Why Language Is Cool

guest post by Tommy Fu

Have you ever noticed that the word for “mother” is almost universal across human languages? With the occasional exception, the word for mother in every language is some combination of the letters “ma-“ or “me”. Certainly in many languages with Germanic or Latin roots “mother” should indeed be similar, but what about those not associated with any of the Romanic languages?

Consider: English - mother, mama; French – mère, maman; Spanish- madre, mami; Italian – madre, maman; German – mutter; Russian – mat’; Dutch – moeder, moer; Latin – mater etc. These are understandable as all can trace some roots back to Latin.

But how about other languages without a Latin ancestry? Arabic – ahm; Hawaiian – makuahine; Hindi – ma, maji; Malay – emak; Chinese – ma, mama; Swahili – mama, mzazi, mzaa, Urdu – ammee etc.

I took a class in college called “Psychology of Language.” It was one of the most fascinating classes I’ve ever taken because it combined aspects of evolution, history, psychology, logic, and linguistics into one field. While I don’t claim to be a psycholinguist or any expert on the subject, there are several interesting points that I would like to point out for you to explore on your own. The following point is adapted from The Psychology of Language – Paul Whitney (our textbook during this course).

First, let us define the universal characteristics of language:

1. Semanticity – symbols convey meaning (the word “dog” should convey a four legged animal)

2. Arbitrariness – no relationship between the symbol and the thing it conveys (the word “dog” does not look like a dog; however, exceptions do exist for certain words in Chinese and sign language)

3. Discreteness – language signals are distinct and discrete (the word dog should always mean the word for the four legged animal, I do not modify the word by yelling to express a large dog or whispering to express a small dog; instead I use other signals)

4. Duality of Patterning – language is composed of signals on two levels (“dog” is composed of the individual letters d/o/g, so in English, letters are one level, words are another)

5. Productivity – elements can be combined in novel ways; new words can be invented

6. Displacement – we can communicate about things that are displaced (we can talk about things that are not physically present, we can communicate about the future and past, we can talk about things that do not exist)

            These six characteristics are essential for human language, and are the very characteristics that separate us from other species that can communicate, but not necessarily use “language.” While dancing bees, signing apes, or singing birds are communicating with each other, they are not using language. How about sign language, does it fulfill these universal characteristics?

           

            Now back to “mother”. Why is it so darn similar across the human race? The best argument seems to be that the easiest sounds for infants to make are “mmm” and then another vowel, namely “aaah”. If you think about a baby crying or babbling, what sounds does he/she make? So it seems, the word for mother, then, stems from the simplicity of the physical aspects of making sound. So, what implications does this have? For one, there is a biological aspect in language development if “mother” is so similar in different languages. But there is also the fact that if “mother” is the first word we learn as children; doesn’t that mean we obtain a concept of the outside world before a concept of self? Otherwise, why isn’t the first word we learn “I” or “me” or “my”?

            Another interesting anecdote: have you ever noticed that when British people sing, the “British” accent disappears and sounds like the typical “American” accent? This also seems to hold true for Scottish, Irish, and Australian etc. I first noticed this when I was watching a show called “S Club 7” about a British pop band. I was confused to learn how different their voices sounded during dialogue and during song. This happens even now. When Adele first came into the spotlight, I had no idea she was British. It was only upon watching an interview that I realized, “Holy crap, she’s not American at all!” Try a little experiment; listen to some popular British/UK bands: The Beatles, Oasis, Coldplay, James Blunt, Snow Patrol, The Rolling Stones, The Who etc. and see if you can pick up their accents during their songs. Perhaps there are some artists you have heard and don’t even know that they are from across the pond! What is the phenomenon behind this?! (I have no idea)

            Can our language capabilities affect our intelligence? You’ve probably heard the stereotype “Asians are good at math.” That’s probably true to a certain extent, but could the reason be due to language?

Consider how we assign words to numbers in English: after ten comes eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen….nineteen, twenty; then thirty, forty….ninety, one hundred and so on. Seems logical right? Maybe not so much. First of all, eleven and twelve are made up words with no root in common with numbers 1-10. Then after each multiple of ten, English has to invent another word, hence “twenty” etc. Perhaps it seems easy simply because we have grown accustomed to it.

However, consider how we assign words to numbers in Chinese. 1-10 is the same, but past that, the Chinese do something different. The literal translation of the word “eleven” in Chinese is “ten-one”. Can you guess the translation of the word “twelve” then? “Ten-two.” If I told you that twenty is “two tens,” could you then guess the word for twenty one? “Two tens, one.” Now what if I asked you to add 11 and 67 using this system? How would the math look? It would be “Ten, one + six tens, seven” = “Seven tens, eight,” which is the literal translation of the word 78. You add the tens and then you add the single digits. How easy is that? Try to do the same in English. “Eleven + sixty seven” = “seventy eight.” Thus, solely based on the way the Chinese word their numbers, children are able to grasp how numbers work sooner, and thus become proficient at math sooner. (Courtesy Malcolm Gladwell)

Does this work the other way around? Could language become a hindrance on intelligence? There is a hunter/gatherer tribe in Brazil known as the Piraha. Their language is very unique in that it has only a few words for numbers (they also have no words for color, and a single word for both mother and father). This introduces something known as the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, which states that there is a relationship between a person’s language and how he/she understands the world. Now, the Piraha are not dumb people. They have certainly been able to sustain as a hunter-gatherer society for some time, learning how to use tools and the like. But, when an American researcher tried to teach them how to count to ten (in Brazil’s Portuguese), he found that not a single person in eight months was able to learn how. The Piraha have words for “small quantity,” “larger quantity,” and “many.” When presented with ten batteries and asked how many there were, they replied with a mixture of the words for “larger quantity” and “many.” When presented with between three and six batteries, the Piraha used the word for “small quantity” to describe all numbers between three and six. Do the Piraha have any grasp at all on the concept of numbers or math? Does this support the Sapir Whorf hypothesis? Is a limited language system responsible for an inadequate understanding of the world? You decide. The Pirahã and their Language

            Language can be absolutely fascinating if you take the time to understand it. It’s something we use with such ease, and yet when we try to learn a different one, we find that it is impossibly hard! All these rules and vocabulary! There are many things that are common among all languages and just as many that set them apart from each other. Language has strong cultural influences and as we’ve seen, has far more implications than just trying to get an idea across. Next time you open your mouth to speak, dissect what you said, and maybe you’ll discover something new.

Tommy Fu

tommyfu1227@gmail.com