Thursday, February 23, 2006

Language - Alphabet neutrality

When I think about the English language, I feel the inventors were partial to some alphabets as opposed to others. I think of words starting from the letter 'E' and the words that pour into my mind include, euphoric, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exhilaration, exultation, extraordinary, exuberant, exemplary, elegant, eloquent and so on. I think of the letter 'D' and many negative words come to mind - depression, despair, disgrace, disappointment, dysphoria, dejection, desolation, desperation, despondency, disconsolation, discouragement, dispiritedness, distress, dolefulness, dullness, declivity, decrease, descent, dip, downslide, downswing, downtrend, downturn, and many more. I think of 'C', and the words that come to my mind include Creativity, compassion, courage, compelling, commitment, confidence, charisma, clever, competitive - all have a positive connotation. Think about 'N' - nuisance, nonsense, negative, nasty, nazi.

I wonder whether the creators really intended for this bias to the different letters positive and negative or is it a coincidence? Or better still, it is it the case of "The eye sees what the mind wants it to see"? I would favor the last reason.

3 comments:

nourish-n-cherish said...

Wow....bumblebee, I really admire your thought process. Though, I am inclined to agree with your point of seeing what the mind wants to see. Because a moment to think of the opposite connotations immediately throws:

eclectic,egoistic, egomaniacal, embarrassed for 'E'
And delight, dessert (sweet thinking?!), divine for 'D'

But...once again, good thought process!

Suresh Sankaralingam said...

Thats an interesting one... My simple vocabulary base makes me to think of E for elephant, D for dog and C for cat...:)

I think there is a reason behind a lot of things that we take for granted or follow unconsciously. For example, we smile with an "eee", so most words in usage that denotes happiness probably starts with the letter "e"...(doesnt work for d or c though..) Cross correlating with other languages might be an interesting exercise as well. For example "Inbam" (starts with tamil 'e') denotes happiness. Similarly, "Ichai", "Iniya", "Ishtam", "Iyalbu", "Eedupadu", "Inippu", etc., are all positive...Though it doesnt start with 'd', the following tamil words stressing 'd' is used for negative connotations like, "vada", "poda", "vadee", "dhandam", "mundam", etc., My $0.01 worth...

Survivor said...

Interesting observations..