"Gaaldhi gauldhi gaaldhi gauldhi gaaldhi gauldhi....", went 3year old Sivakumar a.k.a Gopi, peering into a book open on his lap, copying his elder siblings who were booklovers all. Gopi hadn't yet learnt the alphabet,but he so wanted to read just like the others. Gopi's gibberish was a preamble to the gift of the gab that he achieved later. Now in his 80's, Gopimamma or Gopes to us nephews and nieces has a colourful vocabulary which would require a separate post to explore.
Succeeding generations have inherited the vibrant lexical competence. I have a cousin who as an infant made a new language with grammar, lexical sense et al. Each of her sentences ended with a 'la la' refrain. Here's a sample:
Babootamma boo tata lala
Ammu Angi opi lala .
The meaning:
Babootamma = Babu's mother
boo = train
tata = go
Ammu = (a proper noun referring to her)self
Angi = Babu's baby bro ( his gurgling sounded like 'annnggggi')
opi = carry
In short; Babu's mom go in a train, I shall take care of the baby.
No wonder that she later became a University topper and now rubs shoulders with the acronym worthy.
Another cousin in infancy was the epitome of innocence, with his deep dimples and soft, quiet ways. When he began school he got along well with his teacher, Miss Martin. He kept asking her if she had a kangutty. She finally asked him what it was. Murali offered to show her and proceeded to pull down his shorts to enlighten Miss Martin. The fellow had invented the word. And now it is a er- family heirloom(?)As for Miss Martin, I'm sure she remembered Murali to her dying day. Today he has 2 brats of his own.
When all my cousins and I went to schools from the same house, there were many secrets to share. We were then adept at using the 'p' language- wepee weper apadepept apat upusiping thepe lapanguapage. This enraged the adults naturally. Another habit which I use even now is anglicising by adding a 'fy' to vernacular, like edukkafy, kulikkafy, koluthafy.
I suppose every family has lexical heritage of its own. But will such histories be made in future?
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9 comments:
It's always nice to have a language of your own. If nothing else then for commenting about people around you :P. Mallu can never work for that purpose because pretty much everyone knows some mallu or knows a mallu to translate or is mallu :P
I should start one and add to the legacy eh?
Yes, it is.
As for starting one of your own, Wapai nopot?
Inteperisting... An idea to drive people nuts!!!!
Ay Jay
correction- ipinteperepestiping. u should add a p after each syllable. so the fewer the syllables, the easier :)
Oopsie, my bad. And yet the thought comes to mind "Bwahahahahahahahahahahhahahaah!"
Bwahahahhahaha
It took a while to get the joke.
Ahoi! Carumba!
ahoi!!! 3 cheers!!!
Hi Babootta
Hip Hip Hurray x 3 :)
Thank you for reading.
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