Another snippet from my life, and then I'm off!

[conuly]

When I was little-little*, I honestly used to think that if I stood very very still and didn't move, people would think I was a statue. If I stood even stiller (more still?), I'd turn invisible.

I believed this despite the fact that it didn't work. At all.

I also thought that there was no way to think a lie. You could think something like "I'm going to say the sky is green" or "I wonder if the sky could be green", but you couldn't think "Gee, the sky sure is green!" unless it actually was green. Finally, when I turned seven or so, I decided to test this hypothesis by thinking a lie. I was actually scared to do this, because I suspected that the actual act of thinking a lie might make me sick, or even kill me.

No, I don't know where I got that idea.

And now I'm gone! Djusk' a!

*_{Lately, I've noticed that I reduplicate when I ought to just say "very". Why? Does anybody else do this? Have I always done this? Did I do this before I learned of reduplication? Is it annoying, or interesting?}

Comments

[mhari.livejournal.com]

I was actually scared to do this, because I suspected that the actual act of thinking a lie might make me sick, or even kill me.

Heh. I used to be scared of reading aloud, because by enacting the characters I might somehow turn into them.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I reduplicate when I ought to just say "very".

I do that, too. It has a different feel in my head than 'very' does.

I honestly used to think that if I stood very very still and didn't move, people would think I was a statue. If I stood even stiller (more still?), I'd turn invisible.

I sometimes think I _was_ invisible when standing still enough, and quiet enough.

I also was able to disappear into beds because I was tiny and tended to be completely under the covers.

_AND_ I had enough patience that I could get close enough to touch small animals and birds, although I never _did_ touch.

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

I do the reduplicating thing ever since I went to Trinidad last year, where they do it, and a linguist I met there explained that the practice goes back to East (or was it West?) Africa and was brought over to Trinidad with slavery. I don't know that I ever did it before I went there, but now I do it all the time.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

I'm hearing "little-little" a lot in Wolves of the Calla right now-- perhaps you picked it up from reading/listening? Other people do it, anyway.

When I was little, I used to track back my thoughts and figure out where they had branched into different directions and go down the thought paths I hadn't already explored.... all of this took time, during which I would space off and people worried I was retarded or something.

[yadfothgildloc.livejournal.com]

"*Lately, I've noticed that I reduplicate when I ought to just say "very". Why? Does anybody else do this? Have I always done this? Did I do this before I learned of reduplication? Is it annoying, or interesting?"

It's a practice common in semetic languages. Hebrew, for example, which only got words for "very" and "more" recently, doubles nouns. See the prayer "asher yatzar" said after using the bathroom - uvara bo n'kuvim n'kuvim chalulim chalulim ("and created in him cavities, cavites, hollows, hollows.") I know that Akkadian and Aramaic also did it, I suspect Classical Arabic did and also Ugaritic.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I have often disappeared on beds or couches when I had something to cover me - as an adult. Which is all well and good, until someone tosses their bookbag onto me.

[leora.livejournal.com]

My mother was once told of my brother, "He's either very smart or very stupid."

He was repeatedly setting off an alarm, but he was slightly varying how he did so each time.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* I won't conjecture which it is in my case.... in your brother's, the "slightly varying" would tend to point towards very smart, wouldn't it.

My nephew Danny had the same habit as me, where he would "lose time" and get sort of lost and spacey. My family was all worried that he had inherited a learning disability from his dad, or was just ADD or something. I tried to remind them that I'd done the exact same thing as a child, and he was probably just thinking, but since my brother and I aren't related by blood, and I don't live near enough to Danny to have taught him this behavior, they all dismissed this particular theory.

Yeah. The kid tests off the charts and is a little freakin' genius. See? I *told* you so! (grin) He was just thinking.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh, my brother is very smart. All of my siblings are. But he tested highest of us - off the charts. Although my other brother is also very smart, tested lowest, but I don't think they were testing the right things. Plus, he was the sort less likely to just go through an IQ test seriously.

