The Languaging Process

with a glossary of chatty words

By languaging we constitute our worlds, our sound-stupas.

〰 Alton L. Becker 〰

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The Grandmother Sits Crying in the Chinese Garden

Language is the source of misunderstandings.

〰 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 〰

In the final months of WWII, Michael Ende, author of The Neverending Story and several other famous fantasy novels, receives his conscription order to join the Wehrmacht (= literally Defense Power, name of the Nazi German army). He is 15 years old. Three of his classmates are killed on the day of being dispatched to the frontline.

Fifteen-year-old Michael rips up the letter and defects. On his way to Munich he passes German soldiers hanging on trees by the roadside — the punishment for desertion. He joins a Bavarian resistance group and becomes a messenger.

Carrying out instructions without being privy to the subject matter is part of the assignment. One day he knocks on he door of an apartment on the sixth floor of a block of flats.

“The grandmother sits crying in the Chinese garden,” Michael informs the stranger who opens the door.

Although spoken in German, Michael’s mother tongue, he delivers the message without a clue what he’s saying. Strangely, the recipient of the information understands. He seems pleased with the news and offers him a drink.

The language used in this statement doesn’t make any sense, unless you are a member of the Bavarian resistance group and initiated in the secret. Under the circumstances, using a code language is essential to protect individuals, the group, and the mission of the project.

The strange message was delivered in a language known as argot ~ a special jargon enabling members of a group to secretly communicate in common words with encrypted meanings.

It is not unusual for groups ~ linked by profession or age or insider knowledge ~ to have their own special jargon. Legalese, teen slang, corporate speak, computer jargon are familiar examples.

In a way, every language is a special code, understood only by initiates ~ or kindred spirits. Different languages use the exact same words to mean different things, or the meaning of a word gets flipped on its head over time.

Take for example the word |gift| — meaning present in English and poison in German.

Or the word |wicked| — evil in fairy tales and other contexts until the early 20th century and used in the sense of wonderful since the 1920s.

Or the word |nice| — meaning ignorant, stupid in 13 c. and shifting into agreeable, friendly by mid 18th c.

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In the Beginning was Palaver,

or was it?

Words are chamaeleons,

which reflect the colour of their environment.

〰 Learned Hand 〰

Etymology is a kind of archeology specialising in words and language. Thanks to the work of etymologists we know roughly when certain words appeared in the English language, as far as they can be tracked down in written records.

Here is a list of words related to spoken language:

before 12th century

speak [from Old English sprecan, specan] Old High German sprehhan to speak, Greek spharageisthai to crackle. (v) to say something; (n) manner of speaking, language.

say [from Old English secgan] Old High German sagēn to say.(v) to utter words, speak; (n) an opportunity for stating one’s opinion.

tell [from Old English tellan] Old High German zellen to count, tell. (v) to communicate something, reveal; (n) an unconscious action that is thought to betray an attempted deception. tale (related noun) story, something told.

from 1200 onwards

loquacity [from Latin loquacitas = talkativeness] c. 1200 ~ the Old English word for it was ofersprecolnes (= overspeakingness)

sermon [from Latin sermo = continued speech, conversation; common talk, rumor; learned talk, discourse; manner of speaking, literary style] c. 1200 ~ discourse upon a text of scripture; that which is preached.

talk [from Old English talken] c. 1200 ~ (v) to speak, say something, communicate information. Late 14 c. (n) speech, discourse, conversation.

parable [from Old French parable = parabolic style in writing] late 13 c. ~ saying or story in which something is expressed in terms of something else.

language [from Latin lingua = tongue; speech, language] 14 c. ~ words, conversation, talk, common way of speaking.

utter [cognate with German äussern = to express outwards] around 14 c. ~ to speak, say in public.

jargon [from French jargon = chattering, twittering of birds] mid 14 c. ~ originally idle talk, secret language of thieves, aka ‘Thieves Latin’. Since 1650s terminology of any professional group.

glossary [from Greek glossarion = obsolete or foreign word] mid 14 c. ~ collection of glosses (words inserted as explanation)

eloquence [from Latin eloqui = to speak out] late 14 c. ~ “Eloquence is a word which has been made the expression for the highest power of speech in producing the effect desired, especially if the desire be to move the feelings or the will. Many efforts have been made to define eloquence, some regarding it as a gift and some as an art. "It is a gift of the soul, which makes us masters of the minds and hearts of others.” (La Bruyère.) [Century Dictionary]

murmur [Sanskrit murmurah = crackling fire; Greek mormyrein = to roar, boil] late 14 c. ~ to make a low continuous noise; grumble, complain.

