Khalil Gibran once said that people will never understand one another unless language is reduced to seven words. What would your seven words be?
Photographers, artists, poets: show us SEVEN.
So let’s talk about Seven. The photo shows the path to the part of the village where I live and in the background is the ever present first chain of the Jura Mountains. There are altogether seven chains, beginning at the northern edge of the middle land in Switzerland. If you climb the first chain you arrive in a valley and then appears the second chain and so on over seven mountain ridges until you arrive in the flat lands again. From my area you would be reach Basel if the Jura was not in between, which is also on the border to France and Germany, so imagine that language mixture which bring us to the subject of the blog.
Naturally, being an ignorant infidel, I had never heard of Khalil Gibran. Not wanting to be left out I had a quick look up. It seems he died somewhere in the middle of the 20th century, being born in the 19th so we never had the chance to meet. I had a glance through his works and discovered it is probably not my sort of thing, although I would not say that his books are not interesting. He seemed to have a few quotes in stock with sense behind them, but reducing language to seven words is rather extreme.
I noticed some of my blogging colleagues mention George Carlin. Basically I do not know this person so well although the name rings a bell. I discovered he is a comedian and even found seven valuable words to use, although more for using when angry, injured or annoyed, so-called swear words. I also have a few in my vocabulary, even in two languages: English and Swiss German. Believe me Swiss German have more than seven and some can be quite colourful.
I am now not going to bore you with my choice of seven words to replace the many others in our language, but I gave this problem a thought and decided to base my research on the process of elimination.
Who needs definite and indefinite articles, they are superfluous (so is that last word). The Russians never even have them in their language. Do we really need adjectives? They can become the words of insult, so let us cancel them. If you happen to be speaking or leaning one of those languages where you have case forms, then adjectives complicate everything. You have to conjugate them. There we can be thankful that the case forms in English have either disappeared or no longer play an important part. Now if you are speaking Latin (no wonder it is a dead language today), German or Russian, you will never get the hang of it. You can learn it, but when speaking time is lost by exploring which word to use in the correct version and I definitely dislike losing time when speaking, it is a waste of time and energy.
You want to speak arabic, then you have a problem. They even have sun and moon letters and slip the word for “and” (wa) in between each word in a list. Yes, they have very long lists – bread and butter and tea and fruit and jam and and and etc. We have now reduced the use of adjectives and articles. Prepositions can also be a means of complication. Some need the dative case, some the accusative and some another case belonging to some other language. One way or the other who needs them, so just eliminate them.
Nouns? Why not, just point at the object you mean. The object is not present? Then do not use it. Do we really want to talk about things we cannot see? Just save it for a time when we are there and can point to it.
We have verbs describing an action. Does it really interest anyone what you are doing, thinking or saying. Your actions are clear to be seen, so why use a verbal description?
Basically I think I have just eliminated language as such. There is not very much left, except for the swear words, so perhaps George Carlin is right.
Personally I think this Khalil whatshisname missed the point somewhere. Reduce my language to seven words? What a boring life. I love talking, having a conversation, I even talk to my cats when no-one else is here. There are times when alone that I have quite an exciting conversation with myself and seven words would never suffice. As far as understanding is concerned, if I want someone to understand I manage. Sometimes having a loud clear voice suits the purpose. And if I something annoys me, I drop a hammer on my foot or shut a finger in the door – then I can always revert to the George Carlin linguistic talents.
Words of Pingback
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Musical Foodie Love
- Seven Words | Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | likereadingontrains
- Daily Post: Seven Wonders? | Pen and Pixels
- Seven. | Crossroads
- My.Vivid.Visions | Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders – I feel, you feel, becomes we feel
- Early Grave – Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | smoke&mirrors
- summing it up | bodhisattvaintraining
- Nostalgia | Nature Activities
- Seven words | James Clegg
- Seven Wonders of the Word | MC’s Whispers
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | veryvanessalynn
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | The Fountain
- Seven | The Magic Black Book
- Who Made The Most Sense Khalil Gibran or George Carlin? | The Jittery Goat
- Seven Wonders | Relax
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Under the Monkey Tree
- My Seven Words | Life Confusions
- The Only Seven Words Left In The World | sayanything
- Daily post: Seven words. Or alternatively… | helen meikle’s scribblefest
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders « Mama Bear Musings
- Daily Prompt: Seven little words for a blustery Monday | Nicki
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Randomize ME
- A Poem: Seven Wonders | I Hope You’re Taking Notes
- Seven Leaves (Daily Prompt) | photo potpourri
- SEVEN WORDS THAT MAKE US | crookedeyebrows
- Reduction of Languange | mutatiomagistra
- 7 | Hope* the happy hugger
- Super Seven | thinkerscap
- My Apologies to George Carlin | Not a Punk Rocker
- Seven Stars | alienorajt
- How to order coffee with the (un?)necessary complexity of human language | Rob’s Surf Report
- You got me | dawnyhosking
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | robbiesdailyplanet
- The Seven Words | Flowers and Breezes
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Crow Arrow, Inc.
