Thursday, February 11, 2016

Dale Wisely

THE LANGUAGE OF WINTER AND LOVE

The Inuit dialect,
spoken in Canada's
Nunavik region,
has at least 53 words
for snow,
including "matsaauti,'
for wet snow
that can be used
to ice a sleigh's runners.

A tutorial on how to say
"I love you" in French
requires five steps,
the fourth of which
instructs the reader
on the addition of
"ma chérie" or "mon chéri"
for "my darling."

Men and women in regions
of Indiana and Ohio
have at least nine
words or phrases
to refer to the remote control
for a fireplace. One of those
is "InfraLog Igniter 3000."

But, informally, and
addressed to an intimate,
one might hear an American say,
"Hey, how about handing me
the fireclicker, Girl-Baby?"


Dale Wisely edits Right Hand Pointing, One Sentence Poems, and White Knuckle. He is a psychologist in the Deep South.

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