A few days ago I discovered the existence of a zine section at the library, which led to
→ the discovery of thelalatheory.com’s cute little book, which led to
→ the discovery of some real delicious linguistics-related tidbits of knowledge
such as:
The need to express emotion →caused the creation of music →lead to the invention of language. It’s one of the the five theories of where language came from.
2. The words saudade in Portuguese, and kaiho in Finnish, have no direct translation in English. From the best Wikipedia article I’ve read:
Saudade was once described as “the love that remains” or “the love that stays” after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again.
3. The word niko in Japanese is onomatopoeic, and describes the ‘sound’ of smiling.
The thought of a smile having musical qualities makes me smile :)
Just chew over and digest these facts. That music is a universal language, that there are ranges of human experience English doesn’t cover, and other ranges that only the languages of math, or colour and shapes, or a look of the eyes can express. Filling thoughts :d
