Between

You probably know that English is considered to have the most words of all comparable languages. Depending how you count the English vocabulary, there are 250 000 to 750 000 words (short explanations HERE and HERE). I learned English and became a bilingual person as an adult. “Bilinguals are those who use two or more languages (or dialects) in their everyday lives”. This is my favorite definition of bilingualism by Professor Fransois Grosjean. What I love about this definition - it is inclusive, not exclusive. It does not matter as much how well you know another language (or dialect). It does not matter if you use it conversationally or you only write or read in it. What matters is that you use it in your everyday life. More than half the people in the world are bilingual, by this definition. And to me as a linguist, bilingual person who is raising a bilingual child, and someone who worked with dozens and dozens of bilingual children and families for a few years, this really makes sense on a deep level. My bilingual brain works in somewhat whimsical ways, and I don't always know when I think in Russian and when in English. Very often its almost like being in two languages at the same time, or somewhere in between two languages, when they intertwine, whether I think, write or speak. The concepts which I either learn or simply use more often in English will creep in the form of English or Russianized English words when I think/speak/write in Russian. And vice versa - for some concepts I learned in Russian it is not easy for me to find English equivalent words. English has so many words that it probably does not really need other new ones - yet the new words keep getting created all the time, English is a quite "open-minded" language that way (which one can't say about English writing, "we write Manchester, but read Liverpool"). There are so many synonyms in English, so many ways to express just one meaning, and at the same time many words that can express a very precise nuance which, being translated into other languages, sometimes require a whole phrase. Yet at times, there are certain pretty significant concepts which have their own words in my native language, and seem to be overlooked in English. One of them is a classic linguistic textbook example - are you ready? There is no special word in English which means "a 24 hour period." How is it even possible in the language with at least a quarter of million words? :)

Sure there is a concept, and sure there is a need for the word, so people use the word "day" or, if they want to emphasize, a phrase "day and night", or, if it's the business world, a phrase "twenty four seven", which is very handy when written in numbers ("24/7 5 days a week" - remember the joke from Frasier?), or if you are in the hotel industry, the word "night" instead of "day" (you never pay "per day" in a hotel, right? It's always "per night"). There is apparently a scientific term for "24 hour period" or "day and night" in English - nychthemeron, which not surprisingly comes from Greek. I doubt though that the majority of English speakers know the meaning, and my guess is most of us would have a trouble trying to just pronounce it if we to encounter it in a book. In Russian, on the other hand, there is this very common word, familiar to pretty much everybody with the exception of very young children - sootki (сутки) which comes from the Old Russian language (and probably from the Old Slavic before that). It is a plural form of the old Russian word "junction" (cтык, столкновение). Our ancestors apparently not only noticed that very "junction" of day and night, light and dark, but considered it important enough to give it a special, word of its own. (While they did not seem to think that "snuggle" or "privacy" as concepts really need special words in their language. And if "snuggle" at least as a concept is quite familiar to my native culture, the jury is still out on the concept of privacy.) 

Russian is not the only language which has a special word that means precisely "24 hour period" and nothing else - there are special words for it in Ivrit (Modern Hebrew), Swedish, Dutch, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Bashkir, and Kazakh languages. At least, that's what Wiki article says about it (in Russian).

If you are still with me in my little linguistic adventure today, I'm telling you all this only to get you ready for another word which seems to be missing in the very wordy English language, and it seems extremely relevant to me right now - межсезонье would be what we say in Russian, a noun which literally means "between seasons". I know there is a sport term "off'season" and there is a more generic term "transition" which can be used describing the weather or clothes for this kind of weather, but again - it's not the same as having one special word for the concept, do you get what I mean? Межсезонье, "between two seasons" is exactly what is happening in the world when it has already stopped being Summer, but has not yet fully became Fall. Or any other seasonal transition, like between Winter and Spring in the Southern hemisphere now. It's a beautiful concept and a beautiful word, which notices and cherishes the nuances in nature and in our state of mind. We don't feel comfortable to wear just Summer clothes any longer, and yet it feels a bit too early to fully embrace Autumn. It's in between. It's not a very long period and its borders are quite loose and vary from place to place and from year to year. But it's out there, it's impossibly to miss межсезонье, even if you miss the word, - this vague period of time in between two seasons...

Why do I find all of this so fascinating? I love words, and I love languages. As anything else, when you pay attention, it can tell you a lot about us, people who create and use it. It can give you insights into history, mentality and the soul of a person or the whole culture.

As Justin and I took a walk in the lower part of the Grandview Trail (I think it's called Soundview Trail over in the lower part), he noticed a huge nest on the remains of the old demolished factory where the trail and golf course are built. He zoomed his camera lenses, and sure enough, a magnificent osprey (or sea hawk as they often call this bird here; in Russian the name is apparently скопа - I had no idea) was guarding it. Ospreys usually mate for life, and build their nests near water. They use their nests for many years. I don't know when exactly this nest was built, but people say it was there in the Spring (we did not see it when we were there in March though). It's pretty amazing if you think of it, that the old factory poles are an ideal place for their nests - apparently enthusiasts who want to protect these birds even build poles for their nests!

I wrote about our other encounters with wild animals: a coyote HERE, herons colony HERE, raccoon family and whales HERE (I also created a label "nature encounters" for more fun reads in the future).

There was another sunset, very different from the last week, but that's just one of the great features of sunsets. Oh, and sunrises too, of course.

I turned off the automatic feature in Google Plus which tries to "correct" your photos. I like my photos the way I post them - sometimes I love darkness or intensity of the shots, and that automatic feature drove me crazy from time to time with its artificial lighting up or "smoothing" effects which changes colors and flattens images sometimes too much. To turn it off, go to Google Plus - Home - Settings - Photos - Auto Enhance (just mark "off" and good to go, it saves automatically). There are many other things which are optional, but forced on users "by default". They easily can be changed to your liking, remember that.

I also wanted to mention this little free software which Justin introduced me to a while ago, and I really like it. It's a free download and you can adjust settings to your preference (like change the timing or other options). It's called EyeLeo and is designed to remind us computer users to give our hard-working eyes a break in light and playful ways. Enjoy!

Dress and cardi - Ashley Stewart.

Shoes - Toms.

Purse - hand-made, old.

Earrings - Chico's.

Haircut - fresh from Erica (probably my favorite to the date)

Photos by Justin

Joining Share-in-Style: Autumn with this post. Come over!