SmallStations.com - THE ENGLISH CODE

THE ENGLISH CODE

by Jonathan Dunne

Words, spoken as sound and represented in writing by letters, convey meaning. We use them to communicate and, if we don’t know the meaning of a word, we look it up in a dictionary, where we find its definition. To define is to delineate, to distinguish, to draw lines around, something we do around our property, around countries, which inevitably leads to conflict and grey areas known as border disputes. If we limit ourselves to definition, we only lose our life, we do not find it, we do not make the step from define to divine. In this essay, I would like to suggest that the deeper level of meaning we find in the divine can also be found in the words of the English language, which are connected by a systematic set of rules.

There are seven ways of connecting words in the English language. 1) We can use the same letters in the same order and turn nowhere into now here. 2) We can use the same letters in a different order, for example miracle and reclaim or listen and silent. 3) We can allow fluidity to the vowels, in particular the open vowels o-a-e and those pronounced at the front of the mouth a-e-i, so that seed gives dies and door gives road. 4) We can make use of the seven pairs of consonants in phonetics (b-p, d-t, f-v, g-k, l-r, m-n, s-z). The letter c corresponds to either k or s (in a word like cancer). The proximity of b-v-w in many languages allows us to connect f through v with b/w. Examples are table and plate, law and war or the reverse of law, wall, and fall. 5) We can advance or retreat one or two letters in the alphabet so that world gives lower (d-e) and wall gives walk (k-l). 6) We can make changes according to the letters’ appearance, reversing a letter (b-d: believe and veiled), continuing it (v-y: venom and money) or turning it upside down (n-u: blind and build). 7) Finally we can add letters, most commonly h (gift and fight) and e (first and strife). It is normal to make word connections by combining any of these rules. I might connect the words local and global by the alphabetical pair b-c, addition of g, or north and south by the alphabetical pair r-s and the physical pair n-u.

Language, or speech, and Creation have a lot in common. In the account of Creation at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, we read several times that ‘God said.’ What made that speech possible was the combination of wind and water: ‘The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said…’ (Genesis 1:1-3). In language, wind or breath is represented by the letter h and water by the vowels u-o-a-e-i (as they are pronounced from the back of the mouth). In the second Creation account, God formed man from the dust of the ground, namely flesh, which in language is represented by the consonants, when breath and/or water collide with the lips or tongue in voiceless and voiced consonants. For example, the consonant p is a combination of breath and the lips; its counterpart b also, with the addition of voice or water.

So the elements of speech and Creation are the same: breath, water and flesh. This is why we read at the start of John’s Gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ These three words breath, water and flesh, which are all connected by the rules above, have one word in common: father. Father connects with breath by the pair f-b/w, with water by the same pair with addition of h, and with flesh by the phonetic pair l-r, the alphabetical pair s-t, addition of the letter a.

Breath, water and father all contain the word aer (by which I mean air), which is also in earth, bread, breast and create. It is in fire by the change of vowels a-e-i. So now we see that the four elements of the ancients are connected: water, aer, earth and fire. It is not difficult to connect water and bread with word (a-e-o, b-w, d-t). In between water and word, we find draw (with two meanings) and, if we change the vowels, water gives write. Bread and word can then be connected with blood (a-e-o, b-w, l-r), which gives flood (f-b). The reverse of word is drown (addition of n).

The reverse of aer is sea (r-s). Using the same pair, we can turn water into waste or sweat, which by the physical pair m-w gives steam, stream (addition of r) and storm (a-e-o). By the addition of g, fire is found in grief.

The letters of earth rearranged spell heart. The same letters are found in theatre (‘All the world’s a stage!’). The reverse of earth is three (a-e), which is interesting when we see that Earth is the third major planet in distance from the Sun and was created precisely on the third day. Three contains tree – connected with root, which contains two – and tree is connected with seed (d-t, r-s). If we remove the phonetic pair d-t, heart and seed contain hear and see.

A darker connection is that of earth with Hades (d-t, s-t). Hades is famously the abode of the dead or their shade and is connected, again by the pair s-t, with death or hated. Earth is in dearth, which spells thread, connected with breath by the physical pair b-d. Breath is the thread linking birth (a-e-i) and death. In birth, we find rib reversed, the rib from which woman was made (Genesis 2:21-22), which in turn gives RIP (b-p). Birth is also connected with thrive and writhe (b-v-w, addition of e), with third (b-d) and even with child (d-t, l-r, b-c). Child is connected with light (d-t, g-k/c) and both are found, with addition of s, in Christ. Dearth contains trade, which is found in betray (b-d, addition of y). If we apply the pair b-v, breast gives starve, which is in harvest. Breast also gives beast and feast, connected with starve and containing fast.

All these word connections were made with aer (air) as our starting-point. I would like now to shift our attention to another starting-point, love, which has one word in common with aer (this should come as no surprise): word. We have seen that word is connected with aer through water. It is also connected with love through the phonetic pairs l-r, v-w, and the alphabetical pair d-e.

The most obvious connection of love is with live. In live, we have a choice: to turn it into its reverse, evil, or to count down from 1 to 0 (from I to O) and make love. We see this choice of counting down in other word connections, such as sin and son. We turn away from the ego (I) to God (O). Ego and God are connected by the alphabetical pair d-e.

As God is good, so the devil is evil (the reverse of devil is lived). As the father would gather us together (f-g), so the devil would make us differ (f-v, l-r). The devil is wicked (v-w, k-l) and would have us yield (v-y). The devil finds work for idle hands (addition of v), idle is a combination of die and lie. Lie is in live, die in time (d-t, addition of m), time is connected with live by the alphabetical pairs l-m, t-v.

Using the phonetic pair v-w and addition of h, we can turn live into while. Similarly, love makes us whole and takes us away from hole (addition of w). Whole is a combination of two names: El, the name of God in the Old Testament, and O WH, also written O WN and Greek for ‘the Being,’ ‘the One Who is,’ the name of Christ found in icons of him. This would confirm Christ’s declaration in Matthew 5:17 that he came not to abolish but to fulfil the law.

The trouble with hole is that it’s very easy to make whore (l-r). And hole is what we feel, through sole, in our soul (e-u, addition of h/s). Both, through sole, are connected with eros (l-r), the letters of which give sore and rose! Using the phonetic pair s-z, we can connect eros and zero.

As earth gives heart, so soul gives soil (i-u), a form of oil that is rarely talked about. And oil can be holy, which returns us to hole again. Soul is also connected with sow (u-w, addition of l) and sow takes us back to word (r-s, addition of d). The word is sown in the earth of our heart, the soil of our soul, if we have ears to hear and eyes (without y, which is I) to see.

One final chain of word connections: by the phonetic pair l-r, the alphabetical pair t-v, addition of h, love is connected with other. And other is connected with another Greek word, theos, meaning ‘God,’ by the alphabetical pair r-s. Here we see the confirmation of the two commandments to love God and to love our neighbour.

It should be clear by now that words in the English language are connected on a deeper level and, if we limit ourselves to using them according to their dictionary definition, we run the risk of missing out altogether on another dimension, as if we only ever skimmed the surface of the sea and never fathomed its depths, never discovered the living creatures with their psychedelic light shows that rise to the surface at night to feed. What strikes me, after almost five years’ research into word connections, is that the seven rules I set out above are never broken and can confirm knowledge or give greater understanding on a daily basis.

Read the opening chapter of Jonathan's book THE DNA OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

THE DNA OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE is available for purchase through PayPal at a cost of 9 euros including postage