Christmas Table at Scandic Ishavshotel Tromsø, Norway. Crisp pork ribs (ribbe) and cured lamb chops (pinnekjøtt) are the staples at Norwegian Christmas Tables.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021
A PLOS ONE study on periodic human activities and high word frequency occurrences showed that we speak what we think, and what we do [1]. Language not only reflects thoughts, experiences and realities but it also helps create realities. The study methodology is not particularly ground breaking. The authors analyzed an historical corpus from American and British daily newspaper articles from between 1836 to 1922 to uncover patterns in language use that correlated with seasonal human activities. Still, what I personally found interesting was the concrete illustration over decades, that people did indeed speak their lives in the fashion of their daily, monthly, and yearly activities. Certain words were used more frequently during certain times of the year than in others, thus reflecting an underlying social reality of the people. The top 25k frequently occurring words in the historical corpus reflected activities and concerns around annual weather patterns, hunting, harvesting as well as religious and civil activities. Taking my own n-of-1 writings as a small, specialized corpus, I can see how much I love Christmas Table sittings, particularly at year’s end.
Continue reading “Julebord at Scandic Ishavshotel Tromsø, Northern Norway”
