Words that sound alike are called homophones. For teachers of English as a second language, this is often an irksome, necessary and, at times, amusing exercise.
Some of the better known homonyms are “their,” “there” and “they’re,” or “to,” “too” and “two.”
In Mandarin Chinese, tones of characters can change the character to a different word. A practice exercise for beginning learners is the four tones of the syllable ‘ma’ Each tone changes to a different word. That means that the meaning of a statement can change entirely on an inflection. This is, of course, material for puns and jokes.
Every language has a sense of humor and the art of fluency is understanding that humor. We have many English words for naming a collection of similar things. A pair of shoes or a suite of rooms are some examples.
Words that sound the same but are spelled differently can make things amusing for people who know the language. One example is the word “muse.”
To muse means to think about something. “Amuse” is to play with or at something. A mews is a horse stable with apartments and hawking ground. A mews is three or more hawks in a group. A muse is an inspiring figure. There are many other examples. The idea is that we are a fun loving collection of organisms.
To be a muse, inspire others to find inspiration in your story. To be bemused is to face humorous confusion about the play taking place in the mews when three hawks argue over a rabbit lunch. For the hare, it raised more hairs on the back to see the amused hawks chortling over their meal.
Thus, in the mews were musings of amusement much to the delight of the young muse watching the play with bemusement.
Smile — you’re on “Candid Camera.”
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television, worked around the U.S., and later changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
