A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter P

parlance

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A particular way of speaking or using words; idiom or manner of expression characteristic of a group, profession, or period.

Detailed Definition
"Parlance" derives from Old French "parlance" (speech, talk), from "parler" (to speak), and refers to a distinctive manner or style of speaking characteristic of particular groups or contexts. While not exclusively archaic, the term appears in poetry to denote specialized vocabularies, regional dialects, or historical modes of expression. Poets use "parlance" when discussing language itself—how different communities or eras employed words differently. The term acknowledges that language varies by context and that understanding poetry often requires familiarity with particular linguistic conventions. Its use signals awareness of linguistic registers and historical change, making it valuable for poems exploring communication, misunderstanding, or the evolution of language. The word's French origin lends it sophistication appropriate to literary and critical discussions of diction and style.
Example
Example in poetry:
In common parlance, this means simply stated; "The parlance of the court was French"; Parlance means manner or style of speaking; Legal parlance confuses ordinary citizens; Medieval parlance differed greatly from modern speech; Scientific parlance employs specialized terminology
Additional Notes
Parlance appears in contexts distinguishing specialized vocabularies, group-specific language, or characteristic modes of expression. The term emphasizes the social dimension of language—parlance belongs to groups. "Legal parlance," "common parlance," and "in x's parlance" are typical constructions. Related to French "parler" (to speak). Essential for analyzing sociolects, jargon representation, and how literature represents language variation by profession, class, or group. The term suggests not merely vocabulary but entire expressive manner characteristic of community. Useful for discussing how texts represent specialized languages, whether technical jargon creates or excludes communities, and literature's metadiscursive awareness of its own linguistic register as one parlance among many.
Also Known As
speech language diction expression
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