At Starbucks the barista asks me .”How are you?” So, in graphic detail I explain all my ailments. I get a dazed stare. A vain effort to bring back hello. I feel the same when I am vainly commenting on the use of vulgar language in casual discourse and academic lectures. I am saying I do not enjoy nor condone bad language Dr. McWhorter.
The French "t" between two vowels, as in Il y a t'il has nothing to do with Latin second person singular, as in "amat." It is inserted just because "a" and "i" are hard to pronounce (for the French) when they occur together. The "t" just makes it easier to say. Italian does the same thing. As a musician you'll be familiar with the Italian word "adagio." That's really an Italian "words collide" -- "a agio" ("at ease" or "relaxed tempo." Italians are real good at pronouncing two vowels together (they have hardly any diphthongs) but even they want to insert a consonant between "a" and "agio."
I wonder if the new sense of "satisfying" you observe at the close might derive from its use in "a satisfying thud" or similar expressions.
That idea of when you observe an event that ends with a thump, crash, bang, or whatever that leaves you knowing it has concluded. Like the various forms of "ta-da" type endings in classical music that let you know the piece is done.
I guess in those senses it is the finality or resoluteness of the moment's events that are "satisfying."
I think the tonal "I don't know" is maybe a southern thing as you speculate. It's something I've used as long as I can remember, and I first grew up in Oklahoma. But I was an army brat from age eight on, so my linguistic habits are a pastiche. So I could have picked it up from other sources, too.
At Starbucks the barista asks me .”How are you?” So, in graphic detail I explain all my ailments. I get a dazed stare. A vain effort to bring back hello. I feel the same when I am vainly commenting on the use of vulgar language in casual discourse and academic lectures. I am saying I do not enjoy nor condone bad language Dr. McWhorter.
The French "t" between two vowels, as in Il y a t'il has nothing to do with Latin second person singular, as in "amat." It is inserted just because "a" and "i" are hard to pronounce (for the French) when they occur together. The "t" just makes it easier to say. Italian does the same thing. As a musician you'll be familiar with the Italian word "adagio." That's really an Italian "words collide" -- "a agio" ("at ease" or "relaxed tempo." Italians are real good at pronouncing two vowels together (they have hardly any diphthongs) but even they want to insert a consonant between "a" and "agio."
'How do send a congratulatory telegram to the Pacific Ocean.'
I wonder if the new sense of "satisfying" you observe at the close might derive from its use in "a satisfying thud" or similar expressions.
That idea of when you observe an event that ends with a thump, crash, bang, or whatever that leaves you knowing it has concluded. Like the various forms of "ta-da" type endings in classical music that let you know the piece is done.
I guess in those senses it is the finality or resoluteness of the moment's events that are "satisfying."
I think the tonal "I don't know" is maybe a southern thing as you speculate. It's something I've used as long as I can remember, and I first grew up in Oklahoma. But I was an army brat from age eight on, so my linguistic habits are a pastiche. So I could have picked it up from other sources, too.
Are there still bonus segments at the end for subscribers? How does one hear them?