Fraggles, fables, flora, fledglings: that is eirs, that is hus, that is pers, that is jeers, that is vis, that is zees, that is jeers. Phraseology is co-opted, co-inherited, co-inhabited by other forms of identity, attitude and affects—being difficult. Words become the characters in which knotted histories live. Fledglings are filled by human prosody, by breathing, by thought-form, by tone, by phonic focus and by verse. Ey likes emself. From Aesop’s Fables to Mr. Ed to Ratatouille, the use of animals as allegorical proxies has given a voice to the inarticulate, animating Father Wolf and Fairy Godmother with dominant ideolology and monotonous convention. The flora and fauna’s inner theater, Fledgling, is joy-rided by Beyonce’s “If I were a Boy”. In 1999, the American Dialect Society chose “she” as the word of the past millennium.

new-come (OE)
newcomer (c1450)
new compelling (1587)
settler (1815)
newie (1856)
new-coin (1591)
sinkeh (1879)
ring-neck (1898)
malihini (1941)
mystery (1988)
new jack (1988)
youngling (a1175)
novice (1340)
‘ginner (c1374)
beginner (1470-85)
apprentice (1489)
prentice (1489)
infant (1526)
freshman (a1557)
intrant (1560)
enterer (1565)
puny (?1570)
weakling (1575)
new compelling (1587)
fledgling (1830)