#syllabifies

[max1461]

So your brain would have parsed it as 'twoth-ousand', making it harder than 'the'?

Yeah, that's the conjecture.

English has been argued to have "preferential coda syllabification", which is a fancy way of saying that when there is a string σCτ, where C is a consonant and σ and τ are both valid English syllables, even if both σC and Cτ are valid syllables English will syllabify the whole string as σC.τ, which is the opposite of how most languages do it. So in specific, two thousand [tuθaʊ̯zɨnd] would be syllabified as [tuθ.aʊ̯z.ɨnd]. Or so goes the argument. People also make the case for multiple syllabification, so that e.g. in the above [θ] and [z] are actually considered members of both the preceding and the following syllable. And of course some phonologists deny the utility of syllables at all.

But the point is that in various common accounts, that [θ] is ending up in the coda (the position after the vowel) in the initial syllable. And the stress in [tuθaʊ̯zɨnd] is on the second syllable, making that first syllable a "pre-tonic initial", which is a type of thing that toddlers famously have difficulty pronouncing and distinguishing. Plus, segments in coda position are generally harder to perceive than those in onset position, although this is not universal. So for a toddler, it may be very hard to hear or say the [θ] in [tuθaʊ̯zɨnd]. Which is, I conjecture, why child-me replaced the [θ] with an easier sound like [f], even though I had at that point mastered [θ] in most words.

[trustdrum]

Sonority mode

SONORITY MODE HOW TO

SONORITY MODE PLUS

Includes a parametric table illustrating cross-linguistic variation in syllabic segments, based on sonority.Ĭser, András. Posits a universal sonority scale constructed from a hierarchy of binary features. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Ī brief summary of the primary uses of sonority in generative phonology. Despite this limited theme, its review of sonority is of general interest.īlevins, Juliette. Finally, Cser 2003 focuses on the relevance of sonority to a formal account of lenition and fortition. The physical substance of sonority is the main topic of Nathan 1989, which concludes that attempts to characterize sonority along a single phonetic parameter have failed (see the Physical Basis of Sonority). The latter is a follow-up chapter in The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, the most comprehensive reference work currently available. The former is a dissertation focusing entirely on sonority, including an eighty-six-page literature summary. Other general reviews of sonority include Parker 2002 and Parker 2011. Zec 2007 situates the account of sonority effects within Optimality Theory, in keeping with the focus of that handbook. Goldsmith 2011 authors the discussion of syllables in its revision of this handbook, taking a more historical perspective. The first is Blevins 1995, couched in a generative framework. Three chapters in major phonology handbooks are cited in this section, each one noting the close connection between sonority and syllable structure. The domain in which sonority is most often invoked is the syllable. This finding suggests that the two sequences have different prosodic structures, a crucial detail that is often downplayed-if “exceptional” clusters such as /sp/ are not in fact tautosyllabic, then they actually confirm the sonority principle rather than violate it. For example, a study of Italian with electromagnetic articulography shows a difference in the coordination patterns of gestural targets for initial clusters such as /pr/ versus /sp/ (a sonority reversal). Cutting-edge technology has made a significant contribution in other related areas, too. This approach replaces sonority with perceptual constraints ranking phonological environments by their likelihood of assisting the hearer to recover critical aspects of the speech signal. The analysis of clusters in terms of well-configured sonority slopes has been rejected by some scholars in favor of an optimal ordering of segments to enhance their auditory cue robustness. Another important issue involves the functional explanation of sequencing tendencies. In this approach, sonority is a function of bidirectional excitation of competing segments across time, driven by global harmony maximization using exponentially weighted constraints. Also, connectionist networks have been used to automatically syllabify random strings of segments in Berber. An exciting development is computational algorithms that can directly calculate the relative sonority of acoustic samples and potentially segment them, based on various phonetic parameters these algorithms have contributed to automated speech recognition. However, different studies counter that this knowledge can be acquired by extrapolating statistical generalizations from the lexicons of those languages, without a prior bias concerning preferred sonority differentials. For example, experiments asking speakers of various languages to rate the naturalness of or pronounce forms containing non-native clusters show that universal markedness constraints involving sonority predict accuracy on such tasks. Recent research on sonority has revived a debate about its innateness.

SONORITY MODE HOW TO

However, while generalizations of this kind are strong, some have counterexamples, raising questions about the adequacy of sonority and how to encode it grammatically. These observations have led to implicatures such as lower sonority nuclei entailing the existence of nuclei from all higher sonority classes in a particular language. Furthermore, the propensity for a segment to pattern as moraic is proportional to its sonority.

SONORITY MODE PLUS

Thus onsets prototypically contain an obstruent plus an approximant. A primary function of sonority is to linearize segments within syllables: more sonorous sounds tend to occur more closely to the peak. The phonetic basis of sonority is contentious it is roughly but imperfectly correlated with loudness. Many versions of the sonority hierarchy exist a common one is vowels > glides > liquids > nasals > obstruents. Sonority is a nonbinary phonological feature categorizing sounds into a relative scale.

[theboombutton]

Please say more about aspirated medial stops, I was talking with my brother in law the other day about how we (Californians) don't say t's in the middle of words and I'm really curious about why that is and if this is a universal thing in all accents of English now

Disclaimer: I do have a Bachelor's in linguistics, but I got it more than a decade ago so it is possible that some of the information in this post will be misremembered or out of date.

tl;dr

Knowing how to pronounce t in different locations in different dialects is a nightmare. Old-fashioned British Received Pronunciation pronounced t in the middle of words, but there's a UK language drift called T-glottalization in which ts except at the start of words are often being replaced with glottal stops? It's really obvious in lower-status dialects but it's been creeping into RP as well.

American English usually does a weird muscle flex called a "flap" or a "tap" that's something like a really short d, or a single roll of a rolled r. I think there are some UK dialects that use this tap as well.

I belieeeeeve that Indian English usually pronounces word-medial ts, but I haven't run an actual analysis on the applicable coworkers' speech because that'd be kind of creepy?

No idea about Australia or New Zealand.

As far as I know, there's no special reason why these particular drifts are happening. Linguistic drift and accent shifts are just something that happens with living languages. If anything, we have immensely slowed the natural process of language change through the invention and widespread teaching of standardized writing.

