WRITERS INK Costa Blanca News’ weekly feature supporting local writers, in conjunction with Writers' Ink
WELCOME to our Writers’ Ink group’s weekly words. We provide news, views, tips and examples of writing by authors and poets, local and beyond.
Founded in 2010 by WordPlay, our purpose is to encourage writers to write and get them published and read. Keep writing!
Warm greetings!
Hope you all had a Happy Easter folks, and you had at least one Easter egg? I did, and to say it revealed a miniature rhinoceros in a bath (when assembled) says a lot! Shall we move on…?
Ever curious about languages, I did a little research recently. There are still frowns and arguments, of course, among the academics and professionals – but the general consensus is that Sumerian and Egyptian writing systems are the earliest, and are among the first recorded languages, dating around 3,200 BC. The oldest, still in use, is probably Chinese, appearing l500 BC, although ancient Greek appeared around the same time. The Tamil language dated back to 300 BC, but first appeared 2,500 BC.
Many may not know that Tamil is spoken by 78 million people, making it the longest surviving language in the world.
As for Sanskrit, India, only a small group of people still speak it. Even less known, the principles of Sanskrit is the basic language used in the development of computers.
Other outstanding facts. Chinese is the most spoken language, listing 1.2 billion speakers, originating in the Shang Dynasty, and Arabic is spoken by 290 million.
As mere babes, the evolution of spoken English didn’t begin until the 5th century.
Before I, and you…get bogged down by too many figures and facts…have you ever come across a ‘paraprosdokian’? They don’t bite but sound a bit formidable, don’t they? A paraprosdokian is a sentence or statement with an unexpected ending and not at all as ominous as it may seem. It means ‘against expectations’ in Greek, and the latter part of the sentence or phrase surprising or unexpected, frequently used in a humorous way. Here are a few examples:“I have the heart of a small boy - in a glass jar on my desk.” Stephen King
“When I was a kid, my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.” Rodney Dangerfield
Ex-husband…”He taught me housekeeping: when I divorce, I keep the house.” Zsa Zsa Gabor.
“Half of all marriages end in divorce – and then there are the really unhappy ones.” Joan Rivers,
“I always remember my grandfather’s last words: ‘A truck!’ “
Hope I’ve made you at least giggle? Have an enjoyable weekend. And take care!
Sincerely, Joy Lennick