Comprehending unknown words, English (like SPHecelation) or foreign, as my friend Barry Farber did with Hungarian restrooms labeled FERFIAK & NÖK. (Read this fun story at Languagebazaar.com. His successful analysis was actually a precursor to my “Nanosemantics” with “Magic Letters.” The theoretical & practical validity (& fun) of Nanosemantics is proved by hundreds of “Parallels” within & between languages, such as Hebrew/English Baqar/Beef, Knesset/Congress. (K = C, etc.) , and even between the plural endings of Hebrew/Chinese cherub-iM/Hayydz-Men ‘children.’These are not mere coincidences to memorize by rote. They go back to the “revolutionary” fact that letters have meanings. “Magical M” means ‘together,’ as in Hebrew aM & Chinese Min ‘people.’ Such Parallels can be specially helpful within single language, like Hebrew iM ‘together with,’ & even Mellekh ‘king’ & iMa ‘Mom.’ Similarly for Chinese Muchin/Fuchin ‘Mother’/‘Father’ & Greek Nyn/Neos ‘Now/New. Magic Letters is a “Thinking Person’s approach to language. Learners may believe incorrectly that they learn better with Rote memorization. But Magic Letters allow independent play, as it opens up the history of meaning in all languages like a delicious salmon fillet on the grill. Learning even just 3 Magic Letters (MagLets for short) with multiple examples especially in new languages will be the best start to learning the system.

Of course these are best examples. Parkway (where you drive’ & Driveway (where you Park) show how messy language usually is. But if you understand rather than memorize, your Brain will help you most: rather than memorizing, understanding that MagLets can be onomatopoetic (like Sh in SHelter, SHirts, SHoes, & Hebrew SHalom ‘’peace.’ SImilarly for B in Bump & Bolshoy Ballet. They can be kinesthetic (like L in Italian Leva La LIngua ‘Lift the tongue). In principle, MagLets are always “iconic,” like C meaning Catch (in Contain, Container) like Italian Casa ‘house.’ The “rubbery” meaning shifts are the big challenge:. In Language as in Life, “SHift happens.” But Meaning Shifts are more, well, Meaningful than phonetics or grammatical endings. One old-time trend in Hebrew is teaching without meaning, which they call “decoding”! But this is a harmful misnomer, producing students who can recite “the motzi” easily & in the right contexts, but don’t know the meaning of the word Motzi. The same for Kaddish: even the poet Ginsberg mistakenly thought it is a “prayer for the dead,” despite the presence of a full translation in most prayer books. It’s odd that Hebrew teachers so want to create a meaningful experience but leave out meaning itself as too scholarly. But knowing that the Second Main Meaning of Sh is ‘peace&quiet, ‘law&order’ etc. provides a blatant Key to SHabat SHalom, giving entree into SHabat & the full range of Jewish experiences & texts.

GR is one of the half dozen consonant pairs (MagPairs) that are a funner phenomenon, because they have a more specific meaning than the very abstract MagLets. (Solitaire MGLets are like the five tastes that the tongue distinguishes, while MAgPairs are more like the many flavors thzt the nose distinguishes. PL is another fun MagPair, as in PLaying PoLo with PLutocrats on the acroPoLis. Back to thinking, Nanosemantics shows an interesting & useful “compositional”side: the meaning of a MagPair is derived from the meanings of its Solitaire MagLets , So PL means ‘lift up’ (PLaza, PLus) composed of P

If you learn 2-3 MagLets and 1-2 MGPairs along with several examples of each (mostly foreign words), you will well in your way to actually using the system, especially in more effective learning of foreign languages. And you’ll be smart as a Sphinx in recognizing new English words like SPHecelation. (SF means ‘squeeze,’ as also in Hebrew SFTayyim ‘lips’ (compare Safah ‘lip, language.’) To enjoy & succeed, wake up your imagination, for a Virtual Visit to the Bolshoy Ballet dancing the classic imaginary Russian Ballet “War & Peace,” where Cyrillic B bumps Magical M until the finale,in which a line of M’s spells out Miru Mir ‘peace for the World!