Glossary

Sorry, I tried doing this without a glossary but I kept having to do weird info cul-de-sacs to explain myself. I've ordered them according to approximately when they'll come up?

lol I failed so hard at this, about halfway through the post I started using words without putting them in the glossary first and man idk I've been working on this post for 4 hours now and I don't want to go back through and put definitions for some of this shit, sorry

Phoneme - A single language sound, as it is stored in your brain. Represented with slashes around it, e.g. /t/.

Phone - A language sound as it actually comes out of your mouth. Represented with square brackets around it, e.g. [t].

Phonology - The study of speech sounds, from internal representation to external expression, but not including the study of how they are physically created in the mouth (that's phonetics). Not to be confused with phrenology, the racist pseudoscience of head shape.

Word - Can have a few different meanings in a linguistic context. In this post, will usually refer to either a lexeme or a phonological word. You should be able to tell from the context.

Phonological Word - What you probably think of when you think of a "word." A unit of speech that you could naturally pause on either side of, but could not naturally pause inside.

Lexeme/Semantic Word - A single phonological word and its attached meaning; or, phrase of multiple phonological words, which holds a meaning which is different than the sum of its parts. For example, "Carry the bucket" is not a single lexeme; but "Kick the bucket" is.

Voiced/Voiceless - A sound is voiced if you use your vocal cords to make it, and voiceless if you don't.

Stop - Also called a plosive. A stop is a kind of consonant you make by stopping all air flow. The stops English uses are p, b, t, d, k, g, and the glottal stop.

Aspiration - A puff of air following a sound, usually a voiceless stop. In phonetic notation, it is indicated by a superscript h following the consonant, like [pʰ].

IPA - International Phonetic Alphabet. A standard set of symbols based on the Roman alphabet and used to refer to roughly the same sounds regardless of language.

Glottal stop - A stop which is performed not by your tongue, as in most stops, but by your vocal cords. Think of the word "Uh-oh" - the way you completely stop airflow after the "Uh" instead of just letting it flow into the "oh." That's a glottal stop.

Praat - An audio analysis program tailored specifically for viewing waveforms of speech sounds.

INFODUMP TIME

So the thing about saying words is that the ideas of sounds that you have in your head ("phonemes") don't translate one-to-one to the sounds that come out of your mouth ("phones"); and the ways that these sounds get modified vary between different dialects.

Please keep in mind that when you try to speak slowly or clearly, the sounds that you make change. Linguists are primarily interested in natural speech patterns, not what we do when we're trying to enunciate.

Tater-Tot

Let's take the lexeme tater-tot, because it's the first word I can think of that has all 3 of the major weird things that /t/ does that vary by dialect.

Let's start with the word-initial t. Phonologically there are actually two word-initial t's in tater-tot, the one at the beginning of 'tater,' and the one at the beginning of 'tot.' This is because "tater-tot" is two phonological words despite being one semantic word.

In American and British English, we aspirate our word-initial voiceless stops if they're immediately followed by a vowel, which means we pronounce /p/, /t/, and /k/ as [pʰ], [tʰ] and [kʰ] respectively if they're the first sound in a word (and immediately followed by a vowel). This means we add in a little puff of air following the consonant if it's the first sound in the word. In Indian English, they don't do this - a word-initial /t/ is pronounced [t], without the extra puff of air. To American & British English speakers it can almost sound like they're saying [d], because we're not used to hearing a word-initial /t/ without aspiration.

Next we've got a word-medial t, the second t of "tater." Here, Indian and British RP English speakers pronounce it as a plain [t], with no aspiration. American English speakers pronounce it as what's called a tap or a flap, which is sort of like a half-formed [d] but is actually more like a single roll of a rolled r - and so its IPA symbol is [ɾ]. And many less prestigious British dialects, including Cockney and I believe Scouse, replace it with a glottal stop, with IPA symbol [ʔ].

And our final t is the word-final t of tot. This is a tricky one to peel apart. English generally doesn't release word-final stops - that is, you put your tongue in the correct place to stop airflow to create the stop, but you never actually move your tongue out of the way to "release" the airflow you stopped. So the easy read on the word-final t's pronunciation is that it's [t̚], an unreleased t. However, in many dialects and situations /t/ is replaced with or co-articulated with a glottal stop - for example, after an [n] or an [m], /t/ is almost always pronounced as [ʔ] in English. But unreleased stops after an oral vowel are difficult to tell apart, and if the tongue is in t position while the glottis cuts off airflow - I genuinely don't know.

Tuck/Stuck

These are good for a comparison between an aspirated [tʰ] and an unaspirated [t]. In American English, tuck is [tʰʌk] and stuck is [stʌk].

Truck

American English does weird things with syllable-initial /tr/.

I want to introduce you to the "sh" symbol, ʃ. ʃ is a voiceless postalveolar fricative, which means it's created by air rushing through a narrow space when your tongue is behind the alveolar ridge. Incidentally, when you move your tongue from [t] position to [ɹ̠] position (ɹ̠ being the symbol for the version of non-rolled r that most English dialects use), it will naturally create the ʃ sound as it moves.

We have a special letter combination to the phonemic /tʃ/ in English. It's "ch". As in "change."

You almost certainly pronounce "truck" as [tʃɹ̠ʌk] "chruck" and just don't notice.

So what's going on with Martin?

So first off, Jonny is probably wrong about how the Archivist says "Martin." Complete deletion of the r in that position is standard in RP. I haven't fed The Magnus Archives into Praat or anything, so it's possible he's letting a hint of a rhotic accent bleed in to the Archivist's RP - but I really doubt it.

This isn't unusual! It's very common for people's internal concept of what sounds they mean to make, to get in the way of them accurately identifying what sounds they're actually making. No one thinks they've ever said "chruck" until you point it out to them.

I would probably transcribe the Archivist saying "Martin" as [mɑ:tɪn].

Jonny's attempt at saying "Martin" in an American accent was something more like [mɑ˞ɹ̠tʰɪn]. He did a good job of rhoticizing the vowel, but in his focus on the r completely messed up the second syllable.

I'd transcribe my own pronunciation of "Martin" as something like [mɑ˞ɹ̠ʔn]. It's been my observation that t-glottalization in American English is especially common when adjacent to nasals - and if there's one thing American English likes, it's syllabifying liquids in word-final syllables.

