Welcome! Bienvenue! Welkom! ¡Bienvenido! Benvingut! Ongi Etorri! Tervetuloa!
Some people might find it quite egotistical to have one's own website when one isn't famous or hasn't done anything particularly spectacular! My name is Derron Borders and even though I am neither famous nor have I done anything particulary spectacular, this is my personal website and I welcome you.
I suppose some would say I'm a bit egotistical but I would like to think that the real reason I have my own website is that I really enjoy building websites and have done so since the days of aol dialup when one could create a free website on aol or geocities, with backgrounds that would rapidly switch colors and cool javascript texts. I'm also someone who spends LONG periods of time away from home and a website is a great place to host a blog (if you can keep up with it, which I haven't been TOTALLY great at) to keep family and friends updated on what is going on in my life.
"Who are you?" you may ask and to answer that, I'll tell you that I'm Derron Borders and I'm a(n) glossophile, polyglot, linguist, graduate student, graduate teaching assistant, ESL teacher, web designer, son, brother, uncle, (other familial terms here), reader, Ohioan, ex-Rotary-exchange student, couchsurfer, friend, human. Using the links above you can read my blogs and learn about who I am and what I've been doing with my life, as well as learning about why I feel I was put on this earth.
Some of you might ask your self, "What is glossophile? Why is it the name of this site?"
If you haven't studied Greek or you don't speak it you may not know that glossophile means "language lover". It stems from the two terms γλοσσα (glossa), meaning "tongue" and φιλια (philia), meaning "friendship".
"Tongue", which stems from Greek "glossa" also means "language" in modern times. We have some English words with the "glossa" stem in it, which relates to "language". Some examples are: glossary, glossitis, and gloss (not to be confused with "gloss" which is akin to Middle High German "glosen", which means to shine). A related term to "glossa" is "glot". In English, we have words like "polyglot," meaning multilingual, and the anatomical word "glotis".
The modern English meaning from "philia" has changed greatly from it's Ancient Greek meaning given by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics. In that time "philia" meant a loving friendship that was mutual between two living things, thus excluding philia to inanimate objects. Today the meaning has changed to more of a meaning of attraction or affinity to something. Many only attribute the meaning of "-philia" or "-phile" to the sexual attraction to something such as "pedophilia" or "necrophilia". Today φιλια has a much broader meaning of attraction to multiple things such as, biology (i.e anthophilia- attraction to flowers), sexology, chemistry/physics, hobbies, and an attitude to specific nations (i.e. Francophile- lover of things French).
Wikipedia defines glossophilia as a love of language, be it foreign or mother tongue. The term refers to people with a deep and passionate love for language and the structure of language. Glossophiles often study deeply literary terminology as well as grammar, punctuation and language structure. It is often the case that a deep interest in lexical choice and imagery is common. Glossophiles also endear themselves to foreign languages and intensely study as many languages as possible. It is not uncommon for glossophiles to be capable in many languages.
The antonym of "philia" is "phobia", which is quite logic. As for many language lovers, they are definitely a glossohile but totally a mathematikophobe! (in many cases)