Working with Crazy Words

As part of our unit on the Origins of the English Language, my students work on creating their own words that they hope will someday become part of the English Language. We talk a lot about how words come and go through time, and how language is always alive and taking new shapes. In this vein, a few years ago, I started to use a Wiki to have students add to a dictionary of made-up words. It is now in its fifth year and the number of words exeeds 400 at this point. It’s quite a thing and my students love to add their words to it, knowing they are creating something unique.

We use a wiki (Wikispaces) because it is so darned easy to use and to archive. The simplicity of the platform is perfect and it occurs to me that our wiki is a collaboration over time, as this year’s crop of writers are really working with my young writers from each of the last five years, and with the future in mind, too. That is interesting (for a sci-fi nut like me anyway)

Here are some of the words from this year, and I am including the podcast, too, since they read their words and definitions so that their voice gets archived with their words.

• Beataolumacoo (2009) – Something that is just out of reach. Listen to the definition
• Eiznekcam (2009)- A small, hyper animal that eats fruit and is usually confused with a ferret.Listen to the definition
• Froast (2009)- funny-shaped toast Listen to the definition
• Jamoastork (2009)– the act of eating jam on toast while doing homework. Listen to the definition
• Marark (2009)- An animal, like a duck, that eats frogs, lizards, and mud, has leathery bat wings, green and purple feathers,
  fangs, long legs, and wide webbed feet. Listen to the definition
• Nweebit (2009)- Being so uncool that you have a brick for a pet. Listen to the definition
• Qwackerish (2009)- to quack when upset. Listen to the definition
• Snegalburphencog (2009)- to sneeze, burp, and cough at the same time. Listen to the definition
• Weryguooshnib (2009)- When a certain song that seems weird or foreign to you at first, but becomes so stuck in your head that
  you actually crave it. Listen to the definition

If you want to see the full dictionary:

• The five year collection of the Crazy Dictionary
• The Class of 2009 Dictionary

Peace (in collaboration over time),
Kevin