- Communication | Rock it classy
- Touched by Seven. | Blue Loft
- Seven Words… | Haiku By Ku
- Words of Wisdom | meanderedwanderings
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Awl and Scribe
- In Seven Words.. | That girl with the spectrespecs
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Of Glass & Paper
- Seven Words | Momma Said There’ld Be Days Like This
- Daily Prompt: Seven Words | …and she writes
- What Is It About The Number Seven? | Just Visiting This Planet
- Seven Steps to Successful Pumpkin Carving | It’s a wonderful F’N life
- How To Communicate With Your Spouse In Seven Words Or Less! | The Political and Social Chaos Blog
- Not enough | Life is great
- DAILY PROMPT: SEVEN WORDS, SEVEN MYSTERIES | SERENDIPITY
- Just seven words. | ExLibrisMachina
- Seven | The Land Slide Photography
- Seven sounds of music | Processing the life
- RAINBOW | Randomlyabstract’s Blog
- Seven | Brianne Writes
- I see on this Earth: | The Visionary Hollow
- 7 for all Mankind? | The Silver Leaf Journal
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Books and Movies
- Seven Things |
- I Recognize the Light in Your Soul…..(daily prompt wp) | Daily Observations
- Seven. | Sun, Sand, Stars and Dreams
- Seven Wonders | Taryn Marie Writes
- SEVEN WORDS | Emotional Fitness
- Seven | Ripples of Truth
- Seven words | A mom’s blog
- Say it in 7 | Writing Daily
- Daily Prompt: 7 Wonders | Life Juxtaposed
- Communication In Seven Words or Less | Kansa Muse
- eight, wonders | pesrevsanatpesrev
- Seven Wonders or the Seven Words of Life | mother of nine9
- Expression in Seven — E.I.T.C.A.W.M. | e. e.
- Sette parole – A very short post | Neva Samaki
- The Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Lucid Gypsy
- Seven Heavenly Words. | The life of T
- My Secret Seven | Winging it
- Seven Wonder(ful) Words | Cheri Speak
- My Seven Words | A chain of thoughts…
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Phoenix Flights
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders by Henrietta Maddox | Henrietta Maddox Webloner
- The story goes like this . . . | tjbarkerseattle
- My Seven Wonder(ful) Words | Mirth365
- Seven | The Attic Blogger
- The Only Non-Superfluous Speech | On Gorgeousness
- 7 words | Life as a country bumpkin…not a city girl
- Daily Prompt:Seven Wonders | writer in progress
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | Steve Says….
- What if we had but seven words? | Okay, what if ?
- Seven wonders. | Evanesco Waffles
- Daily Prompt: Seven – The voyage | Ord i Bild i Ord i Bild i Ord i Bild
- If music be the food of love | A Wondering Minstrel I
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders | 4cornersteacher
- Top Posts — WordPress.com
- Daily Prompt: Seven Wonders « The Blogging Path
- Daily Prompt | What A View On A Sunday Afternoon | Mac’s Blog
- Seven plain and simple | tornin2’s Blog
- Daily Prompt: An Expression of Seven Wonders with a Minimum of Words Between Us | theempathyqueen
- To Know Khalil | rarasaur
- Daily post/seven words | annetteharris42
- Seven principles to life | Hotel Goddess
- seven words. too few, too many. | memoirs of an unremarkable man
- From the Ground Up | Wiley’s Wisdom
- 7 photos of 7 ancient ruins: turkey | wise monkeys abroad
- Seven Wonders | View From The Third Eye