in which i love poems that are short

[rhyll]

i invite you all to leave comments of tiny poems (haiku, renga, or otherwise) on here.

i would enjoy it! and so would you!

Comments

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

does anyone think that
haikus are sorta kinda
overrated a bit?

[phester.livejournal.com]

Rhythm of haiku,
Is five, seven, five, and not,
Six, seven, six, chump.

Heh heh.

[tiny-monster.livejournal.com]

My style is wordy.
The discipline of haiku
Forces clarity.

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

The only one i fucked up is the last line. 'anyone' clearly has 2 syllables - any-one, not an-y-one.

[phester.livejournal.com]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=anyone

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=any

You'll note that 'any' is properly divided into -two- distinct phonemes, and hence, two syllables.

You cannot say 'any' without changing the way your mouth is making the sound of the word; the mouth closes somewhat, the tongue comes forward in the mouth and touches the roof of the mouth when the 'y' bit is said, which is distinctly different to how your mouth makes the 'an' part of the word.)

I know this is an Am-English dictionary, but it says the same in my Brit-English dictionary as well.

[phester.livejournal.com]

Pardon... the 'a' and the 'ny' are the two phonemes of the word, not 'an' and 'y'.

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

Technically, I think you're wrong in calling them 'phonemes'. The 'ny' bit can clearly be divided into smaller units of sound: /n/ and /i/. Maybe the word you're looking for is 'feet'? I'm not hip to the whole syllable thing.

Very crudely (can't be arsed unicoding myself up some proper IPA symbols), the word 'anyone' would be represented as something like this, with the period symbol representing syllable breaks: /e.ni.wun/

I'd totally love to hear how you woudl say 'anyone' as a two syllable word. I'm trying really hard, but it don't sound like English to me. :(

[phester.livejournal.com]

You're right- which is so totally not a surprise, Liz.

http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/zuraw/200A_2004/16StressII.pdf

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/ahd4/pronkey.html

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

Well, it's my job to be right about that stuff. So, no extra points for me. :p

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

I can't figure out why you've rejected the 'an-y-one' analysis for syllable boundaries. Are you a native speaker of Australian English?

I hope I don't sound rude - I'm a linguistics student, so I'm really very interested, in a curious way, not a snarky way.

[tiny-monster.livejournal.com]

You are both enormous linguistics nerds. But I find your icon strangely compelling, Hypnotoad.

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the icon is yet to help me win arguments. ;)

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was, in fact born here.

Anyone should be 'any-one' as far as I'm concerned, I think dividing 'any' seems pointless. That may not be gramtically correct, but to me it makes sense.

Grammar fascism is so 'my-first-messageboard'.

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

Anyone should be 'any-one' as far as I'm concerned, I think dividing 'any' seems pointless. That may not be gramtically correct, but to me it makes sense.

I think the problem here is we seem to have different ideas of what constitutes a syllable. I'm not sure what your definition is, but I don't think it's correct. To my knowledge, a syllable in English can't contain more than one vowel soundd, unless they are directly adjacent, as in a diphthong. But that is clearly not the case here: 'any' contains two vowel sounds separated by a consonant sound, therefore I can't see how it could be counted as one syllable.

Regarding correct syllable division as 'pointless', I am at a loss. What do you mean? What do you see are the intentions of syllable division anyway? And why does 'any.one' have more of a point than 'a.ny.one'?

Grammar fascism is so 'my-first-messageboard'.

Please forgive my phonological fascism (if, indeed, this discussion has seemed fascist to you). It was kindly and sincerely meant.

[phester.livejournal.com]

Me too Jarrad. I wasn't bitchin', honest. I miss wrangling about things like this.

:-)

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

Of course I wasn't implying your post was fascistic in any way, but I generally do get annoyed about gramatical wrangling on the internet, seeing as its a much more instant form of communication than the academic essay.

Again, I said that I would happily admit to it being in breach of grammar rules, I just like 'any' better as being one syllable. Doesn't linguistics as a discipline (like all disciplines)have some kind of discursive power-relationship thingy happening with it anyway? At the end of the day, its really very unimportant, my haiku was a bit of an anti-haiku anyway.

Sometimes I feel the same way about Haiku as I do about Film-Star Buddhism and rock-musician veganism.

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

Of course I wasn't implying your post was fascistic in any way, but I generally do get annoyed about gramatical wrangling on the internet, seeing as its a much more instant form of communication than the academic essay.

Good. I didn't want to cause any bad feelings because of misunderstanding. :)

I'm kool with language error on the internet and on mobile telephones, as long as the outcome is successful in its communication. This situation was probably a little bit more volatile, because of the haiku-is-structurally-rigid belief. Feel free to look down on people because they correct internet users who use 'who' when 'whom' is typically appropriate (I look down on them too, but don't tell anyone. ;) ).

Sometimes I feel the same way about Haiku as I do about Film-Star Buddhism and rock-musician veganism.

I heartily agree with that sentiment. But I am sure Sky is sincere about it, so I'm endeavouring to enjoy her enthusiasm without trendy cynicism. :)

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

Even more bonus points for the clever miss here, since I am indeed most sincere about them. I want more people to endeavour to enjoy others' enthusiasm without trendy cynicism!

Plus, also, I don't really know when 'who' and 'whom' are, respectively, appropriate.

I know shockingly little about grammar.

[boofuls.livejournal.com]

I accidentally admitted to not knowing the proper usages of 'whom' and 'who to my superviser, and he looked like he was going to cry because of it. The 'whom' thing has a name, but I don't understand all that English grammar jive talk.

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

*ahem* I would like it to be clear that my cynicism is not 'trendy', it will occasionally relate to a mistrust of 'trends' but I assure you all I'm only cynical about things I think deserve it. I'm certainly very sincere about music.

Also, clearly Sky is sincere about Haiku, which is commendable, even if she doesn't seem to want to post many of them. :P

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

Here are the result's of today's 'haiku challenge' that my office and i play:

him:
I detest marking.
Ceteris Paribus, I'd
prefer to get smashed.

me:
Marking.
Ceteris paribus, I'd
rather have my latin
on sweaty dance floors.

(They are not really 'proper' haikus, but with Ceteris paribus, options are limited.)

Others are welcome to play!

[boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I posted a tongue pokey out smiley, how old am I?

[tiny-monster.livejournal.com]

That is silly! I don't know about all your newfangled big-city grammar, but I know how many claps there are in word, my friend!