The Power of Silence

Once in a while its good to detoxify your body, by drinking juices and avoiding heavy food. It makes you feel lighter and of course healthier.🍹

But how do you detoxify the mind? – (this is not a health related article!😄)

To detoxify the mind – you practice *silence*. 🤫 It calms the mind like nothing else. It is said that Silence is more powerful than words. The power of silence is understood and well researched in the field of psychology.

And that brings us to today’s topic.

The silent letters in English words– why are they there if they do not matter, are they trying to tell us something by being silent or are they the mute spectators of the happenings in history?

Learners of English have to sometimes memorize them. But often the silent letters are hidden remnants of how the words passed through different languages on their way to English.

Also some of the silent letters (my theory) must be infact demarcating a few words from the others , for example ,
Be and Bee ; how would you have known but for the extra ‘e’, that it refers to the winged, honey making insect?🐝
Or in Queue, just the Q was sufficient, but maybe the train of letters after Q suggest to the sheer, frustrating length of the queue? 🚶🚶🚶
Or in ‘no‘ and ‘know‘, the extra ‘k’ and ‘w’ actually bring the negative no to the world of awareness!💡

But pronouncing psychology as ‘pa- sychology’ is no laughing matter! or for that matter, Honour as ‘ho- nour’, or know as kuh-no!😄

Let’s look into some of the common and some of the not so common words that deal with the extra responsibility of a silent letter.

*MNEMONIC*
: of or relating to or involving the practice of aiding the memory

Pronounced as : Ne-mo-nic

The word is from the Greek mnemonikos mraning “pertaining to memory.” The *mn* – consonant cluster proved too tricky and was simplified to an “n” sound.

*RECEIPT*
an acknowledgment (usually tangible) that payment has been made

Pronounced as : Re-seet

In the Anglo-French spoken by the Norman conquerors, the word was spelled receite. The spelling eventually changed in English to add a “p” (bringing it into line with the Latin root recepta), but the pronunciation stayed the same.
A few more words with a silent p: Psychology, psychiatry, psyche, pseudo, pneumonia.

*KNEAD*
manually manipulate clay, flour or body usually for creating, making dough or relaxation purposes

Pronounced as: Need

This comes from the Old English verb cnedan and Middle English kneden. But like other kn- words, including knight and know, the “k” went silent in Modern English
Here are a few words with a silent k at the start and a hard k later on: knock, knack, knapsack, knickers, knuckle

*MUSCLE*
animal tissue consisting predominantly of contractile cells

Pronounced as: Mus-sel

It comes from Latin musculus, literally meaning “little mouse,” but the “c” went silent when the word entered French.

Some more words with the silent ‘c’ are: miscellaneous, ascend, ascent/descent, fascinate, fluorescent, incandescent, obscene, scene, scenario, scented.

*PHLEGM*
expectorated matter; saliva mixed with discharges from the respiratory passages

Pronounced as : flem

The “g” sound was lost when Latin phlegma became Old French fleume. But the silent “g” still gets pronounced in variations on the word, such as phlegmatic, which means “showing little emotion.”

A few more examples of a silent ‘g’ are – gnome, benign, malign, design, reign, gnash, sign.

We don’t sound the hard ‘guh’ sound of the ‘g’ in these words, but its inclusion does give a slight lengthening of the vowel sound – for example, Foreign: ‘for-reyn’

The ‘silent’ g isn’t quite silent though ; if we didn’t pronounce the ‘g’ in ‘sign’ at all, this would be pronounced as ‘sin’. However, the ‘g’ lightens and elongates the vowel sound – to be pronounced ‘sigh-n’. This is true for all ‘ign’ words – imagine that the ‘ign’ sounds like ‘sigh’, (de-sigh-n; mal-ighn).

*SOLEMN*
dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises

Pronounced as: So-lem

As with phlegm above, the silent n in solemn gets pronounced in related words like solemnity.

*RENDEZVOUS*
a meeting planned at a certain time and place

Pronounced as : ron-day-vu

This is from the French phrase rendez vous, meaning “present yourselves.” Following the French pronunciation, both the “z” and “s” go silent.

