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Bethump'd with Words

© Sandra Linville

"Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words since I first call'd my brother's father dad!"
William Shakespeare
King John, act II, scene 1, line 466

Word nerds, word lovers, word enthusiasts-whatever you call yourselves, you'll love this game. But, I suppose I shouldn't make those blanket statements so at least I'm pretty sure you will. You do owe it to yourself to read on and find out more about the games.

Bethump'd with Words® is actually a series of games-Senior, Voyager and the Book Edition. The Senior Edition, released in 1996, features 1,000 questions from more than 30 categories for teen through adults. The categories cover the origins, history and evolution of English. Released in September 2001, the Voyager Edition, also for teens through adult, contains 1,200 questions from more than 40 linguistic and etymological categories. Both the Voyager and Book Editions serve as supplemental question sets.

The games are produced by Mamopalire, Inc. in Vermont and you can read more about them at the Bethump'd website at www.bethumpd.com.

To get a sense of the creators' commitment to language, read this from Covey MacGregor's introduction in the Book Edition: "Speakers of English rarely profess their love of the language with the emotion or terms used by speakers of other languages. Yet love is there...It's an affection, however, with a revealing and peculiar difference. While the French, for example, are moved to rapture by the mellifluous sounds and poetic rhythms of their language-and, predictably, react with disdain when the mood's disrupted by 'harsh' foreign entities-speakers of English love words: individual words, French words, German words, Japanese words, Yiddish words, Russian words, Melanesian words, Spanish words, indeed any and all words. In sum, 'English' is less the name for a clearly defined language than for an obsessive attitude toward the fundamental tools of language..."

Don't you think that true? The English language is this wonderful melting pot and continues to evolve. And, although, that makes it frustrating for those learning the language, I think that's what makes it so exciting. It's just so alive.

MacGregor continues to write in the introduction: Bethump'd with Words is an attempt to demonstrate...why Shakespeare's legacy has endured, why so many of us, his linguistic heirs, are similarly afflicted with logophilia. Instead of games that are played with words, it presents games that are about words. The focus is on the aspects of everyday words, in contrast to the obscure, that together convey the character and comprise the story of English. To a degree, it is an exposé of the factors that have contributed to English's hybrid vigor."

The copyright of the article Bethump'd with Words in Word Play is owned by Sandra Linville. Permission to republish Bethump'd with Words in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.