The Importance of Language
"Of all mankind’s manifold creations, language must take pride of place. Other inventions – the wheel, agriculture, sliced bread – may have transformed our material existence, but the advent of language is what made us human... Without language, we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over all other animals, and even over nature itself." - Guy Deutscher
Language is everything to humanity. Just as Rome was not built in a day, the world we know was not built single-handedly. In order for any person to work alongside another, they need to be able to communicate. That's where language comes in; body language, depictions, words, sounds, writing, symbols... Language enables humanity to express needs, desires, confusion, innovation, anything you could possibly express, as well as interact with each other and understand the entire word around us. The Unfolding of Language follows every stepping stone of the path that language took to get humanity to where it is in an effort to understand the immense complexity of its nature.
Language is most often taken for granted. No one, save for linguists and advocates for interaction between cultures, considers language to be a major part of their life. It is used without a thought, instinctually incorporated into life sub-consiously. We hear the phrase "think before you speak" but take it to mean being aware of the situation or state of the person we are about to influence and we go about speaking, without planning out each word we are about to say because it is so familiar to us.
Language is most often taken for granted. No one, save for linguists and advocates for interaction between cultures, considers language to be a major part of their life. It is used without a thought, instinctually incorporated into life sub-consiously. We hear the phrase "think before you speak" but take it to mean being aware of the situation or state of the person we are about to influence and we go about speaking, without planning out each word we are about to say because it is so familiar to us.
"This marvelous invention of composing, out of twenty-five or thirty sounds, that infinite variety of expressions which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot penetrate it all that we imagine, and all the various stirrings of our soul". - Grammarians of the Port-Royal abbey, 1660.
Imagining a world without language is substantially impossible, for even thinking about it now, thoughts in our heads are conveyed through a familiar language. Without language, we would not be able to assess any given situation, or give meaning to anything we see. There would be no way for us to understand life around us.
Simply put, language is what furthers our society, facilitates growth and change, and allows for humanity to continue improving. Not only did language build the foundations of society but it persists in connecting today's world. Language is pushed forward so that humanity may follow, paving the road ahead of us. Beginning with an infants delight when discovering that uttering a few noises changes what is in the heads of the people that hear, through sign language and written words that describe feelings to someone who can't hear the emotions in a tone of voice, sounds that paint an image in the mind of someone who can't see, formal speeches that persuade the thoughts of people in positions of power, a grandfather attempting to reunite with his youth by properly using the phrase "YOLO", or even just a hand gesture that our mind recognizes as "hello". Language is what differentiates people from animals and makes sense of our experiences. Language brings people together. It's not something you memorize but something you feel; a familiarity associated with what and how you're trying to say something, with a situation, a place, or a person. Language has everything to do with how you connect with people. A person who speaks several languages might speak one with their mother and an entirely separate one with their best friend, even if they all comfortably speak multiple languages. The language they use with each other is the one that comes naturally to them when together. An adult may use a different tone of voice when speaking to a child than when delivering a business proposition and you may speak only portuguese to your cousin from Brazil, despite you both speaking english in school. Trying to switch the language that comes naturally to you is very difficult, even if you're switching to a language you use regularly with someone else. Once you're past the point of learning or teaching, your languages are no longer conscious decisions. Every method of expression associates itself with a feeling. When you speak a language it also has its own feeling and those feelings become an instinctive and familiar part of your relationship to the person you're speaking to.
The problems to face are simply ones of fear and a lack of understanding. Language holds the encryption codes of our history. As the needs of the world change and we adapt, so does language evolve. The effects of reformatting language are too extensive to anticipate and are posing questions like:
Does language decline or does it progress? What accounts for its extraordinary complexity? Are we expanding or decaying our vocabulary? Are we losing knowledge to forgotten concepts and dead phrases? While a vast number of different languages provides a wealth of possible descriptions, it also provides the opportunity for misunderstandings. Lack of communication, especially within close proximity, could cause major conflicts between cultures.
