Thursday, August 20, 2009

A glaring oversight...

So, in my rantiness last night, I completely forgot to do another section of the vocabulary test from the eighth grade final. I will complete that shortly; my apologies.

My son has, over the past two days, developed a strange pattern in his sleep. He wakes up and screams before he is really ready to be awake, both in the morning and at naptime. I have figured out that if I go in fairly quickly and calm him, then lay him back down in his crib, he goes back to sleep. I just wish he didn't do it to start with...I have no idea what is bothering him. Sigh. 

Vocabulary Geek-Out #2
What are elementary sounds? How [are they] classified?
Again, I'll have to go straight to looking this puppy up.

There are forty-two elementary sounds in the English language. They are (to the best of my knowledge on reading their classifications) the basic sounds that letters or combinations of letters is/are capable of making in the language.

There are three classifications for elementary sounds: vocals, subvocals, and aspirates.
Vocals are sounds made with the vocal cords open, and consist of pure tone only, as man.
Subvocals are sounds obstructed by the vocal organs, in the process of articulation, as man.
Aspirates are mere emissions of breath, articulated by the lips, the teeth, the tongue, and the palate, as he. 

As educational as that was, I don't feel like going into the long list of all of the sounds, but if you want to see them, you can check out the OLD (1900) grammar book I found on Google Books here.

Haiku News

Lockerbie bomber
released on "compassionate
grounds;" none for victims.

Twelve most annoying
Facebook users list is out;
I try not to be!

Rehearsal footage
of MJ now a movie--
LA should get cut.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haiku News Commentary

Well, victims are dead;
Less "compassion" sticks to them.
"Politics" counts more.

cicely

Minerva said...

Cicely:

Technically, you're right.
Politics trumps all concern
for victims' families.

sad story.

Sam Jackson said...

What do you need to do
to bomber to show
compassion for victims

Minerva said...

Sam:
Well, serving his term
instead of getting to go
free would be a start.

He may be dying,
but being with family
was denied victims.

Welcome to the blog, btw.

Anonymous said...

A hero's welcome
Is certainly a step in
The wrong direction.

cicely

Minerva said...

Cicely--agreed.

Beverly said...

this comment is regarding your son's new habit - how old is he?

could it be night terrors? my son developed those when he was little and would wake up screaming. He would try to speak but it would come out completely incoherent. he did eventually grow out of it though but it lasted several years. They weren't on a regular basis or any kind of interval we could figure out but it was enough to curdle my blood more times than I care to remember.

Minerva said...

Beverly--my son is 18 months old. I thought it might be night terrors too, except that I've read they don't wake up easily and won't recognize a parent if they have a night terror, and he immediately stops crying when he sees me come into his room. I hope it's just that his eyeteeth are coming in or something that will pass fairly quickly.

Thanks for your comment! Feel free to stick around. :)