whisper [Old English hwisprian = to speak very softly] late 14 c. ~ to speak with devocalised breath.

analogy [from Greek analogia = correspondence, proportion] early 15 c. ~ a style of speech, way of speaking. A Greek mathematical term given a wider sense by Plato; ‘partial agreement, likeness or proportion between things’ from 1540s. In logic, ‘an argument from the similarity of things in some ways inferring their similarity in others,’ c. 1600.

locution [from Latin locutio = a speaking, speech, discourse] early 15 c. ~ a styles of speech, way of speaking.

chat [short form of chatter = sound of birds] mid 15 c. ~ idle talk, babble; 1570s informal conversation, idle small talk; from late 1960s chat show used in the sense of talk show; from late 1980s chat room used in the sense of real-time online discussion group.

colloquy [from Latin com = together + loqui] mid 15 c. ~ conversation, speaking together.

metaphor [from Greek metaphora = transfer] late 15 c. ~ ‘figure of speech by which a characteristic of one object is assigned to another, different but resembling it or analogous to it; comparison by transference of a descriptive word or phrase.’

dictionary [from Latin dictionarium = collection of words and phrases] 1520s ~ “A book containing either all or the principal words of a language, or words of one or more specified classes, arranged in a stated order, usually alphabetical, with definitions or explanations of their meanings and other information concerning them, expressed either in the same or in another language” [Century Dictionary]

tongue [Old English tunge = tongue, organ of taste] since 1520s ~ used in the sense of spoken language, esp. the sudden ability to speak in a foreign language.

interlocution [from Latin interloqui = to speak between, interrupt] 1530s ~ interchange of speech, dialogue, action of talking and replying.

vocabulary [from Latin vocabularium = list of words] 1530s ~ a list, with brief definitions or explanation, of words.

diction [from Latin dictio = word] 1540s ~ a saying, expression, way of speaking.

gibberish 1550s ~ ‘rapid and inarticulate speech; talk in no known language.’

discourse [from Latin discursus = running about] from 1550s ~ verbal interchange of ideas, formal discussion of a subject.

parlance [from Old French parlance = speaking, speech] 1570s ~ debate; 1787 ~ way of speaking, manner of expression.

dialect [from Greek dia = across + legein = to speak] originally talk, conversation, speech, the language of a country. English from 1570s ~ language, speech, mode of speech, esp. form of speech of a region or group, idiom of a locality or class.

ventriloquy [from Latin ventris = belly + loqui] 1580s ~ speaking in a manner that the voice appears to come from a another object. Originally not an entertainer's trick but a rumbling sort of internal speech, regarded as a sign of spiritual inspiration or demonic possession.

idiom [from Greek idiōma = peculiarity] 1580s ~ form of speech peculiar to a people or place.

vernacular [from Latin verna = slave] c. 1600 ~ language of a family or tribe, native spoken language rather than literary.

lexicon [from Greek lexis = word, phrase] 1600 ~ a book of words.

soliloquy [from Latin solus = alone + loqui] c. 1600 ~ talking to oneself.

parole [from French parole = word, speech] 1610s ~ a spoken word, word of honour, esp. promise by a prisoner of war not to escape if allowed to go about at liberty, or not to take up arms again if allowed to return home; 1908 ~ conditional release of a prisoner before full term.

vaniloquence [from Latin vanus = empty + loqui] 1620s ~ idle talk.

palaver [from Portuguese palavra = word, speech, talk] 1733 ~ a long talk, a conference, a tedious discussion; 1748 ~ idle profuse talk.

slang [from Scandinavian slanger = to linger, move slowly; Old Norse slangi = tramp; Northern England slang = a narrow piece of land running up between other and larger divisions of ground] 1756 ~ special vocabulary of tramps or thieves, from 1801 jargon of a particular profession; by 1818 informal language.

»[Slang] is a dialectal word that reached London from the north and for a long time retained the traces of its low origin. The route was from "territory; turf" to "those who advertise and sell their wares on such a territory," to "the patter used in advertising the wares," and to "vulgar language" (later to ‘any colorful, informal way of expression’).« Anatoly Liberman

terminology [from Latin terminus = word, expression] 1770s ~ system of terms used collectively in a science or subject, adopted from German Terminologie, coined by Christian Gottfried Schütz (1747-1832), professor of poetry and rhetoric at Jena.

gab [from Scottish gabben = scoff, jeer; Old Norse gabben = mock, ridicule] 1786 ~ talk much; rapid and thoughtless talking. Now mainly used in the expression gift of the gab (= the ability to speak with eloquence and fluency).

