The thing about words is….

In Netherlands, Monday is the most popular day to commit suicide, call in sick and surf the web.

Not a good way to start a blog eh?.

Forget Friday the 13th that most people are scared of, Monday is what you should be scared of people. I don’t know about the rest of the world but I’m guessing it’s also the same as Netherlands. I knew Mondays was not everybody’s favorites but I never knew that it has such a bad history though. Apparently in the Islamic and Hebrew calendar it’s considered to be the first day of the week. But in the Jewish and Christian calendar it’s considered as the second day of the week after Sunday. Not only are people killing themselves on Monday but they cant even agree on what day of the week it is, I mean how bad can it get.

According to history that I learnt in school, Monday is named after the moon and Sunday after the sun and Saturday after the planet Saturn. I cant remember what the teacher said after that or even what the days have to do with the solar system and frankly I really don’t care that much.
In various communities in Africa people are sometimes named after the days of the week. E.g. Kojo-means born on Monday

I don’t know if the same applies to our very handsome Boris Kodjoe.lol..
I don’t know what those people who are named after Monday will feel about this information or if they even know about it in the first place.

Some one once said that the thing about words is we never know where they have been. And someone jokingly said (on one of the two social networks that frequent) that the thing about words is you don’t know in whose mouth they have been. I mean until today I did not even know that Monday is associated with suicide and all that other stuff. Or even its connection with the planets or the big debate on which day of the week it is. Now that I know I’m intrigued, though I don’t even know what to do with this information.

This proves the statistics that says 80% of English language is borrowed from other languages…yes even Swahili (remember safari), Germany-kindergarten, French-façade etc. I’m guessing when they are borrowed into the English language the meaning slightly changes. As English continues to evolve a lot of words are being dropped along they way. For instant the word arse (ass) was actually acceptable in the old English and could be used in polite conversations .But I’m sure if I used it next to my mother I will be forced to leave my forwarding address and go.

Now let’s go to our Kenyan languages it gets even juicier. Words that mean one thing in this language mean another in the next language. e.g. in Kisii teta-means sexual intercourse while the same word in Kalenjin means –cows… yes both in writing and pronunciation . A story is told of a young man who wanted to marry a kisii lady said he was going to bring teta as dowry on a certain day. Im sure the wazees almost chocked on their local beer.

Another example is in my native luo the word theri- means vagina but in Kikuyu it means –soil or earth. So you can imagine how hard it has been for me to get used to them saying it right,left and centre , especially since I’ve been raised in a Town that has the Highest Kikuyu population after Central province. When my cousins came over for a visit they used to giggle whenever they heard it being said. This reminds me of a time when in our home town the words “ntakufinya” was sheng for I will beat you up. Then I moved to another town where “ntakufinya” had sexual connotation, So u can imagine what happened when I told some guy “ntakufinya”. Since then I’m afraid of sheng since I could easily say the wrong word in the wrong context and elicit negative reactions from the people im trying to communicate with. So people next time you open your mouth to say something, make sure you know where that word has been.