Forks

When I was very young I remember posing a question to my sister that had real weight to it, real significance that my young mind could not quite wrap itself around. Like standing at the edge of a cliff and glaring down into a big, deep, dark canyon--I didn’t know what was down there and I could only speculate its distance, but I knew it was deep.

The question: Why do we call a fork a 'fork'?

The question was inspired by The Little Mermaid when Scuttle shows Ariel a fork and Ariel, in awe, asks what it is and Scuttle responds: “it’s a dingglehopper. Humans use these babies to straighten their hair out.” And he twirls the fork in his hair with a “voila!” to show Ariel how its done.

I remember this as one of the first times I questioned language, after this I remember questioning all types of words, making up my own words for things just to be able to contemplate an alternative. I remember picturing scenarios in my head from “back in the day” to make up possible points of origins for these words. It fascinated me. It still does.

It wasn't until I got older and slowly lowered myself down into that canyon did I begin to realize how truly astonishing words are. It began with semiotics and linguistics, got more confusing with anthropology and sociology, and still blows my ripe 23 year-old mind when I bring the sciences into the question. I always come back to the same end point though, what makes us human? I use to think it was language, or at least our form of language, but naively forget that all animal kingdoms have a ‘language’. So I thought, maybe it is what we do with our language that makes us so unique, which ironically brings me back to the start.

We question. We contemplate. We have created a system that allows us to question and contemplate, and the answers we arrive at use that same system.  We’re so small, yet question so big. I guess at the time I didn’t realize Ariel’s question had such a big answer for me.

Reviews

[Robin]

this dabbles upon the palette of symbolism especially as applied to Dreams where one's dream symbold have meaning only pertinent to them . enjoyed reading this

[Waka Crusnik]

Language truely is an astonishing thing; I'm currently taking German and I'm amazed with how there are a lot of cognates between that and Old English. However now it's hard to make the comparisons since old words and phrases have evolved over the years. Language is forever a changing thing and I found it interesting at the simple statement my Professor said: "People get bored with words and extraneous syllables at the end of sentences are chopped off, making new words." I like that you address words and language, what exactly makes a fork, a fork, and how the word came to be. Astonishing that an innocent scene from The Little Mermaid could provoke such thought!

[Ed Hart]

sometimes we ask partial questions into an impartial reality