Take an English-based nonsense word generator, enter its output into ChatGPT, and invite the Ai to create definitions for the nonsense words and we might actually be able to finally make English as expressive as German!
Here are 20 imaginary words with definitions provided by ChatGPT:
- Foreseng: (verb) To predict or foresee an event or outcome.
- Ramboad: (noun) A type of plant with thick, fleshy stems and leaves used for nourishment and medicine.
- Pacitabspaw: (adjective) Describing a calm, peaceful, and serene environment or atmosphere.
- Biliters: (noun) Small, round objects made of metal, glass or plastic used for decoration or as symbols of good luck.
- Tremplundie: (verb) To shake or quiver intensely, often in reference to an object or structure.
- Sporhotter: (noun) A device or apparatus used for generating and distributing heat or warmth.
- Foursts: (noun) A dense, forested area or wooded land.
- Prologradiffix: (verb) To modify, alter or change the progress of an ongoing event or process.
- Calinewba: (noun) A plant with large, fragrant flowers used in perfumes and aromatherapy.
- Clobvidutic: (adjective) Describing something as dense, compact and heavy.
- Sepates: (verb) To divide or separate into distinct parts or entities.
- Callivitner: (noun) An individual with a calm and composed demeanor, often associated with wisdom and serenity.
- Perginstants: (noun) Small, persistent pieces or remnants that remain after a larger entity has diminished.
- Buentively: (adverb) In a manner that is active, energetic, and productive.
- Croidsidi: (noun) A type of animal known for its agility, speed and grace.
- Fulcully: (adjective) Describing something as full and abundant, often in reference to material possessions or resources.
- Adroman: (noun) A person who excels at and enjoys public speaking, storytelling or performing.
- Antlesely: (adverb) In a manner that is slow, careful and deliberate.
- Piectidyei: (noun) A small, decorative item or trinket, often made of precious metal or gemstone.
- Slocopridders: (noun) A type of machine or device used for cutting or slicing objects or materials.
Happy Friday!
Refuge Box on the pilgrim’s path to The Holy Island by Graham Robson
Today I learned about the Refuge Boxes that sit on the tidal flats between the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and the mainland of Great Britain. It is little more than a platform perched above the sand, but for travelers stranded on the flats when the tide comes in, it provides temporary refuge from the sea.
The Northumberland poet, Katrina Porteous wrote a lovely long poem on the Refuge Box which begins thus:
I
At the edge of the Low, the wind blows cold.
A world that is water and not waterStretches away, reticulate;
Shaken within it, redshank, godwit,
Their scraps and patches of safety shrinking,
Spreading. Miles of sand-flats. Glittering
Streams and ribbons of water, weaving
Earth and sky; between them, the golden
Island, afloat on equivocation,
Or safely grounded there, the tide
Either coming or going around it, the road
Snaking towards it, narrow, human.
Fade up seals, low Hooooo.
You reach the Danger sign, and stop.
You want it, that Island, stretched out like a ship
Ashore on its saltings, adrift in a sea
So blue and endless, you’d think the sky
Had swallowed it up, or else had fallen
Smack down into its own reflection.
Out from the causeway, over the sand,
Guideposts narrow towards the Island,
The mirror-image of their own
Vanishing – an invitation.
The Slakes answer the sky’s question:
Blue?
Blue.
Now, will you
Step out into an unknown element?
All of us, pilgrims in the world, need a refuge box from time to time.
This coast is wet in the fall and winter. We get pummelled by atmospheric rivers that bring strong warm winds and days of rain from the south west. We get drizzled on by orographic rain. We get soaked by passing fronts. And the land drinks it up, the rivers swell and call the salmon back. If you don’t love rain, this is a very hard place to live from October through to March., when the light is dim and the air moist. Me, I’ve grown to love it. I love to be out in the rain, walking about, listening to it on the hood of my jacket, sitting by the sea and watching is dapple the surface.
This is a video of some Nuu Chah Nulth language speakers from Hesquiaht on the west coast of Vancouver Island on the north end of Clayoquot Sound. And not just any language speakers but Julia Lucas, Simon Lucas and Maggie Ignace. I first met Julia and Simon in 1989 on my first trip to the west coast when I visited their village for a week and got to spend time with them. They are revered Elders. Simon, who passed away in 2017, was a a lifelong champion for Nuu Chah Nulth fishing and political rights and Julia has been a knowledge keeper, educator and language teacher for decades. Maggie is one of the many Nuu Chah Nulth language learners who are building up their fluency thanks to videos like this and programs.
Largely inspired by a slow reading through this paper (“Over reliance on English hinders cognitive science“) I’ve been thinking a bit today about the Indigenous languages of this region and how they point at such different ways of looking at the world, while I sip team and watch the rain. While surfing and I stumbled upon this video today, noting that OF COURSE Nuu Chah Nulth has a word for “a person who walks around in any weather” and I was really touched to see Julia and Simon here.
For years Peter Levine, a moral/political philosopher who teaches at Tufts University, has been a must-read for me for his musings on civic engagement, democracy, policy, history and philosophy. Today he celebrates 20 years of blogging with the release of “Cuttings: a book about happiness” that is a collection of his collected blog posts on “Happiness” which is so much more than that title implies. The book is a set of reflections on philosophical texts, religious scriptures, and poetry, Buried in the text is a little observation that I suspect says something about who he is:
So we have a model of the humane and sensitive educated person as one who has been
— Peter Levine, Cuttings: A book about happiness v1.0, p. 20
habituated by the reading of moving stories to be empathetic and thus to show mercy or
otherwise depart from harsh decisions.
I have never met this person in real life, but his character shines through his deep and considered blog posts, and this collection is a lovely gift to savour.
As the year comes to a close, I think I have struck a nice balance with Mastodon. It really is a platform much better suited to micro-blogging than twitter ever was. It provides enough characters to properly comment on one link, and invites conversation. And so I THINK I will be mostly posting links from my daily reading there and summing them up here. So enjoy these gems I have found over the past few weeks. You can follow me there at @chriscorrigan@mstdn.ca.
- A little summary of some teaching I did earlier this year with Kelly Foxcroft-Poirier
- The Yard Sale game and why extreme wealth inequality is inevitable without intervention: Why the Super Rich are Inevitable.
- An interesting read about possible futures of Northern Ireland: How realistic is the doomsday scenario?
- A deep dive into four seasons of photos of TSS Rovers FC courtesy of our supporters’ group, The Swanguardians.
- If you have never discovered The Marginalian (formerly “Brain Pickings”) then you are in for a treat. If you are home with your kids this week, you will need this particular entry: How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself: A Timely Vintage Field Guide to Self-Reliant Play and Joyful Solitude
- Rating the best Colorado beaver dams of 2022: The Best Dam Year End List
- The Sky Don’t Have No Roof: The last Ornette Coleman interview
- William Shatner on his experience of the overview effect and how it changes you. I can relate, not from travelling to space (I wish!) but from working across many different organizations and sectors. Life lives in relationships.
- A reflection on how co-operatives might be the way forward for Medicare, as they were at the outset.
- The first Romantics. An engaging long read about the cultural effect of an 18th century German university town and its creation of Romanticism.
That is plenty for now. And so I leave you with this blessing which I wrote and put into a rare Facebook post along with the above photo:
When the mist rises up off the sea After a day of rain and wind And you lift your eyes into the falling darkness With a sigh on your breath And weary in your heart May your eyes catch the sun That finds its way down the valley Creeps across the ridges Filters through the trees And lifts the fog from the bottomlands And fills it with diaphanous tendrils of beauty. May the light shine through for you in 2023.