Picture of some of the major languages spoken all over the world
This week in class we talked about how people speak and how everyone speaks differently. There is no correct way to speak, just a commonly understood way. Our speech depends on where we grew up and how a certain language was spoken in our household. We watched a movie called “Do You Speak American?” It showed us that there are multiple ways to speak English, and in this country alone there are several different ways to speak. The article Does your language shape how you think? Shows us that language is not only spoken in different ways, but it also influences how we think and act. I agree with the statement that “Speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic concepts like the flow of time.” If one language is extremely basic, and time does not exist to them, then the concept of time and date might be hard for them to understand. One of the previous articles we read talked about how Native American tribes had no idea about how and what time was because it was simply not needed. Nobody was needed to get to a certain place at a certain time. Here in America however, time is the one thing we must know at all times. While language could potentially make it hard for some cultures to understand others, I do not think it is impossible for them to learn other languages and how they function.
I never really thought about language, but it actually does determine and shape our lives. We have words ready in our arsenal for everyday use, but we can always learn new ones to go along with different languages. I believe that language is perhaps the most important thing to our survival as a people, and without it we could not function in any way. I found it interesting that in some languages like French, people need to be very specific when talking about anything. Their culture is must less personal, while here we reserve the right to keep several things private. I also didn’t know that in Chinese the same form of a verb can be used in all tenses. The article states that “The same verb can be used for past, present, or future actions.” This would also make it hard to decipher exactly what someone is saying. Similarly, I read an article about how humans and animals have different speech patterns, and it is similar to how people in the U.S. might have a completely different speech pattern compared to people in China. Animals have very limited means of communication. They only have a limited amount of sounds in their vocabulary and therefore cannot communicate with complex ideas. For example a monkey might be able to say “I am hungry”, but they won’t be able to say “I am very hungry” or “I am a little hungry”. They also cannot speak in different tones. They only have soft and loud voices, but they cannot express seriousness, sarcasm, or anger in their voices.
I have also noticed how many European countries give inanimate objects a masculine or feminine gender. For example in Spanish class we give each word an “El” or “La” prefix. This gives the object a gender trait. The prefix is so important that it cannot be ignored. If we do not add the el or la before the word, then the answer is considered incorrect. Several countries also have an accent in their words. Like the movie we watched, different people say words differently. If a word has an accent then it is meant to be pronounced with an emphasis on the letter with the accent. In the U.S. it is commonly understood how to say certain words, as well as some letters that are silent. I always used to pronounce Home Depot with the t at the end until my parents told me the t was silent.
Our language is not only different in sound and prefixes, but also how we say direction. The Guugu Yimithirr language tells direction in a compass direction instead of left and right. I would imagine that this would be very difficult to adapt to, but that is because I am not accustomed to that kind of direction. MapQuest does tell us to head east, but we only pay attention to the direction in terms of egocentric directions. This Australian language might be better, because the directions do not change in relation to an individual’s position; rather the directions are given in terms of the earth and the poles. If one car was on one side of the road, and the other car was on another side our right would be their left but our east would be the same as their east. This language is more concentrated on a geographical position as a whole compared to a position from a single point of view. I also found it funny that the Matses language requires the truth in terms of the instant you are being spoken to. I like the line where a man was asked how many wives he had, and he replied “There were two last time I checked”. This idea would seem absurd to westerners, but it is perfectly normal in Peru. There are a lot more differences in our language that just our language.
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