Linguistic Diversity

johnKarma

Hello all.

I have a paper to write for a language class in college entitled "Is the diversity of languages an obstacle to understanding between peoples?" (roughly translated). It's a language paper, so the content isn't strictly important, but the question struck me as interesting nevertheless. Besides, in order to write well, you have to have something to say ...

I was thinking about writing about the dual edged nature of language as both an expression of culture and a functional tool, which leads to conflict on two levels. First of all, because language is so tied to national identity and culture, minority language rights are often contentious (e.g. the russian minority in the baltic states); secondly, on a functional level it becomes necessary to privilege certain "global" languages (english at the moment) for the puposes of international political and business relations. This leads to marginalisation of smaller languages, and resentment on behalf of certain nations (e.g. the french). All this impedes understanding between nations ...

This is probably utter bull****. Can anyone point me the way of interesting material on the subject, or share any thoughts of their own? I've found sh*g all on Google.

Specky

I've found sh*g all on Google

Sure you're using the right dialect in your search terms???

The subjects of language and communication are really very interesting on a lot of different levels.

It's certainly true to say that communication is not just dependant on what you say but also on the way you say it...but in just the same way that "the way it is said" matters, so does "the way it is heard".

There is also the difference between the spoken language and written language. It is an interesting question to consider whether regional or cultural dialects should be allowed to make their way into the written form of their parent language. Certainly spoken language variants include a lot of ambiguities and syntactical contradictions that would make them very difficult to understand in a written form.

I like language and I like dialects but I do tend to fall on the side of conservatism when it comes to the written form because it is hard enough to get an idea across sometimes without making what you write ambiguous, full of gramatical errors, without punctuation etc (I'm one of the people described in the forward to "Eats shoots and leaves" who cringes at the sight of a missing apostrophe...sorry. Was made to sit at the table for hours until I'd finished all my tapioca pudding as a small child....left irreperable mental scars).

However I also see the value of preserving cultural elements of society that are only expressed through language. Is there a way to make this happen through the medium of the written language? I don't know. It is interesting that the narator's voice in pretty much any book you read always has perfect grammer whereas the characters sometimes can barely string a sentence together. Kind of makes you think there is an assumption that the world speaks with a perfect BBC newsreader's voice and that only this voice can be understood.

I dunno...rambling....interesting topic though

...I'll probably get a million people pulling me up on spelling errors in the post now...and another ten million people complaining about me exagerating.

simu

Look in your library in the linguistics section - the internet still isn't great for academic essays. Or try the French section for books on language conflict in Canada or Belgium (they'd be in French though - hope you're linguistically diverse yourself:)).

Personally, I'm in favour of linguistic diversity - it only causes conflict if one language group is discriminated against. There's no reason why ppl shouldn't be able to be fluent in a few different languages, appropriate for the communities they belong to (e.g. family language, local language, country language, an international language).

Hobbes

MIT have thier lingustic courses free on the net. Might need to dig for the link though.

seaghdhas

I had a reasonable reply typed but the amazing www decided my own voice was loud enough.

Anyhow, basically I was posting about the link between language and locality (alliteration unintended, apologies). Irish English exists as it's own 'twist'. Subdivisions have been influenced (I have no actual facts) by local climate, outside influences, what there was to talk about, the originally spoken language, etc. The same can also be said about the evolution of Scandinavian languages from mainland German as compared to Dutch, or even English. And then the Latin languages. And isn't Romanian word and grammatic structure influenced by Latin, Russian and Greek? Perhaps Bigger European universities are a source of info.

My other point was; has anyone noticed the similarity between how idividuals speak and how they un-selfconsciously write. How many boarders un-selfconsciously type?

Make note of my word use and grammar in the previous paragraph. I hadn't realised at the time.

shotamoose

JohnKarma, if you are in UCD or have access to the library, look in their Linguistics section, it starts at about 400 if I remember right.

However your topic sounds a bit vague. Linguistics is a pretty well-established science, and the various branches - grammar, language sounds, relations between languages, languages and psychology, sociolinguistics - all have good solid scientific bases. Debates around language and culture belong more in cultural studies or sociology, where people tend to be more comfortable with arguments that are difficult to disprove.

seaghdas, Romanian is indeed 'descended' from Latin, which is descended from 'Italic', which is descended from 'Proto-Indo-European', a language spoken several thousand years ago which has been partly reconstructed through years of linguistic research. Other languages descended from Proto Indo-European include Russian, Czech, Norse, English, Greek, Kurdish and Hindi. See here for a family tree.

simu

Shotamoose, you linked to a page on pesticides!

Is this some new, previously unknown property of language you have discovered?:)

Twould be cool if you could find the original link again - i'm constantly amazed how little non-specialists know about language families and linguistics in general. It's a fascinating subject!

seaghdhas

This might sound a bit whatever, but anyway.

Language groups are nice and neat. The Englush language has it's roots in the Germanic group. But it has been influenced by French. Which is understandable given English history but all the same English is a Germanic language.

Romanian may be a Latin language but it has been influenced by modern Russian. Which given Romanian history is understandable.