Forked tongue
A forked tongue is a
Forked tongues have evolved in these
Forked tongues have evolved multiple times in squamates. It is unclear, based on the morphological and genetic evidence, where the exact points of change are from a notched tongue to a forked tongue, but it is believed that the change has happened two to four times.[1][9] A common behavioral characteristic that has evolved in those with forked tongues is that they tend to be wide foragers.[1][10]
Hummingbirds also have tongues that split at the tip.[11] Galagos (bushbabies) have a secondary tongue, or sublingua, used for grooming, hidden under their first.[12]
Usage as an idiomatic expression
The phrase "speaks with a forked tongue" means to deliberately say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, "speaking with a forked tongue" has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to "speak with a forked tongue."[citation needed] This phrase was also adopted by Americans around the time of the Revolution, and may be found in abundant references from the early 19th century—often reporting on American officers who sought to convince the tribal leaders with whom they negotiated that they "spoke with a straight and not with a forked tongue" (as for example, President Andrew Jackson told the Creek Nation in 1829[13][14]). According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the "white man spoke with a forked tongue" originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a peace conference, only to be slaughtered or captured.[15]
Literary usage
There are appearances of the phrase "forked tongue" in English literature, either in reference to actual snakes' tongues, or as a metaphor for untruthfulness, such as a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, who died in 1626:
"And he hath the art of cleaving. He shewed it in the beginning, when he made the Serpent, linguam bisulcam, a forked tongue, to speake that, which was contrarie to his knowledge and meaning, They should not die; and as he did the Serpent's, so he can doe others."[16]
The phrase also appears in Milton's Paradise Lost:
According to his Doom: He would have spoke,
But Hiss for Hiss return'd with forked Tongue
To forked Tongue, for now were all transform'd...[17]
See also
- Ankyloglossia
- Dicroglossidae, family of frogs commonly called the fork-tongued frogs
- Doublespeak
- Silver tongue (disambiguation)
- Tongue splitting (a surgical procedure)
References
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- ^ Bill Hilton Jr (2007-06-12). "Hummingbird Internal Anatomy and Physiology". Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
The tongue itself splits in the floor of the mouth
- ^ Monkeyland. "Bushbaby - Galago moholi". Meet Our Primates. Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary. Archived from the original on 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
equipped with a second, pointy tongue underneath their normal one
- ^ Niles' Register, June 13, 1829
- ^ Foster, Thomas Flournoy (1830). Speech on the Bill to Provide for the Removal of the Indians, West of the Mississippi: Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, May 17, 1830. D. Green. p. 11.
- ^ Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, Vol. 19, 1859, p. 230.
- ^ Andrewes, Lancelot (1632-01-01). XCVI. Sermons. R. Badger.
- ^ Milton, John; Rice, John (1766-01-01). Paradise Lost ... With notes of various authors, by John Rice. London.