Made Up Words

Writing is talking. You speak without speaking. There are other methods to doing this. Take Morse code, for example. You can use flashlights and signal an information with just light on or off.

It’s only possible because it can be converted back to whatever language you use to communicate.

Language is fascinating – let’s try to see how it all originated. From the first fish to monkey to humans – how it all started. And how it has evolved – also some pondering on why you need a language in the first place. Can you use language to emphasize on certain things – let’s explore.

The Cycle In Nature

In nature, every species has a simple purpose. They need to survive to pass their DNA. For surviving, they need food, shelter and mating.

Their life revolves around this. Another beautiful thing is that in nature, there is a balance. For example, there are 10 deers and 3 tigers. 5 deers are eaten by 2 tigers. Remaining 5 deers reproduce and again there are 10 deers. 1 tiger die of starvation and remaining 2 tigers reproduce and there are 3 tigers again.

This is a simplistic example. The point is the number of unique living beings in species is perfect so they don’t go extinct. Also, they don’t make others extinct.

Purpose Of Life

As humans, it is tempting to answer what’s the purpose of life. In reality – it’s passing on DNA. That’s what majority of life forms do on Earth. Just by sheer co-incidence and a series of events, humans have emerged with such a community that you have free time.

And as such, you wonder what’s the purpose of your life. What all things you can do and what’s beyond.

Other living beings don’t have this luxury. Also, it’s recent when all of this human progression has happened.

Language Is Power

If you can convey an information to someone then that’s a superpower. You and me are wandering on in the jungle. You saw a lion from far away. You said there is a lion. Now, we both can run.

What if you say – there is a lion. And I don’t understand English. Also, whatever physical things you do to indicate fear is not known to me.

Lion eats me. And you survive.

Communication saves species and is in line with your ultimate goal – not dying to pass on DNA.

Superior Language

There isn’t any superior or inferior language. It’s just that what all things have been included is what makes a certain language awesome.

You think in a language. And if in your language there is no word for tomorrow. Then it’s hard to procrastinate because now you think in a language. You get limited by your language in which you think.

The way language has developed is simple. You make up words. And then assign meaning. And if enough people catch up, use it and accept the basic meaning – then you have a language.

You and your friend are wandering on the jungle. You see a fire – you shout ‘AAA’. Next time your friend sees fire, she shout ‘AAA’. Now, you both have assigned the meaning of fire to the word ‘AAA’. And slowly the language developed and now we are here. And you can learn any language and ignore the rest as long as you don’t want to communicate with them.

But now, we have technology to surpass the language barrier. You can get instant translation which is good enough. And if it works then it works.

The Significance In Poetry, Writing & Life

Made up words is the essence in poetry. Because there are limited words in the language. So, when you are expressing something, you are free and encouraged to introduce some words. It doesn’t have to be this way every time. Slowly, when you keep writing poetry – one or two made up words will come automatically. That’s the magic. For example, one way to do made up words is to combine two words. Like magic + story = magory. And you can use this in your poetry. It might stick and people will like it. Or they will hate or. Either way, you need to explore being judged – that’s the whole point.

Similarly, when you are a writer – you can coin terms. Take for example the popular common words – guru, yoga and teacher. When people search for them, you may or may not be shown. But when you coin a term for something you think or something you do – it’s a win. Because if it catches on then people will search for that specific term and find only you.

You use made up words in your life too. Take relationships for example – you use lovely words coined by you. And you call your love with that nickname. For others, it doesn’t mean anything or mean something simple. However, for both of you – you are in beautiful bliss because of that usage.

Same is with friends. When you are with close friends – you coin some joke which is unique to you and your friends. For example, me and my friends use ‘Gaitonde’ a lot. For others, it means a name of a person and that’s it. For us, it’s a joke which transcends human emotion – can be used in many scenarios. And we laugh a lot.

Everything Is Made Up

The social norms, expectation, laws and everything humans do uniquely is made up. Because we have evolved over the years. The basic thing of made up things is that once enough people accept then it’s the norm.

Made up doesn’t mean fake. It means a new thing is created. Take Bitcoin for example, although the Bitcoin gets generated with every blockchain verification. It’s value is only so much as the people who hold it believe it’s value is.

You can make up anything – all you need is enough acceptance. And that’s the thing that works.