OK I've run out of steam now

This was fun. Sorry about the declining quality of explanation. Please feel free to ask more if you dare to reignite the flames of infodump

[yeli-renrong]

~1:10, clearly syllabified [bɚg.ə.mɑt]... like the Eurovision entry with [ɛn.i.weɪ̯], another example of English preferential coda syllabification i.e. violation of the crosslinguistic “Maximal Onset Principle”)

[tomasorban]

The Chariot - Arcanum 7

Remember that the number seven represents magical power in all of its strength.

The Holy Seven is the Sanctum Regnum of Sexual Magic; the number seven is the Innermost served by all of the elemental forces of Nature.

Every one who works with the Arcanum A.Z.F. receives the flaming sword of the Seventh Arcanum. In the name of truth, we affirm that the flaming sword of the great hierophants is absolutely transmuted semen, it is the outcome of Sexual Magic. This is how we transform ourselves into terribly divine Gods.

The sexual organs are the legitimate Laboratorium Oratorium of the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae. These are the Sanctum Regnum where the hierophant receives the sword of justice.

In the alchemical garden of pleasures, we find the word “Vitriol.” This word is an acrostic, derived from the phrase “Visitam interiore terras rectificatur invenias ocultum lapidum,” (Visit the interior of our earth, that by rectifying, you will find the occult stone).

We must search within the interior of our philosophical earth (the human organism); then by rectifying and working with the Arcanum A.Z.F., the Maithuna, we will find the Philosophical Stone.

The sun (phallus), masculine principle, is the father of the Stone. The moon (uterus) is the feminine principle, the mother of the Philosophical Stone. The wind bears the son in its womb and the earth nourishes it. The Sun and the Moon, masculine and feminine principles are combined inside of the chalice (symbol of the mind). The Sun (fire) is the Father of the Stone, the Moon (water) is the Mother, and the Wind (seminal steam) bear the son in its Alchemical Womb and the Philosophical Earth nourishes it.

The chalice is resting on the Caduceus of Mercury (the central system, spinal column) with the two sympathetic cords known in the east as Ida and Pingala.

Two influences interact in the generation of the Philosophical Stone: one of a masculine character and the other of a feminine character.

The entire work is performed with the Great Arcanum. The Star of Seven Points is an inseparable part of the acrostic VITRIOL. The Seven Serpents of Alchemy are related with the seven planets and the seven great cosmic realizations.

The acrostic VITRIOL with its seven letters and its seven words symbolizes the entire septenary Great Work that shines like the Sun in the temple of science.

The Sun and the Moon, the Fire and the Water, the King and the Queen form an integral part of any alchemist fledgling.

The fledgling has to perform seven great works that culminate with the crowning of the Great Work.

The face of a venerable elder appears in the center of the septenary star of Alchemy according to the illustration of Viridarium Chymicum. That venerable face in the septenary star of Alchemy symbolizes the Sophic Mercury (the Ens Seminis). Listen fledglings of Alchemy, listen to how Estolsio explains this emblem:

That which was enclosed within many forms, now you see it included in one thing; the beginning is our Elder and he has the key; sulfur with salt and mercury give wealth. If you do not see anything here, there is no reason for you to keep searching, for you will be blind even in the midst of the light.

Those students of occultism who think that they can acquire in depth realization of the Self without the Arcanum A.Z.F. are absolutely mistaken. The Secret Sister Master stated that those who want to know the mysteries of Chiram (the Fire) must search among the Medieval Alchemists. This Great Master was a true yogini disciple of Kout Humi, nevertheless, after she had been widowed (by the Count Blavatsky) she married the Colonel Olcott, in order to work with the Arcanum of Sexual Magic. Only thus, could she achieve in depth realization of the Self.

Babaji called the great Yogi-Avatar Sri Lahiri Mahasaya to initiation when he already had a spouse. Thus, this is how the Yogi-Avatar was Self-realized. In Hindustan, Sexual Magic is known by the Sanskrit term Urdhvareta and the yogis who practice it are named Urdhavareta Yogis.

Authentic yogis practice Sexual Magic with their spouse. There are two types of brahmacharya (sexual abstinence), solar and lunar. The solar type is for those that have performed the Second Birth. The lunar type of brahmacharya is that absurd sexual abstinence that serves only to produce filthy, nocturnal sexual pollutions with all of its fatal consequences.

Hatha Yoga is just a matter of acrobatics that have the power of taking the student out of the superior worlds in order to enslave him to the physical world. We have never known of an acrobatic Hatha yogi with internal illuminated powers.

Three rays of inner illumination of the realization of the Inner Self exist: the Yogic, the Mystic, and the Perfect Matrimony; however the three rays inevitably have the need for Sexual Magic. Anything that is not directed through Sexual Magic is a useless waste of time. We departed from Eden through the doors of sex and only through those doors can we return to Eden. Eden is sex itself.

The Seventh Arcanum is represented by a crowned warrior that carries a triangle above his crown and he is standing upon the cubic stone of Yesod (sex). The two sphinxes, a white one and a black one are pulling his chariot; this symbolizes the masculine and feminine forces. His armor is the divine science that makes us powerful. The warrior must learn how to use the staff and the sword, thus he will attain the great victory (Netzach). Our motto is Thelema (willpower).

Let us remember that there are seven vices that we must transmute into wisdom and love:

Lunar avarice is transformed into hope and altruism.

Laziness is transmuted into prudent Mercurian diligence.

The fatal Venusian lust is transmuted into the Chastity of Venus and charity of the Spirit.

Pride must be transmuted into solar faith and into the humility of Christ.

Martian anger is transmuted into the marvelous force of love.

Envy is transmuted into Jupiterian philanthropy and happiness for others.

Gluttony is transmuted into Saturnian temperance.

We can disintegrate our defects and dissolve the psychological “I,” only by means of the science of transmutations. Work with the Arcanum A.Z.F. so that you can receive the sword.

The Governors of the seven planets are:

Gabriel: Moon

Raphael: Mercury

Uriel: Venus

Michael: Sun

Samael: Mars

Zachariel: Jupiter

Orifiel: Saturn

The seven notes of the lyre of Orpheus correspond to the seven planets. A planetary note corresponds to each one of the seven colors of the solar prism. Alchemy is intimately related to music.

Atalanta is the voice that flees; Hippomenes is the voice that pursues, and the apple is the voice that delays.

