The purpose of this blog is to create a bubble amid the babble at the Shabbat table.... Please print and share.
Have you ever tried to communicate in a foreign language with someone who didn't speak English?
How about with a baby?
What did it sound like?
"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba..."?
Open a dictionary of the English language and you may find a puzzling entry.
Go to the first page of the "B" section:
babble. 1. To utter a meaningless confusion of words or sounds....etc. [Origin unknown.]
babel. 1. A confusion of sounds, voices, or languages. 2. A scene of noise and confusion. [From Babel.]
Babel. A city (now thought to be Babylon) in Shinar where, according to the Book of Genesis, the construction of a heaven-reaching tower was interrupted by the confusion of tongues. [Hebrew Babhel, from Akkadian Bab-ilu, "gate of God".]
They've got it completely backwards.
"Babble" is onomatopoea. It means "baby talk", or any incomprehensible speech. "Babel" got its name from the babble that began there. "Babel" is a more metaphorical way of writing "babble".
Even though there were have been some languages that became widespread (Greek for a period, Latin for an interval, French had its season, and now English has had its run), there has never been a fully universal lingua franca. Yet now technologies like Google Translate are taking us closer and closer to the true end of babble envisioned by Kurt Vonnegut.
Question for your table: Do you think humanity ever have a single universal language? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Yes, that image is clickable.
To learn about other JSL projects, click here.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....{VR_SOCIAL_SHARING}
Have you ever tried to communicate in a foreign language with someone who didn't speak English?How about with a baby?
What did it sound like?
"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba..."?
Open a dictionary of the English language and you may find a puzzling entry.
Go to the first page of the "B" section:
babble. 1. To utter a meaningless confusion of words or sounds....etc. [Origin unknown.]
babel. 1. A confusion of sounds, voices, or languages. 2. A scene of noise and confusion. [From Babel.]
Babel. A city (now thought to be Babylon) in Shinar where, according to the Book of Genesis, the construction of a heaven-reaching tower was interrupted by the confusion of tongues. [Hebrew Babhel, from Akkadian Bab-ilu, "gate of God".]
They've got it completely backwards.
"Babble" is onomatopoea. It means "baby talk", or any incomprehensible speech. "Babel" got its name from the babble that began there. "Babel" is a more metaphorical way of writing "babble".
Even though there were have been some languages that became widespread (Greek for a period, Latin for an interval, French had its season, and now English has had its run), there has never been a fully universal lingua franca. Yet now technologies like Google Translate are taking us closer and closer to the true end of babble envisioned by Kurt Vonnegut.
Question for your table: Do you think humanity ever have a single universal language? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Yes, that image is clickable.
To learn about other JSL projects, click here.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....{VR_SOCIAL_SHARING}
1 comment:
This was a lovely bblog post
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