(secret) code [from Latin caudex = book, originally tree trunk] 1808 ~ system of signals or symbols to be used as a secret language. Used in the sense of computer code since 1946.

argot [from French argot = group of beggars] 1825 ~ originally the secret language of beggars, rogues and thieves, a special jargon for purposes of disguise and concealment.

somniloqui [from Latin somni = sleep + loqui] 1847 ~ sleep-talking.

jabberwocky [neologism invented by Lewis Carroll as a language for a beast called Jabberwock] 1871 ~ nonsense language

gobbledygook 1940s ~ spoken words that make no sense, gibberish.

newspeak [neologism] 1949 ~ propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings, ‘designed to diminish the range of thought.’ Term coined by George Orwell in his dystopian novel 1984.

languaging [neologism] coined by Alton Lewis Becker in 1985 ~ the process of language.

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Languaging as a Sound-Stupa

The recovery of our own silence can begin

to teach us the language of heaven.

〰 Meister Eckhart 〰

According to the School of Communication and Culture at the University of Arhuus, Denmark, “Language is the key that opens the door to knowledge and education.”

Six core functions of language, in general conventional Western interpretation, are:

1 ~ communication

2 ~ transfer of information

3 ~ social collaboration and coordination

4 ~ cultural transmission

5 ~ developing cognitive skills

6 ~ facilitating education and training of professional skills

What if communication is not limited to language as a tool, medium and techniques, vocabulary, grammar, ways of expression, and the enviable gift of the gab?

What if language is a poietic, self-regenerating current ~ a stream of words and meanings, sayings and silences ~ springing from a cryptic source and flowing into a seascape where lingua franca mixes with countless lingos, vernaculars, jargons, dialects, oral traditions and cultures?

In his collection of essays Beyond Translation (published 1995) American linguist Alton L. Becker introduces the word languaging to highlight the process of language. This is a stunning divergence from familiar definitions by linguists, and pretty much anyone who thinks about language in Western culture in an anthropocentric way.

After all, the word-scapes built by speaking ~ capturing thoughts in phrases, explanations, statements, opinions, or questions ~ more often than not have a clear purpose: to communicate bits of factual, mental or emotional information or news among fellow humans.

In Western (anthropocentric) understanding, language is used as a resource. This concept justifies the exploitation of language as a tool to manipulate whole generations of people. It conceals the fact that language is a commons, a precious renewable resource free for all to use.

The concept of languaging as a process is an opportunity to sustain and nurture our language. Anyone can contribute to the renewal of this precious river of words and linguistic structures, which helps to defend it against pollution and abuse.

Becker came to his conclusion through studying, teaching, and translating Asian languages. “Over the duration of the three years I spent in Burma, Burmese emerged for me slowly and in fragments,” he writes in his introduction to Beyond Translation.

“The best simile I know for that experience of learning a very distant language in situ is that it is like watching a clearer and clearer picture gradually emerge while a photograph develops in a chemical bath.”

Becker compares the languaging process to a sound-stupa. Stupas are burial mounds revered in Buddhism as places of worship, representing cosmic order and the sacred path to enlightenment.

Through metaphorical use of the word stupa, he reminds us that language is a construct, where humans forever form new structures from old building blocks (› words + phrases) in a continuous effort to gain deeper, higher, more enlightened understanding of the world and ourselves.

Whether we speak an exotic language, or in our native tongue, we are forever translating between different forms of expression or cognitive phenomena ~ translating feeling into imagining, believing into selective perceiving, thinking into wording.

When reducing the spoken medium known as language to a defined number of words and rules, we tend to forget the silences which make speech and communication possible ~ as Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset reminds us, “the stupendous reality that is language cannot be understood unless we begin by observing that speech consists above all in silences.”

Coda: The recent post by

Kimberly Warner

In defense of nothing to say has been a source of inspiration for this wordcast, from the opening statement:

“It’s not that I don’t want to speak. It’s that words don’t always arrive where the meaning lives.”

› to its thrilling finish with the sublime insight:

“She isn’t becoming silent. She is becoming love.”