IAO

I.A.O. is the supreme mantra of Sexual Magic. I.A.O. is the name of the serpent. Blessed be the I.A.O.

I.A.O. must be chanted during the practices of the laboratory (Sexual Alchemy); thus, this is how the serpent moves about and is joyful. Chant I.A.O. seven times while in the Laboratorium Oratorium.

The mantra I.N.R.I. has an absolute power over the fire; chant this mantra also in the Laboratorium Oratorium in order to carry the fire to each one of your seven chakras. Chant I.N.R.I as follows:

INRI ENRE ONRO UNRU ANRA; these mantras must be chanted by syllabifying them as follows:

Iiinnn Rrriii (clairvoyance)

Eeennn Rrreee (clairaudience)

Ooonnn Rrrooo (heart – intuition)

Uuunnn Rrruuu (telepathy –solar plexus)

Aaannn Rrraaa (pulmonary chakras – memory of past lives)

The great Hierophant Jesus-Christ chanted these mantras in the Laboratorium Oratorium of the pyramid of Kephren.

The seven Kabbalistic signs of the planets are:

Moon: A globe divided by two middle moons.

Mercury: A caduceus and the cynocephalus.

Venus: A sexual lingam.

Sun: A serpent with the head of a lion.

Mars: A dragon biting a sword’s guard.

Jupiter: A pentagram, or an eagle’s beak.

Saturn: A limping elder, or a rock entwined by a serpent.

The seven talismans have the power of attracting the seven planetary forces. Gold is the metal of the Sun; silver is the metal of the Moon; iron is the metal of Mars; copper is the metal of Venus; quicksilver is the metal of Mercury, tin is the metal of Jupiter and lead is the metal of Saturn. Perfect talismans can be prepared with the proper stones and metals. The Pater Noster (Lord’s Prayer) is the most perfect prayer because it has seven magical petitions. - S.A. Weor

[shimyereh]

I have been wondering this forever but...how does "shimyereh" syllabify?

I pronounce it “shee-MYEH-reh” (or [ʃiˈmʲɛɾɛ] in IPA).

[ayearinlanguage]

A Year in Language, day 217: Nuosu Nuosu, also called Northern Yi, is one of several languages spoken by the Yi ethnic group of China and surrounding Southeast Asia. It is the most widely spoken of Yi languages with about 200 million speakers around the border between China's Yunnan and Sichuan provence. Nuosu, along with the other languages spoken by Yi people, are of the Loloish branch of Sino-Tibetan, named for an older term for the Yi, whose languages make up most of the branch. Phonetically Nuosu contains several syllabic consonants that can be used as vowels. Syllabic consonants are not uncommon cross linguistically, though normally they are nasals (like the "m" in "hmm") or approximants (the most vocalic type of consonant ex. the "l" sound at the end of "little" or the "r" sound at the end of "writer"). Nuosu travels a very different route and instead syllabifies /z/ and /v/. People familiar with Mandarin will have already encountered a syllabic /z/ as in the syllable "si". Nuosu was traditionally written in its own character system unrelated to the Chinese characters. In the 1970's that script was officially revised into a syllabary, containing over 756 unique glyphs. The Nuosu language is written "ꆈꌠꉙ" in this system.

[bdminternational]

The Real Reasons Why Children Read Less and Less

Although we don't like to believe it, it is already confirmed. Children and teenagers read less and less. Less than the previous generations. Additionally, the amount of time pre-teens and teens spend on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok has increased during the pandemic while reading time among these age groups has steadily declined.

One survey finding that could be especially concerning for teachers of top 10 CBSE schools in Kolkata 2022: Only one-third of pre-teens and one in five teenagers said they spend some time reading for their pleasure each day. However, reading is a key area of ​​concern for schools trying to address the "unfinished learning" that has occurred during the pandemic.

Why is it worth reading? You can no longer be illiterate if you want to live decently. No other method has yet been invented for the acquisition of certain knowledge than reading.

Experts from the best school in south Kolkata say that children should read what they like if they like anything. And, having started from there, try to cultivate and refine their tastes. Attitude is important. It's very hard to read for pleasure when you have much-required reading.

For many years now, reading has become an increasingly rare hobby, especially among teenagers. It is true, that there are still many children who read for pleasure from a young age when they can barely syllabify the words, but, unfortunately, as they get older, most of them give up reading in favour of other ways of spending their free time.

Reading becomes more and more difficult and, in most cases, it turns from something beautiful into an obligation imposed by the school or by the parents who don't seem to understand why their children don't like to read anymore. The teachers from the top English medium school in Kolkata often face both the increasingly dramatic distancing of children from books, as well as the despair of parents who want their children to read. Most often we blame technology, the TV and the computer, the virtual life that seems to have taken over our minds and reset our priorities and our taste for beauty in an incomprehensible way. But is technology alone entirely responsible? Aren't we the people behind it?

Let's read as often as possible!

The teachers of the top 10 CBSE schools in Kolkata 2022 realized that parents spend a lot of time raising their children with the idea that reading is practiced only before going to bed. We read them stories before we put them to sleep and... that's about it. But what if we bought them books as often as we buy them toys?

Let's visit bookstores!

As we often visit playgrounds in supermarkets or toy departments... why not? There are various activities for children organized in many bookstores and even if we don't always have access to them for various reasons, it is not impossible to take your child to a bookstore instead of putting him in a ticket machine

Knowing how to read alone is not a rush!

It is an idea that the teachers from the top English medium school in Kolkata think parents should keep in mind when they start to create expectations from their preschool children. It has become a kind of fashion among parents and a reason for praise when the child learns to read at a very young age. Such progress indeed is to be appreciated, but each child eventually learns to read at his own pace, so we should not rush our children in this direction just because it gives us new pleasure. Some extremely intelligent children read on their own only very late, just as there are children who read at 3 years old, but whose progress slows down afterward. Reading is like walking. Some learn it faster, others later, but in the end, everyone knows how to read, just as everyone knows how to walk. A natural rhythm is best.

Let's always read together!

Once they learn to read, children become very independent when it comes to books. Many of them no longer want to be read to, they choose their books, they start to have preferences and often refuse their parents' suggestions, therefore the choices made must be per their preferences but be subtly coordinated by an adult who knows to choose what is more suitable for their age and their understanding. The moments of reading together must be perpetuated beyond the age of early childhood. It's never too late to read with your child. Not even when he is old enough to read stories to him. Reading time can be turned into a daily ritual, in which everyone reads for themselves, but together.

