I often forget how beautiful the red kites are which circle my mum's house and the surrounding area, after a fantastically successful breeding programme brought them back from near extinction. They're often near enough to make out their colours, reflected in the sunlight, and their cry, halfway between camp and haunting, fills the air. Occasionally they'll see a dead sheep - or as happened today, our dinner as we ate outside - and swoop down before giving up or realising their mistake.
Swoop. That's an interesting one. Birds swoop, while wildebeest and other herd animals sweep. If you look at the position of you tongue when saying these similar words, with almost identical meaning, spelling and pronunciation, you see that when describing a bird's flight the tongue is raised, and when describing a land animal's movement the tongue is down. I wonder if there was one person who was watching a red kite, as I did today, and instinctively described its movement with his or her tongue following their eyes up to the skies? Maybe not, but I'm going to start thinking of other examples where the physical position of the tongue has a direct correlation to the word's meaning. Should keep me busy.
Swoop. That's an interesting one. Birds swoop, while wildebeest and other herd animals sweep. If you look at the position of you tongue when saying these similar words, with almost identical meaning, spelling and pronunciation, you see that when describing a bird's flight the tongue is raised, and when describing a land animal's movement the tongue is down. I wonder if there was one person who was watching a red kite, as I did today, and instinctively described its movement with his or her tongue following their eyes up to the skies? Maybe not, but I'm going to start thinking of other examples where the physical position of the tongue has a direct correlation to the word's meaning. Should keep me busy.
