LANGUAGE =?

“X 12 345…..”,

Called a voice from the kitchen of the Jones Villa.

The whole family assembled for supper and a number of Xs , Ys and and numerics were exchanged. Everything and everyone was fine except Lingo, who said “X2Y 3L”.

Lingo Jones was an ardent lover of mangoes and could even fight a lion for it. Lingo, at the supper table was quite unhappy.

 A plethora of potato dishes were kept on the supper table. Potato, it was something which Lingo hated so much that he did not even care to open the vessel’s lids . Again, alphanumerics were exchanged in a loud voice and Lingo ate the food, just for his mother’s contentment. However, the 10 year old, 4 feet tall, 31 kg boy was still not contended. His stomach longed for the juicy mangoes of the mango tree. It was in the village jungle. The exotic fragnance, the vivid colours that he had seen on the tree, made their appearance in his memory and just when his saliva was about to spill over the floor, he made his mind to visit the jungle at nearly midnight.

The time came and there is nothing to be waited for. The passage of the house was filled with tiptoes and the main gate opened with not a single sound for the first time. On his way, he heard a number of talks of he could not even get a word of, after all this is ‘the village with no language’. He enters the jungle, sees the cave all his friends call their play-abode. And yes! the mango tree is here, but there are no mangoes. What he sees now is eccentric branches floating in the air, now they have eyes, a face and “xxxxX”, shouted Lingo as he sees a ferocious deer.

He immediately ran to the cave he saw at his ingress to the jungle. But the deer somehow reached him as it has called a whole bunch of its look-alikes. They have become even more dangerous, thanks to their excellent night vision .Now the deer and Lingo looked eye in eye. Now, tiny dark eyes confront the flashing luminescent eyes of the deer, and yes, there are four of them. Lingo, perspiring rampantly, still looks eye in eye of the deer and there is a movement. The deers ran away as if they could not withstand the darkness of his eyes. But, this was not the truth. Lingo, being very timid, was shouting “PPPP PPPP PPPP”, which sounded to the deers like the honking of car and afraid of a smash-up, they ran away to hide in the bushes.

 What fear we humans have created in nature! This appeared to Lingo that some of his words could be understood by the deer and he thought about the whole village having the same concept of a set of words and letters everyone could understand. In a few years, he and his brother Page created some common words and letters for the whole city to speak, to write, so that the next time someone was in a skirmish with an animal in the jungle, he could shout a word and call for help.

Well, this is actually how the word LANGUAGE and the concept of LANGUAGE came into being, by the contribution of two brothers, Lingo and Page. And this is why LANGUAGE= LINGO+PAGE.