Losing your language is losing your identity. In attempts to interact with each other we could be systematically falling towards uniformity. We pursue connection through speaking each other's language, but what happens when one side doesn't bother to learn? That other language could be rendered useless or even lost to fading minds. How do we share our impression of the world without a take-over language that buries the traditions, cultures and stories of the 6,912 unique languages spoken today? If one language were to become universal, no matter what that language was, it would be entirely insufficient. Only through the billions of traded words have we been able to find adequate meaning and we still borrow phrases in attempts to describe ineffable concepts. Some may argue that language limits our range of expression by constantly editing it with grammar rules and scores of irregularities, but that is why it is so important to have and preserve so many different languages. What we fear are the possible results of our natural evolution. Preserving language is not only preserving an entire culture and history, but also preserving our range of communication and our capacity to understand the universe. The solution to this issue is realizing that there is a solution. Our language was not at one time a solid fundamental, steadily growing with fluent meaning and limitless expression that has recently begun to be altered. Rather, our language has always been changing, and simply striving to appreciate language and recognizing that there is no all powerful force that can veto your native tongue and that your perception of the world lives within within you, will preserve your language.
Simply put, language is what furthers our society, facilitates growth and change, and allows for humanity to continue improving. Not only did language build the foundations of society but it persists in connecting today's world. Language is pushed forward so that humanity may follow, paving the road ahead of us. Beginning with an infants delight when discovering that uttering a few noises changes what is in the heads of the people that hear, through sign language and written words that describe feelings to someone who can't hear the emotions in a tone of voice, sounds that paint an image in the mind of someone who can't see, formal speeches that persuade the thoughts of people in positions of power, a grandfather attempting to reunite with his youth by properly using the phrase "YOLO", or even just a hand gesture that our mind recognizes as "hello". Language is what differentiates people from animals and makes sense of our experiences. Language brings people together. It's not something you memorize but something you feel; a familiarity associated with what and how you're trying to say something, with a situation, a place, or a person. Language has everything to do with how you connect with people. A person who speaks several languages might speak one with their mother and an entirely separate one with their best friend, even if they all comfortably speak multiple languages. The language they use with each other is the one that comes naturally to them when together. An adult may use a different tone of voice when speaking to a child than when delivering a business proposition and you may speak only portuguese to your cousin from Brazil, despite you both speaking english in school. Trying to switch the language that comes naturally to you is very difficult, even if you're switching to a language you use regularly with someone else. Once you're past the point of learning or teaching, your languages are no longer conscious decisions. Every method of expression associates itself with a feeling. When you speak a language it also has its own feeling and those feelings become an instinctive and familiar part of your relationship to the person you're speaking to.
The problems to face are simply ones of fear and a lack of understanding. Language holds the encryption codes of our history. As the needs of the world change and we adapt, so does language evolve. The effects of reformatting language are too extensive to anticipate and are posing questions like:
Does language decline or does it progress? What accounts for its extraordinary complexity? Are we expanding or decaying our vocabulary? Are we losing knowledge to forgotten concepts and dead phrases? While a vast number of different languages provides a wealth of possible descriptions, it also provides the opportunity for misunderstandings. Lack of communication, especially within close proximity, could cause major conflicts between cultures.
Losing your language is losing your identity. In attempts to interact with each other we could be systematically falling towards uniformity. We pursue connection through speaking each other's language, but what happens when one side doesn't bother to learn? That other language could be rendered useless or even lost to fading minds. How do we share our impression of the world without a take-over language that buries the traditions, cultures and stories of the 6,912 unique languages spoken today? If one language were to become universal, no matter what that language was, it would be entirely insufficient. Only through the billions of traded words have we been able to find adequate meaning and we still borrow phrases in attempts to describe ineffable concepts. Some may argue that language limits our range of expression by constantly editing it with grammar rules and scores of irregularities, but that is why it is so important to have and preserve so many different languages. What we fear are the possible results of our natural evolution. Preserving language is not only preserving an entire culture and history, but also preserving our range of communication and our capacity to understand the universe. The solution to this issue is realizing that there is a solution. Our language was not at one time a solid fundamental, steadily growing with fluent meaning and limitless expression that has recently begun to be altered. Rather, our language has always been changing, and simply striving to appreciate language and recognizing that there is no all powerful force that can veto your native tongue and that your perception of the world lives within within you, will preserve your language.