Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Language Influences Thought

...in these 5 examples.

However, a crucial counterpoint is that English makes it easy to NOT lay blame, with the passive exonerative ("Mistakes were made.")  English is a popular business langauge, partly because of that passive exonerative: many other languages require  specifying who or what caused something (bad or good) to happen.
Tags: linguistics, news, reading
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  • 23 comments
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siege

Re: Thoughts

siege

May 28 2011, 19:32:49 UTC 10 years ago

And with Earthly languages, all this stuff is why Muslims generally insist that converts learn Arabic and read the Koran in its original language.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

May 28 2011, 19:38:45 UTC 10 years ago

Yes. That's a good idea with any crucial material. The Baha'is have a custom of translating and then backchecking their holy works, so a lot of the stuff has been translated into many other languages. But there are some that won't translate accurately, no matter how many times people try, so those are only available in the original. Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew are among the better languages for discussing certain spiritual concepts. Spirituality is one field where English has less useful vocabulary and grammar than a bunch of other languages. Native American ones tend to be good for spiritual discussions too; Lakota and Cherokee have some dandy terms.
siege

Re: Thoughts

siege

May 28 2011, 19:46:13 UTC 10 years ago

In my understanding, it's because a lot of Saxon vocabulary was suppressed when Christian-influenced nations invaded and then converted the nations of Britain. So the words we could have had for spiritual concepts have had to be borrowed from the languages where English-speaking cultures found their teachers: Greek in a very few cases, but much more often dialects of Sanskrit and various Asian languages as we imported Hindu and Buddhist teachings and teachers.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

May 28 2011, 20:23:52 UTC 10 years ago

That would make sense.

I'm always bemused by the term Anglo-Saxon. The Angles and the Saxons hated each other, but after all the raiding and post-battle screwing, they wound up sort of stuck with each other. People should learn to watch where they put it.

  • Photographs

    I took some pictures of my yard today. Read about what makes a good wildlife yard and Fieldhaven as habitat. The larger brush pile is still…

  • Birdfeeding

    Today is partly sunny and delightfully mild. I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of house finches and a few sparrows. I walked around the yard…

  • Fieldhaven as Habitat

    If you follow my posts on gardening, birdfeeding, and photos, then you know that I garden for wildlife. Looking at the YardMap parameters, here…