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s01e01 Ross: A-wandering?

Is A-Wondering any different from just Wondering?

Paul the wine guy has finally asked Monica out and now is on her doorstep. All of Monica's friends are in the apartment too though and they will not fail to have some fun at her expense. This friendly mockery overloads Monica's nervous system, who is already desperately trying to keep her excitement in check.

Monica: I'll be right back. I've just gotta go... (looking for word)
Ross: A-wandering?

What is this “a-wandering”? How is it different from just “wandering”? And what does Ross’s joke tell us about Monica?

A-wondering is a linguistic phenomenon. You can break it into three parts: an a-prefix, a verb, an -ing ending. For example a Christmas carol from eighteenth-century England, Twelve Days of Christmas.


Eight maids a-milking, 

Seven swans a-swimming, 

Six geese a-laying


Ok, now I know, a-wondering isn’t just something Ross made up. But why I almost never hear the a-prefix in everyday life? The key is in the date. Twelve Days of Christmas was first published around 1780. A-prefix rarely appears in public because the form is outdated. Exception? Songs!


For the times they are a-changin'

by Bob Dylan


You keep samin' when you oughta be a'changin'

by Nancy Sinatra


Sometimes songwriters use the a-prefix as an extra syllable. But more often then not the a-prefix is a reference to the aesthetics of a ballad. These are the songs with a stronger storytelling-element. The ballads yank us out of the current stream of reality. And bring up in us this sweet, and bitter and enchanting awareness of a passing time.


You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me

Australian folk song


That is the mood Ross is referencing with his a-wondering joke. But let us dig just an inch or two point fifty four centimeters deeper. 


What about speech? What color does the a-prefix is meant to deliver? Linguists say our a-prefix is a way to emphasize that extra presence of mind in the activity.


So, if wandering is desiring to know something, then a-wandering is daydreaming about in our case Paul without being able to do anything else.  The moment Paul asked Monica out, she has pictured in detail: his kiss, the wedding bells, a house, children and growing old together. Ross’s joke is a hint for how much Monica wanted that date with Paul.


To sum it up yes, the oldie a-prefix is still a-wondering English language. But a-prefix isn’t there to confuse us, but to invite us engage deeper with the things we love. A-prefix wants us to take the eyes OFF the prize for a moment. And bask in a feeling of a full presence it grants: a-fishing, a-reading, a-conversing with someone we care for. 


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I also would love to hear your take on this joke,


Katia


Comments

  1. I think it's because Monica finishes the line like, "I'll be right back. I've just gotta go...a..a.." :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, poorna! Seems like perfectly natural explanation to me now)). It could be just it!

      Delete
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVcJIMhmGys

    When English was much older, you could 'wander' or you could 'go a-wandering', you could not 'go wandering'. Gradually this prefix was lost, and was only spoken by people who want to seem like old bards or minstrels, and only remembered through the old german song, "The Happy Wanderer," by Florenz Friedrich Sigismund, and which was made wildly popular for some reason when it was sung by a Children's Choir in the UK, in 1954.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I know! It is just like in this 12 Days of Christmas song. Where '10 Lords a-leaping' and others do something a-else. Thank you.

      Delete

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