Speaking of first words

There was a time when it dawned on me that every big word actually meant something, and that unfamiliar collections of syllables were not merely senseless sounds. I don’t recall when this revelation hit me, but I do know that circa age four I just blithely assumed that if it didn’t make sense to me, it was nonsense and jumbles. It was very simple: I spoke normally, babies talked baby talk, and sometimes grown-ups talked jumbles.

I distinctly remember singing at least two hymns that contained lines of unintelligible jumbles. The funny thing was that no one else seemed to notice it. I fully realised that at times we were babbling, but since no one else minded, I gamely sang along. Most imprinted on my memory was the verse of Crown Him With Many Crowns that ran:

Crown Him the King of years
The potentate of time
Creator of the rolling spheres
Ineffably sublime!

Then there was the line in Wonderful Grace of Jesus that talked about ‘The scope of my transgressions.’ Obviously these sounds didn’t mean anything. And yet people were singing it in church! It was all very amusing. And no one else seemed to notice this irony but me.