Came So Far for Beauty: Take Six
Monday, 13. August 2007, 19:27:48
Try to think of some of the sweetest words that you know. But perhaps you should disregard those names that gain most of their sweetness from the people who wear them.
In my view, the sweetest Danish word may very well be this verb: ae. Sweet for its meaning and for the softness of its sound.
From a purely technical view, this is an interesting word: A two-syllable word where each syllable is a single vowel. The word is built in exactly the same way as most Danish verbs: a stem and an e. The only anomaly is that the stem consists of a vowel and nothing more.
I believe that I may have a reasonable explanation for this: That it really is child-language. I have at least two reasons for that belief. Both the meaning and the sound of the word point in that direction.
The word means to caress. Or rather: The way I enterprete it, it is used for some special sub-meanings that would be especially relevant for a child. Here are, what I believe to be, the two most common uses:
- At ae en kat = to stroke a cat along its back. One of those caresses that a child may be most likely to give.
- At ae en kind = to stroke someone's cheek. A caress that many children will often receive, for the very simple reason that their cheeks are in a practical height for the hands of grown-ups.
And why the a? Could it be that those caresses make you want to say ah?
I do not have a picture of a cat that I have caressed. My computer does contain a picture of a soft cheek that I have stroked with the backside of a finger, but I cannot imagine getting permission to publish it. [Har jeg ikke ret, Lisa?]
So I will try to find something else to represent softness and sweetness:
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