home’.
Strange, eh? Sounds very sad, yet I wasn’t.
We used to sing it in Scouts, which I left at fourteen, forty-seven years ago, and I don’t think I’ve thought of it since. Am I entering my second childhood?

∞

I was thinking about that refrain I told you about the other day, the one they sing to baby girls, ‘Ting Noi’. I often think about words and languages and how they interrelate, I find it fascinating, and with a deep knowledge of seven, plus Thai, I can usually see come connection fictitious or not between the languages I have studied.
Anyway, we have a word ‘tingaling’. ‘Ling’ is a German suffix meaning ‘small’ or ‘that which it is dear to you’ – like darling (dearling) or gosling. Right, sometimes the two words are not easy to say, so they are adjusted, as in ‘darling’. Try saying ‘tingling’ ten times quickly and what do you get? Tingaling!
‘Noi’ in Thai means small, therefore, I suggest, ting noi means tingaling.
I don’t know all the meanings for Thai ting, except that it is not the same as the Jamaican, but ‘ting tong’ means crazy. ‘The bells, the bells!”
Oh, and ling in Thai means monkey, so ‘baan ling’ – the monkey house – is slang for prison.

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I received a couple more stories of ‘Asian Shorts’ today, so that has made some progress, which I always like to see. It is now standing at 35% finished, but I expect that to jump to 50%+ on the weekend.
Fingers crossed!

∞

We have a full house again all of a sudden – son, daughter and granddaughter – for some reason, but don’t ask me why. I guess Neem either forgot to mention it (again) or didn’t think it was worth mentioning.
It happens often. Daily…
All the best,

+Owen Jones

PS:
Which is more useful?
The working class saying: ‘Know what I mean?’ after they’ve said something
or the middle class saying: ‘I mean…’ before they’ve said anything?
Listen how often it occurs 🙂 – hilarious
Despite their better education!
What is now making me think of pork?

Podcast: Languages and Words