Let's go to the next level together!

The transition from reading together to reading alone is not always easy. Children are often tempted to give up easily because they find it too difficult to read on their own. However, Experts from the best school in south Kolkata recommend the transition to the next level to be done subtly, through appropriate choices, made at the appropriate moment. Read together up to a certain page or up to a certain chapter, then set a deadline by which the child must reach another page by himself.

Let's choose the right books!

Reading suggestions can be found everywhere, on the net, in bookstores, and specialized magazines. However, they must always be adapted to the child's preferences, his personality. The variety of readings is so great that it would be absurd for all children to read the same books. Of course, there are certain universal readings that at a certain stage delight everyone, but over time some children prefer stories, while others are attracted to comics, and others to adventure books.

Let's limit the influence of technology!

If there's one thing I've learned about the book-technology feud over the past few years, it's that there's no realistic way for a book to compete with the TV or the computer. That is why limiting access to technology until reading itself becomes a habit accepted by the child is essential. And no, this limitation should not be imposed as a kind of punishment, but by continuously offering alternatives that are not necessarily related to reading. Postponing the opening of the TV or computer can be easily done in hundreds of ways. It only depends on the parents and their ability to resist the temptation to give in.

Let's be our children's models!

Nothing works better in an education process than the power of example. We make our children read in vain if we do not read ourselves. Just as the little ones imitate their parents by doing different household chores while playing or borrowing their gestures, so when they see their parents constantly reading, children become interested in books.

[justinehudock]

Cassette.

As a boy, Hobie Finknorton was notorious across the slums, old plastered gum, and plum stands of the Queens Community Board 8 residence zone as Cassette. A hot dog vendor wrote this, just once, with a strand of ketchup onto Cassette’s dog, in an outburst of Freudian furor and slippage, and as a fly to flypaper the moniker glued itself to young Hobie. He was, in fact, a prolific anecdotist—sparkling, socially, with adults more so than the other children—who would, on his way to school, or to the scented candle shop to get his morning aromatherapy huff-huff, approach adults on the street and initiate conversation with the stiffness of an audio cassette intended to teach the English language to foreigners. 

Cassette was young, simple, unaggressive, and did not fight the epithet; wouldn’t, couldn’t know what to do beyond eat the hot dog with the crudely squeezed script, and on a full stomach, he was too sleepy to think of anything good, anyway. “Your son is quite the handsome young man,” he’d say, desiccantly syllabifying each word while miming patting the head of an imaginary boy—the adult’s “son”—standing by them; right there, in his little britches and trilby hat. 

Or else, when the adult was too well on in years to make-believe in any notional realm whatsoever that he or she had a short young son, near or far away—Cassette didn’t believe, even in an infinite universe, that inherently impossible possibilities became possible—our young friend would inquire, “When is the 12:15 PM autobus due to arrive?” Autobus rings far more European, Italianate, he believed, than bus sans auto, and what’s catalan is better; thinner, pescetarian, tanned; spiritually fat but bodily lithe. Very simply better. He thought his conversational partners would appreciate this continental flourish, being mentally transported at no cost to a liner due to dock at the Amalfi coast, which is in Italy. 

Whether this was the vision his words conjured, or if he inspired any visions at all, Cassette did not know, for no one ever gave him explicit feedback. More often, the feedback was ambiguous: a punch in the gut, or a smack up the backside of his head. Even still, Cassette wasn’t discouraged, in fact felt emboldened to learn from his mistakes, even as what those mistakes remained unclear. Cassette quickly took up a new modus, sidling up to one woman or man, leaning with cool nonchalance against them, and purring: “There is a strong nip in the air this morning.” This received a response only once: a sandpapery titter from a man repairing the drainage grates so that they swiggled instead of going totally straight, as the two happened to be standing at the threshold of one so-called Gentlemen's Club, and the young woman on the establishment’s sign… well, she certainly had a strong nip in the air. It was this that educed the titter, so Cassette does not take credit, though he would like to. Cassette is like that, to the core: never one to let an inadvertent pun pass his lips without making assurances afterward that it was unintentional, or to take credit for any such other verbal luck. 

Despite his toiling, all of Cassette’s stock phrases, even these new, brighter ones, elicited roughly the same response: “Back off, kid, I’ve got a place to be.” At this point, Cassette saw fit to change the subject. He learned from his Marketing Manager father that what the public likes are multiple choice surveys that allow them a porthole into their own personality. Really liked themselves and what they were, what they couldn’t see about their characters, is what that revealed.

“Why not treat yourself to: Twenty years of medically induced slumber? two sticks to start a large fire? Great, beautiful sticks? a blown-up photo of your own ear? broken legs? surgery on those broken legs?” But his partner would have bustled past him by now, on their way, spitting on Cassette’s head, aiming instinctively at the globules of saliva already pooling there like clear liquid resin. 

Cassette sighed. Another conversation down the drain, and now his hair felt gross, and so he felt gross. Was it truly a gift to be so gifted? It just seemed to bum everyone out, his flair for the verbal. The days of his sort of talent-enabled class—bearded ladies and fire eaters and men who could see through coins and rounds of bread dough—had given way to high production quality television; Oscar-winning series finales; Pulitzer-winning journalism from mainstream publications one once would have called for idiots. The public did not want him or his party trick of on-demand charisma and prodigious mood-lightening. The notion of a performer as an individual no longer excited them; it angered them, cramped their time, and inspired viciously incisive, evergreen nicknames. Cassette could not remember what his name had been.

He grew older: a year, then another year, and so on in that fashion. He stopped taking care of his body, and grew hairy, acne, and when his voice began to crack, around the neighborhood they’d blow in his ear and tug at his limbs, like he was a real cassette, yeah, and laugh, crystallizing his adopted name to a jagged star of sugar.

[leanstooneside]

LANDSCAPE CRUSADER

◊ passionate

◊ maximize

◊ rate

◊ donate

◊ find

◊ geminate

◊ participate

◊ create

◊ reach

◊ act

◊ syllabify

◊ mind

◊ call

◊ identify

◊ go

◊ guarantee

◊ grow

◊ evocate

◊ get

◊ fight

◊ urge

◊ help

◊ plan

◊ pick

◊ purchase

◊ commercialize

◊ break

◊ search

◊ operate

◊ make

◊ share

◊ add

◊ provide

◊ conduct

◊ watch

◊ lose

◊ transfer

◊ definite

◊ request

◊ require

◊ value

◊ roll

◊ liquidate

◊ certificate

◊ process

◊ worry

[max1461]

fucked up how english syllabifies botswana bot.swana even though it's morphologically bo-tswana. thoroughly fucked up.

