Dragging My Feet, and other phrases

I’m sick. Well, actually, I’m almost sick, which is worse. I’ve been fighting something now for about 2-3 weeks. It’s not your usual cold where you’re down for a bit and bounce back, and it’s not that quick punch in the head of a flu that drops you in bed for two days of solid moaning.

It feels like depression in that I’m not sick enough to stay home from work, but I’m too sick to actually get any work done

This, this is more like depression. Really. I mean, I can tell it’s not clinical depression- mostly because of the scratchy throat, chills and other typical signs of a cold. But it feels like depression in that I’m not sick enough to stay home from work, but I’m too sick to actually get any work done. I feel bad for Jessie, actually. For the past two weeks I’ve been moping around in a techy mood. Can’t imagine it’s very fun for her.

Anyway, I’ve been dragging my feet writing an article- and have been inspired by the dedication of others such as Cami Kaos who are determined to write and article everyday. Seriously, an article everyday! That’s a lot to keep up with, so I thought I’d get one down. A series of thoughts about about phrases and culture.

The Joy of Linquistics

There’s a bright side to being sick. I learned something today. I always perk up a bit when I learn something (probably why I love Programming so much- it’s constant learning). I learned something and it felt like a bright side. Actually, I feel that I must have known this at some level previously and forgotten it. It’s the meaning of a phrase.

I’ve studied many languages over the years and every time I do I’m struck by the sense of culture and world view you get from another people’s language.

The former linguistics student in me loves thinking along these lines: What does that phrase actually mean? I ask the question to myself from a cultural, not practical perspective. There are a lot of phrases that mean more culturally than we give them credit for. I’ve studied many languages over the years and every time I do I’m struck by the sense of culture and world view you get from another people’s language. Colloquial phrases are the best place to see this.

I decided to write this post because I was walking down the hall this morning on on of my many trips to the bathroom and I realized, apparently for the first time, what dragging my feet actually meant! It’s just a figure of speech, like dialing a phone or any other figure of speech, but today, for the first time it seemed, the meaning hit home.

Because I was actually dragging my feet.

Here are three from hundreds of examples that I’ve collected over the years.

Thank you: Iceland

Traveling in Iceland, I smiled every time someone said thank you (Takk) because it was such an easy thing to say. It rolled off the tongue so fast. Icelandic people are very cold, formal people- yet they are also the warmest, friendliest people you’ve ever known. Strange to get a grip on at first- but Takk helped me. Takk says: “There are formalities, there is distance, but there’s also the desire to say nice things like ‘thank you’,  and to say them a lot. These things are so fundamental to us that we can’t be troubled with more than one syllable.” Nice thought- even if I just made it up.

Hello/greeting: China

There are so many echnic groups that it’s actually difficult to fathom the cultural space of the country

Okay, to say that anything is “like this” in China is an idiocy, because there are so many echnic groups that it’s actually difficult to fathom the cultural space of the country. A greeting is no exception. There are many ways different ethnic/linguistic/geographic groups in China greet each other. While studying Chinese in college, I was struck by the culture and history behind one in particular.

“Have You Eaten?” is, loosely translated, how many people in Northern China greet each other. I don’t know about you, but I thought that was just plain cool. Chinese is a tonal and pictoral language with sounds not present in English, so writing chifanle maiyou (or, quickly, fanle?), gets you only about 30% of the way on the road to pronunciation- but it basically means “have you had a bowl of rice yet?” People throw that out as a greeting the way we throw out “how’s it going?” (i.e. often without expecting an answer). There’s a lot of cultural difference in asking “have you eaten?” It tells me that culturally, the people in this region have a history of feeding each other. Another nice thought.

Hello/greeting: Lakhota

My last example comes from Native America- and is the longest because I know it most intimately.

My family was not lucky enough to retain our native languages (Lenape and Lakhota). But it always amazes me how much of my Father’s teaching I could not explain adequately. Somehow, he put these concepts in my head that are just so hard to explain to Western speakers. I couldn’t understand, because even though I’m a native English speaker, I couldn’t find the words to express the meaning.

There’s no word. There’s no word because there’s no concept- if there is no concept, it doesn’t exist.

One such concept I grew up with is transliterated as “tiospaye.” There’s no word for tiospaye in English- or any other Indo-European language that I know of. There’s no word. There’s no word because there’s no concept- if there is no concept, it doesn’t exist.

That’s a powerful thought- or, more importantly, the lack of one.

This lack of concept struck home for me as I was writing my wedding prayer (in Lakhota). There’s actually no way to adequately translate this word without 17 paragraphs of history and cultural discussion! The best you can say is that tiospaye is “extended family” in English. But it’s more- and different- than that. Emma G. on Herstory (An excellent personal blog, BTW, for it’s honesty and depth) describes it literally as a group “ospaye” that lives together “ti.”¹ Even as she describes it, you can hear her disappointment in not being able to complete the thought. Because the words aren’t there.

Tiospaye is the center of Native American cultural existence- and the concept is about as Pan-Indian as it gets

Tiospaye is the center of Native American cultural existence- and the concept is about as Pan-Indian as it gets. Tiopaye does mean the family, but it also means the extended family, and it means the other families around you. It is your total space, the center of the world from which all spirals and extends. It’s important for what it teaches you, but also for what it learns. You see, your tiospaye is part of a greater whole, and all are the same blood. Everyone in your tiospaye is your family- your immediate family- as best that can be translated. Every one else is your extended family. Everyone.

No. Seriously people. Everyone.

People over the mountains, people across the sea, people you haven’t met, people you don’t like, Raven people, Wolf people and Bear people. All people. All of these people are your extended family. We are all the same blood.

In every Native American language that I know- and many African and Asian ones as well, interestingly- you greet everyone as- and this is an incorrect English translation, but the best we have- cousin. It may be something closer to Auntie or Uncle if they are older and you’re showing respect, but the idea’s the same.

Cousin.

This entire concept is always difficult for me to explain, and even here it is not complete. This is as close as I can get. We greet one another as cousins. As members of our extended family. All people, without exception.

They are not strangers, they are not animals, they are not savages. They are family. They are mitakoye oyasin. They are your relations, all of them. And so the first thing you do, is greet them and acknowledge them as a member of your family.

Then, you can begin the conversation.

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1. Incidentally, tee-pee comes from this same verb “to live,” and means something more like “he/they lives there” [↩]