hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0719.txt

Episode: 719
Title: HPR0719: The Language Frontier Episode 4
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0719/hpr0719.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 01:27:52

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You notice how incredibly adaptable language is. New words and expressions are constantly
emerging to accommodate for things like new things like email, cell phones, and Wi-Fi,
hum desktop, internet tablet, digital, video conferencing, etc. which are all very new concepts
and obviously language must adapt for that. So language adapts for these new things,
but another way it adapts is by borrowing from other languages. For example, check out where
some of these everyday English words originated from. Ballot, Italian, kiosk, Turkish,
garage, French, robot, check, sofa, Arabic, and slim, Dutch. European is often referred
to American English as the bastard English, and that's because in the US the language
changes a lot. People play with the language and speak with much less formality than they
do in, say, Britain. But check it out. In Britain the accent which carries the most
prestige pronounces age at the beginning of words such as head, while most other accents
in the UK and Wales commonly leave off the age. What I'm saying is, the way we speak in
right language defines who we are, like it or not. For instance, if a person makes a lot
of spelling errors, when they write, a common assumption is often made that they just
be a dumb person. We use language every day, and it does a lot for us, but it does a lot
against us too. In fact, we're using language right now on this podcast, and you viewers
are using it too, as you decipher these audio waves hitting your ears. Now, let's get
into the nitty-gritty of just how all this language stuff actually works. Welcome to
linguistics 101. Animals cannot speak humans can. Verbal language is unique to the human
species, but that's not all. Humans can speak, but in order to speak, there must be a
medium. The typical medium is the voice, which is a surprisingly complex synergy of bread,
vocal cords, tongue, and lip movement. The other media are sign language and body language.
A secondary medium is writing. In writing, it becomes very obvious that language contains
many smaller little basic sound units. These units do not have only one assigned
meaning, but when they are combined with one another, they take on meanings, but to further
complicate things, the order in which they are combined affects their meaning. For example,
dog does not have the same meaning as God, although they consist of the same parts.
And in fact, there are certain words which sound exactly the same as others, but depending
on the context in which they are used, it can mean something entirely different. The process
of combining these different sounds into larger words that become meaningful in larger
sentences, utilizes something called duality of patterning, and that is distinctly human.
Animals, for instance, cannot create new meanings out of a set vocal expression. They just can't.
Let's look at what one of the foremost experts on the subject and science of language
has to add. No, Chomsky. Mr. Chomsky breaks language down to two categories.
I language, the system of language that every person is born with, any e-language.
What is absorbed from the external world? He goes on to explain that there is a part
of the mind brain that is dedicated specifically to language, just like there is a part dedicated
to the nervous system. And this language facility acts like an organ.
So what he's saying is that every human is born with a fundamental ability to structure language
in coherent ways, regardless of what language they ultimately learn depending on where they're born.
Okay, so why do languages mutate? Good question. Well, languages are alive.
They are living organic systems, and in order to stay alive, they have to adapt to their environment.
Language is inherently adaptable, and since we, the speakers, created, we define the rules.
Just take a look at how some of the everyday words that we use now have evolved over time.
Villain used to mean farm laborer, taxation meant fault finding, and incidentally, right now itself Africa,
taxing means being on someone's back, bugging them, like the taxman.
Some are pretty, was ingenious, naughty, meant worth nothing.
Bonnet referred to a man's hat, furniture meant equipment, and cheater meant rent collector.
Language is also changed because of cultural influences. Groups get together, and languages get mixed together.
Like, for example, in New York, with the heavy French influence, you get dialects like Creole,
which is its own language for a certain community, and it's very hard to understand for other people in the US
who just speak standard American English. And this happens all over the world when two groups get together
and need to converse, and they come from different language backgrounds, with the result being pigeon,
and Creole, or mixed languages. As I mentioned in an earlier show, the French go to great lengths
to preserve the integrity of their language. I'll show you what I mean.
Here's an article from about.com.
The Academy François, aka the French language police, recently surprised the Francophone world
with its choice for the official French translation of email,
deciding that the terms commonly used in France, email, mail, and mail were too close to English.
The Academy chose the quibacque word, courier, it surprises some and pleases others
that the quibacque French, which is sometimes belittled, is not being real French,
at the Frenchiest word of all.
And so, officially, back on July 12, 2003, the Academy François chose courier
as the official French translation for email, and based on that decision,
the French culture ministry has now formally banned the word email in all government-related documents
despite the objections of some internet experts. See what I mean?
It takes this kind of effort on a national level to preserve the language.
By the way, do you know what they call a blog in France? Oh, blog.
Here's another interesting though. I know of a group on the Pacific Island of Guam
who is very concerned about their native language, Chamorro.
That language has basically been ripped to shreds.