[sayitaliano]

Speaking & Writing Vocabs

il lessico - lexicon, vocabulary (list of words known by a person), terminology la terminologia, la nomenclatura - terminology, nomenclature, vocabulary l’etimologia - etymology il vocabolario - vocabulary (list of words in one language) il dizionario - dictionary  l’alfabeto - alphabet i vocaboli, le parole, i termini - words, terms le lettere - letters (alphabet) i numeri - numbers la lingua - language il linguaggio - language / style la dizione - diction, elocution la pronuncia - pronunciation, diction la parlata - way of speaking, idiom, parlance la scrittura, la calligrafia - writing / calligraphy il modo di dire - common saying il proverbio - proverb, saying il motto, la massima, l’adagio - maxim, motto, principle, aphorism, adage lo scherzo - prank, joke, dirty trick la battuta, la freddura - joke, gag, pun l’idioma - language, dialect il gergo - slang, lingo il dialetto (la parlata locale) - dialect, vernacular (local idiom) l’accento *- accent, stress la cadenza, l’accento *- inflection, stress, accent la sintassi - syntax la morfosintassi - morphosyntax, grammar la stuttura sintattica - structure (of syntax) il costrutto - construction, construct, sens (syntactic structure)  l’ortografia, la scrittura - orthography il corsivo - cursive (writing) lo stampatello - block letters (writing) lo spelling, la compitazione - spelling la frase, il periodo - phrase, sentence la proposizione - clause, sentence il periodo ipotetico - “if sentences”, conditional period la protasi - subordinate clause in “if sentences” l’apodosi - main clause in “if sentences” la (frase) reggente / principale - main clause la (frase) subordinata - subordinate clause la morfologia - morphology il dialogo - dialogue, conversation il monologo - monologue il soliloquio, il monologo interiore - soliloquy, interior monologue il discorso - conversation, speech la conferenza - lecture, educational speech, conference il discorso diretto - direct speech il discorso indiretto - indirect speech la domanda - question l’esclamazione - exclamation la prolissità, essere prolissi - verbosity, prolixity la sinteticità, essere concisi - conciseness  il tema, il componimento scritto - essay, composition la lettera - letter (writing) la raccomandata - registered mail la poesia - poem (poetry) i versi - verses le rime, le assonanze - rhymes la figura retorica - figure of speech la metafora - metaphor / analogy la retorica - rhetoric

la grammatica - grammar l’analisi logica - logical analysis, construe l’analisi grammaticale - grammatical analysis, construe, parse l’analisi del periodo - period analysis il verbo - verb l’ausiliare (verbo) - auxiliary verb l’apostrofo - apostrophe l’accento *- accent mark la coniugazione (verbo) - conjugation la prima persona plurale (verbo - noi) - 1st plural person (we) la terza persona singolare (verbo - lei/lui) - 3rd singular person (s/he, it) il modo (verbo) - mood il tempo (verbo) - tense il tempo composto - compound tense l’articolo determinativo - definite article l’articolo indeterminativo - indefinite article l’articolo partitivo - partitive article il nome **- name, appellative la declinazione - declension, conjugation il genere - gender maschile - masculine femminile - feminine il numero - number (sing/plu) singolare - singular plurale - plural il nome proprio **- proper noun/name il nome comune **- common name, generic name/noun la congiunzione - conjuction la preposizione semplice - simple preposition la preposizione articolata - preposition + article l’aggettivo - adjective il grado (aggettivo) - degree il grado comparativo (aggettivo) - degree of comparison l’aggettivo qualificativo - qualifier adjective il diminutivo - diminutive il vezzeggiativo - nickname, term of endearment il pronome - pronoun il soggetto - subject il sostantivo **- noun il complemento - complement il complemento diretto / oggetto - direct object/complement il complemento indiretto - indirect complement l’attributo - attribute le interiezioni - interjection l’abbreviazione - abbreviation  la punteggiatura - punctuation il punto - full stop, period, dot il punto e virgola - semicolon i due punti - colon, two points la virgola - comma i puntini di sospensione - dots, ellipsis il punto esclamativo - exclamaton point il punto di domanda - question mark la lettera maiuscola - capital letter le sillabe - syllables monosillabo - monosyllable trittongo - triphthong dividere in sillabe, sillabare - to syllabify (andare) a capo - to start a new line  parlare - to speak, to talk, to make a speech raccontare, narrare - to tell, to narrate dire, esporre, enunciare - to say, to express chiacchierare, discorrere - to chat, to converse  balbettare, tartagliare - to stutter borbottare, mormorare, biascicare - to mutter spifferare - to blab, to tell tales sussurrare, mormorare, bisbigliare - to whisper, to murmur urlare - shout, scream, cry out sbandierare, vantarsi - to flaunt, to spread discutere - discuss  discutere, litigare - to argue, to disagree, to fight aprire bocca - open your mouth, speak scrivere - to write leggere - to read comporre - to compose, to arrange non aprire bocca! / acqua in bocca! - don’t speak!, don’t say anything! chiudi la bocca! / stai zitto! - shut up!  Luca mi ha raccontato la tua storia. - Luca told me your story Ho parlato con Lucia - I spoke with Lucia La mamma ha detto che non dovremmo non litigare. - Mum said we should not fight. Con chi ho il piacere di parlare? - With whom I have the pleasure of speaking? Asino di natura chi non sa leggere la sua scrittura (saying) - literally: dunce by nature s/he who cannot read her/his own writing Come dice il proverbio .... - As the saying goes...

[worldbuildingwren]

“Syllabify” your character names

Hi guys!

So I’m a Computer Science major (shocking, I know) and I’m currently messing around with coding a English-language “syllabifier”, taking words and breaking them up into their respective syllables. I’m testing it right now, looking for weird English-spelling rules that I’ve forgotten to code in, and I need cases to throw at it. 

