Life, Interrupted

As a child, I loved the dictionary. They didn't teach phonics in my school--it was a different period of teaching experimentation--so I was constantly trying to figure out from the dictionary how words were pronounced. And I kept seeing Proto-Indo-European as a root language.

Who were they? How did it sound? Did anyone still speak it?

There are anthropologists still trying to answer those questions. Here's the latest stab at the language.

Slate has started a three-part series about the history (ancient history, to be precise) of various forms of punctuation and typographical marks. It talks about the origin, in a motley way, of the period, colon, and comma. Once you see how text was originally recorded (for reading aloud--people did not read silently) you will be SO grateful for punctuation!

The so-called intermediate (·), subordinate (.), and full (˙) dots, signaling short, medium, and long pauses respectively, were placed after corresponding rhetorical units called the komma, kolon, and periodos. Though it took centuries for these marks of punctuation to crystallize into the familiar visual forms we know today, their modern names are not so far removed: "comma," "colon," and "period."

This series is taken from the book Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks which I will be watching for at my local library!

Is there a word for the concept of Last Child? This is in a enclave on one of the Seven Sisters. Population growth is encouraged, but only to a point -- any child who is the fifth child in a family is "Extra" and does not have the same rights as the others. They can emigrate, join a trading outfit for ten years and return home solvent and as an immigrant, or join the military (when the country is at war, you have a 30% chance of making it back in one piece.)

So -- this concept may or may not be a pejorative, as these are family members. But they don't have the same destiny, and are rarely moved up in pecking order if someone dies, as health care is excellent.

Ack, I have an appt! Later --

Here's the story of English in ten easy lessons, nay, in ten minutes! I'm up to three -- break up your day and learn a few things!