*FAUX*
not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article

Pronounced as – Fo

In Old French, Latin falsus (false) became fals or faus, eventually leading to faux with a silent “x”

So we see that although these letters are silent, they do contribute to the meaning, pronunciation or at least to the historical value of the word. 🤫

Next time you come across a silent letter in a word, look at it with respect – it is saying a lot, without actually being heard!😊

Birthday Trivia

Aah…its Thursday! And for me it’s a happy Thursday for sure! Why? Well….My birthday has just gone and I had a really good time!🎉🎂

Right from childhood, almost everyone looks forward to birthdays. ( Although, nowadays the thought, that with every birthday, we are also inching towards being called elderly does pop its ugly head once in a while😕)As a child, I used to eagerly wait for my birthday, the new dress and the wonderful dishes my mom used to make. But the icing on the cake, quite literally, 😊 used to be the big beautiful cake my father used to bring for me, especially from Flurys, a popular cake shop at Park Street at Kolkata. The cake cutting was the special moment, right from blowing the candles, to singing the song, to eating and relishing every bite of that wonderful culinary delight! Even now when I go to Kolkata, I make it a point and gorge myself on the absolutely delicious and sinful pastries of the same shop!

The party, the balloons, the presents from friends and the various birthday games we used to play are some really cherished memories.
So, as I said my birthday just went by, and I got thinking on the various terms, phrases, activities that we associate with birthdays and use them quite robotically 🤖 without actually thinking for a bit about where and how they arose 🤔🧐.So today, lets look up some of those!☺️

# *HAPPY BIRTHDAY!* 🌟🎼🎹
A greeting to someone on their birthday.The birthday greeting song ‘Happy birthday to you,’ with the person’s name inserted in the third line after ‘Dear,’ was originally ‘Good Morning to All,’ written in 1893, with words by the American educator Patty Smith Hill and music by her sister, Mildred J. Hill. The present words by Clayton F. Summy were substituted in 1935.”Happy Birthday to You” is ranked as the world’s most frequently sung song as per the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’.

# *BIRTHDAY PARTIES*: 🎉🥳🎊
party to celebrate a birthday.
The tradition of birthday parties started in Europe a long time ago. It was feared that evil spirits were particularly attracted to people on their birthdays. To protect them from harm, friends and family would to come be with the birthday person and bring good thoughts and wishes. Giving gifts brought even more good cheer to ward off the evil spirits. This is how birthday parties began.At first it was only kings who were recognized as important enough to have a birthday celebrations. As time went by, children became included in birthday celebrations. The first children’s birthday parties occurred in Germany and were called Kinderfeste.

# *BIRTHDAY CAKE* : 🎂🎂🎂
Cake that is cut on a birthday.The birthday cake is only 200 years old! Cakes made from sweetened bread dough and coated with sugar, were the first birthday cakes and they originated in Germany.It has been said that if the cake falls while baking, (meaning doesn’t bake well) it is a sign of bad luck in the coming year. Coins, buttons, and rings were baked into cakes. The guest who receiving the slice with the coin was guaranteed riches in the future, the ring signified marriage.

# *BLOWING THE CANDLES ON THE CAKE* 🎂🎂🎂In ancient times, people prayed over the flames of an open fire. They believed that the smoke carried their thoughts up to the Gods. Today, it is believed, that if you blow out all your candles in one breath, your wish will come true. I guess candles give the required quantity of smoke to transfer messages to God. So, the older you become, the more smoke you can create and the faster your messages can get transferred! Talk about finding the silver lining! 😄

# *BIRTHDAY PRESENT* 🎁🎁🎁
A gift that you receive on your Birthday!🎁🎁🎁We can also call it a Gift. But there is an essential difference between present and gift.Gift comes from the old Germanic root for
“to give.” It referred to an act of giving, and then, to the thing being given.
Present comes from the French for “to present”.
A present is the *thing* presented or bestowed.
They were both in use for the idea of something undergoing a transfer of possession without expectation of payment from the 13th century onward.
Gift applies to a wider range of situations. Gifts can be talents. You can have the gift of gab, or a musical gift. Gifts can be intangibles. There is the gift of understanding or the gift of a peaceful day.