I figured, what better place than writeblr to get interesting names and words that I wouldn’t think to try! Not only will this help me loads, it will also let you know how the average English-speaker will read your character’s name. 

Reply with your names or shoot me an ask, and I will let you know what my code comes up with!

[bitchsexuality]

quick question before i go to sleep but how would you syllabify the word “delivery”? like i’m helping edit a crossword magazine and they put it as “de-li-very” and something tells me that’s. not quite right

(mostly because it sounds weird to my spanish speaking ass -i would say it’s “de-li-ve-ry”-, but then again i don’t really know and google isn’t giving me any good answers, hence my asking)

[7r0773r]

Brink Road by A. R. Ammons

FASCICLE

There’s a rift of days sunny (not too windy, not too cold) between leaf- and snowfall when raking works: away on a weekend, you could

miss it and rain could sog everything slick-flat  or gusts could leave no leaf not lifting off the ground: stick

around the house, a big sheet ready, a strong-caned rake strung tight, and catch the sun just when it stills the air dry: that’s likely

to be before some cold front frost-furring the saw-edged leaves glistened brittle, clouds tightening the horizon: then the white leaves fly.

***

THE DEEP SNOW

The pheasant’s skinny feet skid on ice freezing rain polished the snow with last night and around the round birdfeeder’s tin roof

a carousel of icicles drops  part way nearly shutting the birds out: heaviness heavier  than leaves glazes  bush and branch, the hemlocks withered

old men come up from lakebottom: if the clouds weren’t  easing along oozing occasional bright edges, this could be the condition the world had settled on.

***

THE WAY OF ONE’S DESIRE

One not lost finds no way: terror brightens what it sees: home’s a destination one

departs with to part with: okay never looks to be okay, and not-okay, looking, sees

the only not-okay: you who know, even as if not knowing,  tell me, how does one err

to find one’s erring: where in the wild are the wiles  that school the way back home?

***

KILLING STUFF OFF

These geese flying over now will be late geese, the territories north already split

up and claimed: they’ll have to fly farther (north, north) till lichen’s

the ground brush and chill never leaves the nest: I wonder if geese do go that far,

lay eggs in frizzled moss and shrivel through cold summers: geese mostly squabble over

at about the right time, error kept low by high mortality among the very early and late: the

extremes are costly as usual, I’m afraid, even if that’s where persistency’s invention cuts

most sharply new, necessity permafrost: but there’s no use to worry; things shape

themselves: still, in the short run, when  I hear geese going over this late, my heart swerves, my throat jumps, late, late.

***

ALL’S ALL

A construed entity too lessened to syllabify; a mite or mote dimpling domy generalization; a vague locus (the flow of air

through prisons) a puff of the whiff of a snail falling asleep; stringy recollections of fruitflies cruising rosy bowlsful of

mangoes ripening mild: ghostly leavings leaving  ghosts leave: retinal worms empurpling light scars behind today’s views: bits of

retrenched nothings: so much so, little and all alternately disappear: the tiniest kiss at the world’s end ends the world.

***

FOR MY BELOVED SON

The blackberries that ripened soon after you left are

ripening again and thunderstorms after the broken-down winter

are rolling through here again: I keep looking for the season

that will bring you home: I don’t know how many times

I’ve put in the seed, watered  the plants, counted the blossoms.

***

OLD GEEZER

The quickest way to change

the world is to

like it the  way it

is.

***

ENFIELD FALLS

I don’t understand why the stream before the falls over by Enfield reminds me of my own going through

things when it narrows to  a pass and sinks moiling through a foot-wide sluice where the water’s

so fast the banks back up: that coming to a necessity, like being born or dying or getting to the

dentist, that tensing and speeding up, turbulence, and then the opening out on the other side, easing

up, turning into sheets mist-thin falling, air’s weight, over the fall’s edge: I don’t know

why this is and is not like things  I’ve felt: they say nature is almost  contemptuously beneath me now, I’m so

separate, my destiny so different from water’s, and I agree, at least, in part, but also I don’t understand why

what I have to take on, tense to, seems easier, clearer, and more to be expected just because water expresses motions

that look like my emotions: if we could be a little at home here! . . . racing, falling, easing away.

***

SUMMER PLACE [excerpts]

poets have no intention of saying what they mean: so they say something else that means what they mean...

you may be the type of person who can’t understand why anybody would want to write poetry, let alone read it: that’s where the reading mainly is, let

alone: most people would rather be a fountain than a basin, for some reason: but as for writing, why,  it’s like walking, you aren’t working but you aren’t

doing nothing...

[tomasorban]

The Wheel of fortune - Arcanum 10

In this lecture we are going to study the Arcanum 10 of the Tarot. It is necessary to analyze the cosmogonic wheel of Ezekiel. In this wheel, we find the battle of antitheses. Hermanubis rises on the right and Typhon descends through the left of the fatal wheel. This is the wheel of the centuries, the wheel of reincarnations and of karma. Upon the wheel appears the mystery of the sphinx grasps the flaming sword between its lion’s paws. This is the wheel of antithesis. The serpent of brass that healed the Israelites in the wilderness and the terrible, tempting serpent of Eden are mutually combating each other.

The entire secret of the Tree of Knowledge is enclosed within this wheel; the four rivers of paradise flow from this unique fountain, one of them runs through the thick sunny jungle watering the philosophical earth of gold and light and the other tenebrously and turbulently runs into the Kingdom of the Abyss. Light and darkness, White Magic and Black Magic, are mutually combating each other. Eros and Anteros, Cain and Abel, live within us in an intense battle, until by discovering the mystery of the sphinx, we grasp the flaming sword, and thus, this is how we become liberated from the wheel of the centuries.

Lunar Conscience

The lunar conscience is the outcome of our unfaithful memory; this type of Consciousness sleeps profoundly. The humanoid has conscience of that which he remembers; no humanoid has conscience of that which he does not remember. The sinning Adam is memory, he is the same reincarnating ego, he is the lunar conscience. Clairvoyants affirm that the atoms of the secret enemy constitute this conscience and that it is a tenebrous remnant of our lunar past (a threshold’s larva).

