There is only one language for humans, but not every human has learned all words and related experiences,

Emily,

Reading a paper, “The Languages of the World” and thought of you

Languages of the World by Radoslaw Wojtowicz at http://languagesindanger.eu/book-of-knowledge/languages-of-the-world/

He is speaking about languages being lost and I was thinking that you are talking to native groups and cultures that might be dying out.  He mentions the Tobian language of Palau, where the language stores/stored knowledge of the behavior and benefits of different species of fish, and how to best use that for food and health and life.

If you meet peoples from the jungle who know about plants, and the plants die out, and the people die out, and the stories are forgotten, and the way of looking at things learned over thousands of years is lost ….?

In a way that is partly the words of a language reflect the jobs and methods of a people. Fisherman have a language filled with names and behaviors, benefits and dangers related to fish and fishing.  Plant specialists, herb women, gatherers all have “domain specific languages”.  It two chemists talk to each other, and outside might not know many of the words they share.

About 1974 I was sitting in one of the fusion planning meetings at UT Austin. They were excited to be working on nuclear fusion. But I speak most all STEMC and other languages nearly fluently. So from my point at the back of the room, listening to groups talking to each other, I could tell that the electrical engineers and power systems specialists could not speak to the nuclear reaction specialists. They had not learned what the others had learned so they had a common language — that would be required to make critical steps in solving particular problems that had to be solved, if the whole project was to be completed in the world.

Certain types of “nuclear physicists” might be endangered now – their language, their knowledge, their experience with critical parts of the greater whole might be lost.  And decades per person of reviewing and understanding critical parts of the global whole, lost. Artists, singers, and thousands of specialties.  “Save our endangered specialists, our unique and valuable holders of unique knowledge”.

There is only one language for humans, but not every human has learned all words and related experiences, nor the many ways humans can say the same things differently.  8.1 Billion ways to say “I love you” or “you matter” or “life is complex” or “the view from this mountain is unique”, or “nuclear bonds are magnetic“.

Filed as (There is only one language for humans, but not every human has learned all words and related experiences).

Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation