The Sensuality of Languages
Last night I was watching Buffy, and there's this guy who starts going on and on about how sensual languages are, and just think about the difference between "car" and "voiture" for example. He gets really into it, because this is Buffy we're talking about, and there are supernatural forces involved.

It's true that languages are sensual, in the sense that each has a feel of its own, but I don't think that feel has much to do with individual words - it's more about the pacing and the sounds of a language, rather than whether you say "butterfly", "papillon", "chou" or "mariposa". I mean, people say that everything sounds better in French, but I've never really seen it, even though one of the reasons I picked French to study in high school (over Spanish and German) was because I had heard that, and especially from my mother.

That said, while I don't see it on the level of individual words, the language can be downright fun when spoken well. The trouble is that it takes a long time to appreciate it and to be able to play with a language oneself.

Then too, speaking a language is a very tactile experience, the more so the better you get - at first, you use the sounds of your native language to approximate those of your second (or third, whatever) language, but as time goes on it gets easier to use the real sounds of the language. At this point speaking can become downright exhausting, because you're learning to use muscles you've never had to exercise that much. This is one of the reasons why it's difficult to pick up a language again after a long hiatus - you have to get back in shape! I've been known to choke on the French R from time to time myself. But when it goes well - a somewhat arbitrary state of affairs - it makes me feel smart, in control, clever, in a way that's as much about the physicality of words and body language as the slight, mundane cruelty of an expertly-wielded joke. Spoken languages bring with them their own culturally-specific body language, of course - something I'm not all that good at - and human interaction is about the play of space among other things - you can feel it when things are going really well with a friend or lover - something about the way the space between you outlines a certain energy or tension.

Can you tell that I'm a very tactile person? Someday I'll have to write an entry about that...