Our Gnostic disciples must comprehend the significance of this type of conscience: the lunar conscience is something that must be conscious; and it needs someone who is conscious of it. The lunar conscience is submitted to every type of limitation, qualification, restriction, reaction; it is the outcome of matter, the outcome of our race’s inheritance, family, habits, customs, prejudices, desires, fears, appetencies, etc. The sinning Adam with his lunar conscience reincarnates with the goal of gaining more experiences within the school of life. However, life’s experiences complicate and strengthen the sinning Adam. The once innocent humanity from Eden is now this terrible and perverse humanity of the atomic and hydrogen bomb.

The innocent child (with the experiences of life) is converted into a sly, distrustful, malicious, avaricious, fearful elder; such is the lunar conscience. The devil is a devil and can never acquire perfection. The great Master H.P. Blavatsky stated: “Strengthen your soul against the stalking of your ‘I;’ make her worthy to bear the name of ‘Diamond Soul.’”

Solar Conscience

There exist changes in the lunar conscience and there exist changes of Consciousness. Every improvement in the lunar conscience originates changes within it. These types of changes in the lunar conscience are superficial and useless. What we need is a change of Consciousness. When we dissolve the lunar Consciousness then the solar Consciousness is born within us.

It is necessary for the sinning Adam to die within us so that Adam-Christ can be born within us. We grasp the flaming sword when we liberate the solar electronic energy that is enclosed within the seminal atoms.

Perseus descends into the flaming forge of Vulcan in order to decapitate the sinning Adam (Medusa) with his flaming sword. John the Baptist is decapitated and Christ is crucified in order to save the world. The slaughter of the innocent children (the initiates) is a repetitive action throughout the initiation. This is how the solar Consciousness is born within us; this type of Consciousness contains in itself the knower, the knowledge and the known thing, three in one and one in three. The solar Consciousness is omnipresent and omni-penetrating. The solar Consciousness liberates the human being from the fatal wheel of the centuries.

Sexual Cycles

Uranus is the octave of Venus. It governs the masculine and feminine facets of sex. It has a sexual cycle of eighty-four years. Uranus’s cycle is divided into two periods of 42 years, positive-masculine and negative-feminine. Uranus’ two poles are always facing toward the sun. For 42 years the positive pole is directed towards the sun and another 42 years the negative pole. Now we can understand where that alternated stimuli for both sexes comes from; the marvelous biorhythm of 84 years. The wheel of the centuries rotates in periods of forty-two years each. The masculine sex predominates for one half and the feminine sex for the other half. The sexual cycle of Uranus corresponds with the average length of a human life; this signifies that the antithesis of the sexual cycle in which we were born, vibrates within us during our adulthood. Then we feel sexually stimulated. We comprehend why mature men and women are indeed mature enough to work in the Great Work, because sexual sentiments are more vigorous at forty years of age.

Light and Consciousness

Light and Consciousness are two phenomena of the same thing. The more levels of Christic Consciousnesswe develop the more levels of light we attain. The planets are gradually absorbing the Christic Consciousness of the Sun. Thus when the planets of our solar system have integrally absorbed the divine Solar Consciousness, then life, light, and heat will no longer occupy only the astronomical place of the sun, but the entire solar system will then shine like the sun. This is the case of the gigantic sun Antares, which is a million times more rarified than our sun. The light of the solar system of Antares is not only localized in its sun, because each one of its planets has become a sun. The planetary humanities enjoy the solar Consciousness; the outcome of this joy is the splendors of the solar system of Antares.

The Ten Sephiroth

Ten Sephiroth are spoken of, but in reality, there are twelve. The Ain Soph is the eleventh, and the twelfth Sephirah is its tenebrous antithesis within the Abyss.

These are twelve spheres, or universal regions, which mutually penetrate and co-penetrate without confusion. These twelve spheres gravitate within the central atom of the sign of the infinite. A solar humanity unfolds within these twelve spheres. We have said that the sign of the Infinite is in the center of the earth, in the heart of the earth. The Ten Sephiroth of universal vibration emanate from the Ain Soph (the Microcosmic star) that guides our interior. The Ain Soph is the Being of our Being.

The Ten Sephiroth emanate from the Ain Soph as follows:

First, Kether, the Ancient of Days

Second, Chokmah, the region of wisdom

Third, Binah, intelligence

Fourth, Chesed, the world of the Innermost

Fifth, Geburah, the world of soul-Consciousness, the region of rigor and justice

Sixth, Tiphereth, the causal world, the region of willpower, equilibrium and beauty

Seventh, Netzach, the region of victory, the world of the mental man (anyone who liberates himself from the four bodies of sin is a Buddha).

Eighth, Hod, the splendor, the region of the Astral body

Ninth, Yesod, foundation, sex, the ethereal plane

Tenth, Malkuth, the kingdom in general, the physical world; Malkuth is a supreme filter; from this region we depart to the Ain Soph or to the abyss, such is the law.

The Sephiroth are atomic; these ten Sephiroth can be reduced to three tables:

First: The Quantum Table of the radiant energy that comes from the Sun

Second: The Atomic Weight Table of the Elements of Nature

Third: The Molecular Weight Table of the Compounds

This is Jacob’s ladder, which goes from earth to heaven. All of the worlds of cosmic Consciousness are reduced to these three tables.

All of the ten known Sephiroth come from Sephirah, the Divine Mother; She dwells in the Heart Temple.

Direct Clue for Direct Knowledge

It is necessary that our Gnostic disciples learn how to leave their physical body in order to travel with their internal vehicles with complete cognizance in order to penetrate within the distinct Sephirothic regions.

It is necessary to directly know the twelve spheres of universal vibration, where all of the being of the universe develops and lives. The disciple must concentrate on the chakra of the heart, which is where the Divine Cosmic Mother abides. The disciple must beseech Sephirah, the Mother of the Sephiroth; the disciple muse beg her to take him out of his physical body in order to take him to the distinct departments of the kingdom in order to directly study the Sephiroth of Kabbalah. The disciple must pray and meditate abundantly on the Divine Mother while mentally vocalizing the following Kabbalistic mantras:

Lifaros – Lifaros – Licanto – Ligoria

Vocalize these mantras by syllabifying them. If you carefully observe the intelligent phonetic structure of these mantras, you will see the three vowels I.A.O. of the great mysteries.

I.A.O. is hidden and combined in these sacred mantras of Kabbalah. The disciple must become sleepy while mentally vocalizing these four Kabbalistic mantras. It is necessary to practice a retrospective exercise when awakening from our normal sleep; this in order to remember what we have seen and heard during the dream.