On language
Reflecting on losing out on my ancestor's cognitive universe
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A language is a flash of the human spirit — Wade Davis
It often irks me that I am not fluent in my father’s/mother’s language. It was never practical to either learn or use them throughout my life.
The situation was different with English and Hausa, which had practical applications for me. It was easy with English with its schalarship and economic advantages. With Hausa, it was more of a social application because of my place of residence.
I remember making a conscious effort to understand and speak Hausa better after my undergrad, even though I was already fluent. I needed to improve my vocabulary, especially relating to situations like small talk, condolences, and other circumstances that my childhood exposure to the language did not allow. Basically, it was a need to learn the art of observing the cultural application of the language in a diverse set of social circumstances.
It was practical to do this at the time because I was graduating from the conversations of the school environment and commencing a journey of life in a northern Nigeria setting as an adult. I took this with a sense of responsibility in order not to abuse cultural sensibilities.
Back to why it irks me that this was not the same for my parent’s languages.
It irks me because the various opportunities my parent’s languages would have afforded me are lost on me —understanding of context, culture, humor, and other subtle nuances of communication. Languages are important for their numerous qualities.
Their artistic value alone is enough.
The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is… Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000. — Lera Boroditsky
Yet, beyond that — langauges are a window into our (ancestors) worldview. It defines their articulation of reality, which have been passed on to us and which fleshed out the world that they/we inhabit.
Not speaking a language limits our experience of reality from that perspective.
Research shows that language really shapes the way we think. It trains our perception of reality and how we interact with it. Language guides our reasoning.
If we think in words and images, then language plays a big part in the process that allows us to use our senses to experience and interact with the world.
Computer languages — pivoting from human-human to human-machine interactions
As we lose a language almost every other week in the world today, our ability to create new languages is exciting, even when they are not spoken languages.
Computer languages are becoming more practical to learn in an increasingly digital world. Fluency in programming is a highly desirable skillset. Computer languages have opened up a whole new way to tinker with perceived reality.
Technology is changing how human-human interactions occur as more of this is enabled by it. We are seeing an evolution of spoken language and its prominence in communication.
What does the future hold?
Explore further
Hasanthika Sirisena reminisces on What It’s Like to Lose Your First Language through a graphic essay.
Let me know your thoughts on language, the loss of human language diversity, and the rising prominence of computer languages.
Hasanthika Sirisena's What It’s Like to loose Your First Language made me think about my mum. My mum speaks 4 languages aside English and Hausa( I guess it’s safe to call her a polyglot) every time I hear her speak, I wish It was hereditary. Although she taught us her language, I think I didn’t have enough interest to learn my Dad’s or maybe I didn’t add conscious effort, discipline and consistency to my interest...🙂