Gift is an attributive noun (acting like an adjective to modify another noun) – so a shop where you can buy birthday presents is called – A Gift Shop!We generally don’t use present for intangible things. Presents are more concrete. Something real, which you can hold in your hand – Now, at present! And so it is a ‘present’!😊🎁But essentially, they are both well matched synonyms.

Certain annoying actions like giving birthday bumps and smearing the face with cake have no historical value and are fast disappearing – the sooner the better! 👍🏻

Birthdays are to be cherished as moments of happiness and love. Birthdays celebrate birth. It is an expression of gratitude for being born and still being alive. A time to reflect, to introspect, to replan and surge ahead. But for children, it is *all* and *only* about celebrations! 🎊

I am really feeling nostalgic about my childhood birthday celebrations, aren’t you?
😊

So now that you have gone back in time, lets brush up some of our basics:-Ideally, today we do not have a vocab activity – only my write up. But since I missed conducting the activity last week – these are a few simple questions that I rustled up for you today. Think about the answers, Google them and stay updated:- 😊

Questions:

1. What is the plural of syllabus?

2. Both words originate from the latin word Princeps (meaning first person or chief) – give both the words.

3. What is that figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them?

4. What was the original meaning of the word Bully?

5. Which word meaning the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to till’?

6. What is a teacher, especially a strict, dull and formal one called?

Origin of the words ‘Quiz’ and ‘Clue’

Every Thursday I post an activity on Facebook and WhatsApp for Speak to Change Foundation which is essentially a Quiz. Quiz, as we know, is a game or competition in which you have to answer questions. But where and how did this word *QUIZ* originate?

One theory, is that it probably derives from the first question in the old grammar school Latin oral: *’Qui es?’* or, *’Who are you?’* 🤔

Another theory is actually a fine story which probably is not true, however much we want it to be!😊
Legend has it that in 1791, a Dublin (Ireland) theatre-owner made a bet that he could introduce a new word into the English language within a day or two (the amount of time differs in different tellings of the story), and that the people of Dublin would make up the meaning of the word themselves. So he wrote the nonsense word *“quiz”* on some pieces of paper and got a gang of street urchins to write it on walls across Dublin. The next day everyone was talking about it, and it wasn’t long before it became incorporated into everyday language, meaning a sort of *“test”*, because this is what the people thought the mysterious word was supposed to be.
Now the contradictions to this story;
The reference to the word ‘quiz’ appears at a time earlier than 1791 where it was used to refer to someone who is eccentric or odd (hence the word “quizzical”)
Also a yo-yo like toy by the name of ‘quiz’ was also quite popular during the 1790s. So the word does seem to exist before the date of the interesting story.

Since its quite difficult to find a compelling explanation for the origins of this word, we can happily believe that perhaps there is an element of truth in this excellent story after all.😊👍🏻

Another interesting origin of a word linked to my regular Quiz activity is *CLUE*. 🕵️
The word originates from Greek mythology. It comes from the word *clew*, meaning a *ball of yarn*. In Greek mythology, Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of yarn to help him find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Because of this, the word “clew” came to mean something that points the way.
Quite naturally, Theseus, unravelled the yarn behind him as he went into the maze, so that he could work his way back out in reverse. Thus the word “clew” can be understood in this context and in the context of a detective working his way backwards to solve a crime using “clues”. 🕵️🔎

(PS: Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king Minos. She fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus. She gave him a yarn of thread which helped him escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur, a beast, half bull and half man, that Minos kept in the Labyrinth.)😊

There will be *no* vocab quiz activity today. I’ll carry out the regular quiz activity in the next week.
In the meantime, a small trivia question for all of you…
*What is that very commonly used word which literally means ‘goat song’ in its language of origin?*🐐🎶
Try to find the word …and I will get back to you tomorrow morning with the answer.😊