It's a genetic thing, obviously. Alas, so are the health problems. I'm from a culture that for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years has been finding intelligence and scholarship to be attractive - the traits you want in a partner. And while it doesn't say health is bad, it doesn't focus on good health. So, frail geniuses it is. Those of us able to use our abilities and choosing to (my younger older sister isn't exactly not using them, but she's focused on parenting her children, so it's not as obvious a use) have pretty nifty accomplishments. But I feel a bit like a mayfly - better burn fast while you still can.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

I do the little-little thing.

Not out loud, but written/typed/thought, yes.

I'm working on my Small Animal thing-- we have a kitten hiding in our backyard.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

I was actually scared to do this, because I suspected that the actual act of thinking a lie might make me sick, or even kill me.

Heh. I used to be scared of reading aloud, because by enacting the characters I might somehow turn into them.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I reduplicate when I ought to just say "very".

I do that, too. It has a different feel in my head than 'very' does.

I honestly used to think that if I stood very very still and didn't move, people would think I was a statue. If I stood even stiller (more still?), I'd turn invisible.

I sometimes think I _was_ invisible when standing still enough, and quiet enough.

I also was able to disappear into beds because I was tiny and tended to be completely under the covers.

_AND_ I had enough patience that I could get close enough to touch small animals and birds, although I never _did_ touch.

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

I do the reduplicating thing ever since I went to Trinidad last year, where they do it, and a linguist I met there explained that the practice goes back to East (or was it West?) Africa and was brought over to Trinidad with slavery. I don't know that I ever did it before I went there, but now I do it all the time.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

I'm hearing "little-little" a lot in Wolves of the Calla right now-- perhaps you picked it up from reading/listening? Other people do it, anyway.

When I was little, I used to track back my thoughts and figure out where they had branched into different directions and go down the thought paths I hadn't already explored.... all of this took time, during which I would space off and people worried I was retarded or something.

[yadfothgildloc.livejournal.com]

"*Lately, I've noticed that I reduplicate when I ought to just say "very". Why? Does anybody else do this? Have I always done this? Did I do this before I learned of reduplication? Is it annoying, or interesting?"

It's a practice common in semetic languages. Hebrew, for example, which only got words for "very" and "more" recently, doubles nouns. See the prayer "asher yatzar" said after using the bathroom - uvara bo n'kuvim n'kuvim chalulim chalulim ("and created in him cavities, cavites, hollows, hollows.") I know that Akkadian and Aramaic also did it, I suspect Classical Arabic did and also Ugaritic.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I have often disappeared on beds or couches when I had something to cover me - as an adult. Which is all well and good, until someone tosses their bookbag onto me.

[leora.livejournal.com]

My mother was once told of my brother, "He's either very smart or very stupid."

He was repeatedly setting off an alarm, but he was slightly varying how he did so each time.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* I won't conjecture which it is in my case.... in your brother's, the "slightly varying" would tend to point towards very smart, wouldn't it.

My nephew Danny had the same habit as me, where he would "lose time" and get sort of lost and spacey. My family was all worried that he had inherited a learning disability from his dad, or was just ADD or something. I tried to remind them that I'd done the exact same thing as a child, and he was probably just thinking, but since my brother and I aren't related by blood, and I don't live near enough to Danny to have taught him this behavior, they all dismissed this particular theory.

Yeah. The kid tests off the charts and is a little freakin' genius. See? I *told* you so! (grin) He was just thinking.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh, my brother is very smart. All of my siblings are. But he tested highest of us - off the charts. Although my other brother is also very smart, tested lowest, but I don't think they were testing the right things. Plus, he was the sort less likely to just go through an IQ test seriously.

It's a genetic thing, obviously. Alas, so are the health problems. I'm from a culture that for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years has been finding intelligence and scholarship to be attractive - the traits you want in a partner. And while it doesn't say health is bad, it doesn't focus on good health. So, frail geniuses it is. Those of us able to use our abilities and choosing to (my younger older sister isn't exactly not using them, but she's focused on parenting her children, so it's not as obvious a use) have pretty nifty accomplishments. But I feel a bit like a mayfly - better burn fast while you still can.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

I do the little-little thing.

Not out loud, but written/typed/thought, yes.

I'm working on my Small Animal thing-- we have a kitten hiding in our backyard.