When I thought of the tongue prompt yesterday I had no idea what I wanted to write. It just seemed like something people could have fun with. That hasn’t changed – I still don’t have any idea what I want to write.
There are so many things we can do with our tongues:
The first of course is taste – it’s one of the first things we do when we enter the world. Our tastes grow as we get older. Sure, there are things we can’t stand to eat, even as kids. Much to the annoyance of parents everywhere, often these foods end up in places they shouldn’t. I still remember picking sticky pieces of spaghetti off the walls when my kids were toddlers.
Shortly after taste comes our mother tongue. Or, in some cases, not. My son Alex will never know his mother tongue because he’s Deaf. Is Sign Language even a tongue? Maybe not, but Alex is certainly vocal enough. That’s something that comes with having hearing parents though. In completely Deaf families, they don’t use their voices.
Shortly after we learn to speak we learn to do other things with our tongues. Stick them out at people, for instance. (Thanks Lee-Anne for reminding me of that one.) Some of us do tricks like twist them or curl them – which as I understand is something that is inherited. If your parents can’t do it, neither can you. I can lick my nose though…
As we grow up we learn to use them for kissing. I remember my first kiss – however I’d rather not. There was a lot of drool involved and I don’t think most of it was mine. Ick.
From that first kiss we graduate… My mother used to call it “sucking face” though I’m not sure that that was an expression she grew up with. Then there were the hickeys that we tried and usually failed to hide from our parents. As I write this, I realize how much hell parents go through!
And of course there’s the next step.. but I won’t get into that here. Best left for the bedroom, eh?
That would be everything I can come up with, and I still don’t know that I’ve said anything of importance or worth reading.
Except the next time I go to the doctor and I see the tongue depressors, I’ll probably think of this post.
This post is part of SoCS! https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-714/ Click the link to find out more, and to join in!
June 8, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Ah, yes, where would we be without our tongues!? I don’t know why because I’ve never even followed them, but this brought to mind that rock band KISS and the one that always seemed to have his long pointy tongue out on the album covers…remember that?
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June 8, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Gene Simmons, yeah. I actually thought of him first. He has quite the proboscis. 😛
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June 8, 2014 at 2:15 am
The tongue certainly does have many uses. What would we do without it?
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June 8, 2014 at 3:57 pm
I can’t even imagine 😛 <— hey look! A tongue! hehe
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June 8, 2014 at 1:27 am
My first ‘kiss’ was at at party. We were playing ‘Spin the Bottle’ (Yes I still have fantasies). I was twelve.
Twas a great kiss; I was hooked after that.
I even still remember her name, yet, I will not disclose it here…
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June 8, 2014 at 3:56 pm
I never had the guts to play spin the bottle. Nice to hear you had a good experience with it. 🙂
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June 8, 2014 at 3:58 pm
It cost me my virginity few months later….(I cannot believe I just typed that!)
Ooops!
Hahahah
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June 8, 2014 at 4:02 pm
Wait… did you say you were 12? *goes to check* Yes you did! Wow… I suspect you didn’t wait for marriage then. 😉
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June 8, 2014 at 4:04 pm
No. No Marriage, but I did wait until I was thirteen. (true story) She was sixteen and after she had taken ‘it’, I woke up the next day and said, “Hey! I want it back.”
Naturally, she laughed at me.
I was really stupid back then about women. Guess I still am…
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June 8, 2014 at 4:06 pm
I imagine you’ve learned a bit in the intervening years. 😉
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June 8, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Not really….
😉
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June 7, 2014 at 11:58 pm
I love your take on the tongue. My first kiss was on the back stairs of a library, and there was lots of grape lip gloss involved!
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June 8, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Haha! I remember that stuff from when I was a kid. I don’t think I could stand it now. 😛
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Pingback: Stream of Consciousness Saturday: A Tale of Two Tongues | shanjeniah
June 7, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t come up with the double and triple tongue angle, being a flutist! And of course “flutter-tongue” as well, on the flute!
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June 8, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Who knew there were so many things we do with our tongues! Something we just take for granted, I guess.
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June 7, 2014 at 6:29 pm
Oh the varied uses of our tongues…You made me giggle, Linda (I definitely wouldn’t poke my tongue out at you!)
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June 8, 2014 at 3:50 pm
Glad to have made you laugh 🙂
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June 7, 2014 at 4:41 pm
I think of Mick Jagger 🙂
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June 8, 2014 at 1:24 am
Please don’t.
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June 8, 2014 at 9:22 am
🙂
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June 8, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Good one. 🙂 I hadn’t thought of the Stones logo.
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June 7, 2014 at 3:55 pm
Great post Linda and you made me laugh here 😀
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June 8, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Thanks Irene! Always happy to get a smile. 🙂
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June 7, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Reading your post I am bobbing my head and thinking of other things I could have written to this post …but I had to write the first thing that came to mind and I think you touched it nicely about speech. And if we speak in different “tongues” it is difficult to communicate. I wanted to learn sign here in Quebec but they don’t teach American sign in most places…thanks for the prompt, Linda:)
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June 7, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Your pingback didn’t show up on the prompt post! I’ll put the link there now.
Yes, LSQ (as opposed to ASL) was one of the reasons I moved out of Quebec. There was no way for me to learn it, and there are no ASL schools outside of Montreal – I lived in Gatineau. 😛
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June 7, 2014 at 3:22 pm
😦 I know I should have learned this while in Toronto.
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June 8, 2014 at 3:48 pm
Unless you’d had someone to practice with, you’d have lost it anyway. Sign language is really one of those things, ya know?
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June 8, 2014 at 3:50 pm
I would have volunteered here in Montreal and yes, I can imagine it is like any language if you do not practise or writing.
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June 8, 2014 at 3:52 pm
I actually find it easier to remember French and Japanese after all these years, but if I go for a month without ASL… Maybe that part of my brain isn’t as active. – I’m sure it uses a different part, because it’s movement.
Hmmm… something to research. 😛
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June 8, 2014 at 4:01 pm
Interesting indeed! like my shorthand that goes by the wayside so easily and that does have to do with form. hmmm
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June 8, 2014 at 4:04 pm
Maybe the tongue is quicker than the hand. haha
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June 8, 2014 at 4:40 pm
It really is…look how words can hurt and sting for so long.
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June 9, 2014 at 9:39 pm
How true.
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June 7, 2014 at 2:44 pm
Okay, first, that comment about “tongue it, double tongue or even triple tongue” sounds really dirty, even in the context of playing a flute. Second, being able to lick your nose with your tongue can come in quite handy on a very cold day when you’ve run out of tissues.
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June 7, 2014 at 3:22 pm
Oh you just keep getting better and better today, don’t you? *never licks nose again*
Will I have anything left to eat by tonight? 😉
And yeah, that double and triple tongue, eh?
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June 8, 2014 at 2:20 am
Thanks Doobster. Pretty sure my laugh woke up at least one person. 🙂 Cow tongues earlier today, and now tongue tissues. My dreams tonight may be very interesting/disturbing.
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June 8, 2014 at 3:57 pm
I know, right? 😉
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June 7, 2014 at 2:10 pm
When you play the flute you use your tongue for articulation. You can tongue it, double tongue or even triple tongue, among other things.
Leslie
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June 7, 2014 at 2:11 pm
That’s true! I’d forgotten about that one. I used to play the clarinet, but I’ve tried most wind instruments, and they all use the tongue to an extent.
Thanks, Leslie. 😀 You’re really on the ball!
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June 7, 2014 at 2:17 pm
No problem.
Leslie
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