First, in the 1600s, with the arrival of the Spaniards,
which introduced a great number of Spanish words into the island of the language,
and then again, in World War II, when the island was occupied first by Japan and then finally the US.
Today, the language is on the brink of being forgotten entirely in favor of American English.
The committee on Guam, led by a guy named Angel Santos and others,
proposed a revival of their native language with new words being introduced
and a new emphasis in schools on teaching and using the language. See what I mean?
A language needs care and nurturing.
We are building a city, building a building.
We are building a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country, a country.
This is the right thing to do.
Being a living system, some languages can die and be killed.
The passion of Christ is a film that was rendered entirely in a dead language, a remake.
So does that mean the language isn't dead anymore? No, it's dead.
A language must be enused in order to be alive and kicky.
So why do languages go extinct? Well, looking back into history, we know that Latin was very widespread.
And then the Roman Empire got conquered by many different cultures and language Latin branched off into many different versions.
We have French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.
I think everybody knows by now, especially after Run came out, that there are numerous similarities in various languages.
Take the word three.
The word three in Swedish is tre and German tre.
The word nine in Swedish is neo, German nun, Latin ovum, Greek nia.
And the word night in Swedish is not German knocked, Latin knocked and Greek night.
There are these kinds of similarities all over the world's languages.
We really all have a lot more in common linguistically than we might realize.
Linguists explain this phenomenon by grouping all languages, both modern and ancient, into families, like a family tree.
The idea is to trace languages back to their common ancestor.
So in one language family into a European, we have some interesting siblings.
English, French, Russian, and evolving Sanskrit, and other languages of East India.
And another family, orolic, are grouped 30 languages, including Hungarian, Finnish, and Mordven.
Each of these modern families are traced back as individual groups to whatever older language gave birth to them.
So our modern languages are like their children.
But bear in mind, these language families are just an imposed construct by linguists in an effort to understand the origins of modern languages.
Consider for a moment just what we actually do with language.
We use it to describe things, explain things, give opinions, comment, express feelings, dictate,
ask for stuff, talk to people, talk to God.
Now, what happens when we see something and say something about it to, let's say, a friend?
There's a lot more to a simple communicative act that meets the eye or ear.
Let's say we see a table and then decide to comment on it to a friend.
A pattern of light is reflected off the table and hits your eye.
As a result of activity in your nervous system, you see the table.
The word table is evoked from your memory.
If you were Spanish, you would think of the word messa. If you were French, you would think of the word tabla.
Later, you decide to say something to your friend about the table.
Your nervous system causes your lungs to expel air, your vocal cords to constrict,
and your lips jaw and tongue to take various positions,
which produce sound waves that travel through the air and strike your friend's ear.
Or ears. His ears react to the sound waves and activate his nervous system.
And he perceives you saying the word table.
And his nervous system produces a visual image of a table.
Your friend imagines what you see.
Although he would probably imagine a different table than the actual one you saw earlier.
This example shows that there are a lot of parts to a simple communicative act.
Now, to further demonstrate the complexity of just how language works.
Let's consider the following sentences.
A. There is a glass on the table.
B. A glass was on that table yesterday. C.
Are there any glasses on that table? D.
The glass might be under the table. E.
I like this table. F.
That table looks like a glass. Most expressions are subjective.
These sentences show just how expressive and full of variety language is.
These ideas cannot be expressed by pictures in your head or on papers when I'm saying.
Many of the things that we say to one another with language are subjective
and cannot be perceived with the senses. That is to say,
we cannot see, touch, smell, or taste these abstract ideas.
To further complicate things, language is also used to denote respect or conversely disrespect.
With the use of terms like Mr. Who Stead,
very important in Spanish. I learned that.
Sir, Queen, Madam, words like this in various languages indicate rank
in educational stature, like S.Squire, Dr. Ph.D.
Capital letters, as in the case of proper nouns, can be purposely omitted to denote disrespect.
As can calling a person by their first name when they are a person worthy of a certain formality when being addressed.
This was done very effectively when the former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein,
was constantly being referred to by the current president of the United States, George Bush, as merely Saddam.
I hope today's show has demonstrated just how infinitely complex a seemingly simple language actually is.
Now multiply that complexity times 7,000 languages on the planet,
or even 100 if you take the more popular varieties like Russian, Arabic, Chinese, English,
and you still have quite a formidable language barrier.
I imagine some of this technical background on languages interesting and informative,
but in conclusion of this week's show, I would just like to call to mind that however these words come into our heads,
they fill our minds. Our brains are full of speech ads and brands.
And what kind of effect does this exposure have on our brains? See you next time.
Thank you for listening to Haqqa Public Radio.
HPR is sponsored by Carol.net, so head on over to C-A-R-O.N-E-T for all of us in need.
Thank you.