Discovering the Story of the Totem

"Discovering the Story of the Totem"

my latest blog concerning the researching my book:
Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems

on: blogs.myspace.com/thlingit

Hu-Haa,
Pamela

Words, Dictionaries & Thesaurus'

For as long as I can remember, words have been a source of delight. Funny words, long words, multi-meaning words. Just the sound of a word can make it special. I loved how my dad would say "Indubadibly" for yes, or when something really agreed with him. My son Simon who loves specializing in tongue twisting in his rap/hip-hop songs is also a word enthusiest and has put 'Indubadibly' into one of his songs. I like how large words can become a secret language, when answering someone (especially in a debate of sorts) and the meaning escapes them.

Becoming a writer has brought my attention to a whole array of words. When working on my poems about the totem poles (before they were designated for "Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems), my poems rhymed. The length of these poems were from 5 to 9 pages long. At first I would write out the alphabet and got through the possible rhymes. It wasn't long before a rhyming dictionary was aquired. Rhyming Dictionaries opened up a whole new world for me, for now I was searching from another spectrum, the ending vowels. When looking for a rhyming word for Eagle, of course is regal, but also "gregal" (a rare word) meaning "pertaining to a flock," which fit perfectly for what I wanted to say.

Quite a few years back, I was watching a movie, a "beau" was waiting for his date to get ready, and he noticed her dictionary, and that a few words were underlined, he mentioned it, and she said that whenever she comes across a word, she underlines it. So, he turns a page, and another and another, and everywhere he looked were underlined words. After that, I started underlining words. This was a great way to reinforce a word when looking up another word and reread any words that have already been underlined. For Thesaurus', I'll underline the word that I also found as an alternative to the word looking up.

One day, or should I say exactly on 11/16/96, I took my word searching hard-core. With the Unabridged Webster's Dictionary given to me by my father, I made 24 bookmarks, and labeled them from A - Z. The idea was to read a page a day, write down the date of reading page, turn the bookmark to face the next page to read. Then, with a yellow book mark, put that in the next alphabet to read. So, on 11/16/96 I read the first page of A. On 11/17/96 I read the first page of B, etc. Well you would think that I've read the entire dictionary by now, it turns out that life gets in the way, but it has kept me on track with my goal, and I have finished reading the X chapter!!!

Reading the Dictionary in this way has assisted me in writing my entries for encyclopedias. I'll come across a word that is "Rare" or "Obsolete", and knowing that it is up to us writers to keep words flowing, so I'll put in some of these words. On "Canada, First Nations" in The Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, I stood my ground to have "yare" (to repond quickly and truely, to be prepared) in describing the horses in comparison to the dogs for travois pulling.

When reading the Dictionary, Thesaurus, or other dictionaries like The Dictionary of Social Sciences, my entries would be ever in my mind. The words would represent themselves as different Point of Views to my entries.

Do I love words? Indubadibly!!! So.... go out there and use all of the rare and obsolete words you can, and bring them back to life!!!

"These AREN'T your Disney Pocohontas Stories!"

Read about Totem Poles and their Legends:

"These AREN'T your Disney Pocohontas Stories!"

on my blog at

blogs.myspace.com/thlingit

The Poetry of Totem Poles

Check out my new blog

"The Poetry of Totem Poles" on:

http://www.myspace.com/thlingit

This blog continues the saga of the beginnings of "Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems"

Pamela