|
|
Language represents a logic and approach to life: Another interesting thing about understanding the functions of language is to analyze differences from one language to another. Differences in, for example, form (how the words and grammar are arranged and put together to have meaning), and differences in words (certain words exist in some languages and not in others) and so on. Take for example the difference between say, English and Spanish—two languages that have a relationship in some of their roots. Their form and structure are often very different. In English you say “The Green House” and in Spanish you would say “La Casa Verde.” Both sentences have the same meaning, but what fascinates me is the difference in the form, and the wider questions this poses. If you were to translate “La Casa Verde” directly to English, it would read “the house green,” effectively making little sense and changing the logic and emphasis of the sentence.
This small difference is central to the nature/form of both languages and leads me to wonder if it affects the way people think, reason, relate, express and interpret things. Does it mean that people who think of the object first and how it’s described second (as in, “the house” comes first (la casa) and then “green” (verde) comes as an after thought) inherently end up perceiving the world differently? What do these differences mean? I don’t think they make anyone or any language or culture inferior or superior, but I do think they represent interesting differences and at a deeper level and hold important lessons about other people, their cultures and their experience of life. It would be very interesting to spend time looking at some of the questions that these differences point out and try to figure out if understanding them can help us in better understanding each other.
Language is a currency: I metaphorically like to describe language as a currency that enables one to participate in a broad exchange. Using words as the means of exchange and the ‘legal tender’, you have a means of exchange. Words represent ideas, feelings, emotions, objects etc. and thus vocabulary is a very interesting part of a language. When a language has a representation of an emotion that other cultures don’t have, what does this mean? Can we ever relate to what the native speaker of that language is feeling even if we do not have a way of verbally expressing the same sentiment?
Take Portuguese speakers from Brazil for example. They have the word “saudade” which has a wide range of meanings, but often is used to describe the emotion of missing someone with a profound intensity. But if you approached a Brazilian and attempted to say that “saudade” is missing someone intensely, they would tell you that that’s a close definition, but not quite accurate. To date, I have not met anyone, anywhere in the world who has been able to adequately translate the meaning of “saudade”! The word does not exist in many other languages. Does that mean that we that are not native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese can never feel “saudade”? Perhaps we have felt it too… but how do we know, if we cannot express it the same way and have no way to compare what we’re feeling through a conversation?
Evolution of languages
Languages will always evolve and change: some will die, and new ones will emerge. Hybrids such as “Spanglish” [the merger of English and Spanish common amongst Latino immigrant communities in the United States] continue to demonstrate this in very interesting ways. Whilst acknowledging this, I feel that it is also fundamentally important to make efforts to preserve and to protect the languages that we have at the moment primarily as a learning resource and a measure of humanity’s progress. There’s a famous proverb that says, “If you don’t know where you’re coming from, you don’t know where you are going.” Preserving languages will allow us, and future generations to understand the bigger picture of life in a very important way.
Preserving Languages and Highlighting Their Importance
As languages evolve and are modified by many forces of change in the world today, how to we go about protecting them? What are practical steps that we can take to preserve languages to and to ensure that people can absorb the richness of their own languages and cultures whilst embracing and learning new/foreign ones out of personal interest or economic necessity? A few suggestions I’d like to put forward include:
1. Building Community Libraries and Language Centers dedicated to promoting literature, arts and studies in local languages and extending the understanding of how local languages fit within a global picture.
2. Creating Internet and digital archives of languages (such as www.takingitglobal.org/themes/languages) that focus attention on the importance of languages and in some effectives ways, capture the differences in languages and other important aspects.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
Dumisani
I write because I believe in the power of ideas! Thoughts are what have changed the world... Every revolution, every legislation, every act started off as a thought. All thoughts are inspired by other thoughts expressed in song, essays, research, poetry, spoken word, action...
I write because I love. I hope that my writing inspires and informs you as much as the writings of others has done to me in my life.
~dumisani
|
Comments
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
