Language, Sounds and Intelligent Design

[Chu]

I made a series of videos for my YT channel a short while ago, and I'd like to share them here. To my surprise, recently some of you have written to say you were interested and to ask questions, so instead of replying to everyone individually, I reckon it may benefit others to have a discussion here. I've hesitated because I know it's not a topic everyone is fascinated by, I don't have any "smoking gun", and I'm a total newbie Youtuber and video editor! (You'll see the amazing editing skills if you watch )

Do sounds have meaning? A question ignored for centuries could hold the key to understanding how language emerged, and what it is. In this first part, I introduce you to a few misconceptions in Linguistics, and the idea that maybe, just maybe... sounds may carry in them the essence of the entities they describe.

References:
- Ferdinand de Saussure, "Cours de Linguistique Générale" (1916)
- Plato, Cratylus (ca. 390 BC)
- Edward Sapir on sounds and meaning (1930) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...

If you are crazy enough to work on the entire dictionary of a specific language, and group words according to which sounds they have, and what pieces of meaning they share, see what happens! Suddenly all sounds carry certain meanings, and if you replace them, the meaning changes! I bet you never noticed it before. And it's not just a "mere coincidence" when thousands of words, and their corresponding sounds, show the same patterns.
References:
- Margaret Magnus, "Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants" (1999)
- Margaret Magnus' website: http://www.trismegistos.com/
- Her dissertation: http://www.trismegistos.com/Dissertat...

In this part, I introduce another path towards finding the hidden meaning behind sounds and the words they form. As sneaky as ever, this time they are hiding in plain sight, in each syllable or sound of names of places, and common names.

References:
Carmen Jimenez Huertas, "No venimos del latin: Edición revisada y ampliada" (2015)
In english: "Romance Did Not Begin in Rome: A critique of the Latin origin of Romance languages" (2018)

Have you ever noticed similarities between languages that are said to belong to different “families”? Why do the pairs “wick-wicked” (English) and “mèche - méchant” (French) have four different historical roots, yet they all share an underlying meaning, “twisted”? Why do “mère” (French) and “mare” (English) sound similarly, and “ma” (Chinese) can mean both “mother” and “horse”? Is it all just pure coincidence? There may be an explanation for these and many other oddities!

Reference:
Abraham A. Abehsera, "Babel, the Language of the 21st Century", 1991.

So far, we have seen that phonemes and sounds can carry meaning. In this part, you will learn about other possible clues: Do frequencies have shapes? Does the shape of a letter relate to its sound? And what do the shapes of our letters convey about our remote past and legacy? We'll connect these pieces of "trivia" with the rest of the series. And hopefully after watching, you will see your letters and the sounds of your language in a whole new light.
References:
- Cymatics: https://www.cymascope.com/cyma_resear...
- Nora Turoman, Suzy J Styles, "Glyph guessing for 'oo' and 'ee': spatial frequency information in sound symbolic matching for ancient and unfamiliar scripts" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28989...
- TED Talk, Genevieve von Petzinger, "Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQ...

Some of the books I mentioned are rare or out of print, so if anyone happens to be interested in reading them, don't hesitate to ask and I'll make a copy available.

 

[Chu]

There was a lot more that could be said just about this, but I'm still reading and trying to make it very simple, and then hopefully connect it to:

- how language is incredibly complex, and its evolution cannot be explained (as it often is) via a Darwinian approach. Hopefully making it also easy for people out there to understand and get interested in Intelligent Design.
- how a lot of things we assume to be true about language are not (e.g. many "truths" about etymology, language families, language in the brain, etc.)
- how modern linguistics, thanks to the "genius" (NOT) of Noam Chomsky, is more materialistic than ever, and has lost track of many theories that were probably more spot on before the 50s and much more so before Darwin.
- how if, information and consciousness enter the equation, even oddities like the language of the psychopath can possibly have their explanations.
- frequent questions on how language affects thought and viceversa, and our perception of the world in general
- frequent questions about bilingualism and polyglots, which IMO provide a big clue about the brain/mind problem
- and just in general, to make Linguistics more fun for those who are interested, and to give a review of the several schools of thought, different views on language acquisition, etc.

The problem is that, of course, and as we well know here in the forum, there is often very little evidence. And it ties with what makes us human, 3D, etc. etc. So, I'm just at the beginning, but maybe if I share it some of you will ask interesting questions, point out problems with what I've got so far, etc. All feedback is welcome. Thanks!

 

[Palinurus]

Interesting topic you've opened, Chu.

I take it you're aware (but others might not) of the snippets in the transcripts concerning the origin of languages, notably session June 21, 1997:

Q: Change of subject: I am tracking the clues through the various languages and alphabets. I would like to know which of these alphabets, Runic, Greek, or Etruscan, preceded the others, and from which the others are derived?

A: Etruscan.

Q: Well, who were the Etruscans?

A: Templar carriers.

Q: What does that mean?

A: Seek and ye shall find.

Q: Well, how am I supposed to do that? I can't find anything else on the Etruscans!

A: No.

Q: What do you mean 'no?' You mean there is more out there on the Etruscans?

A: Yes.

Q: Okay. What are Templar carriers?

A: Penitent Avian Lords.

Q: What does that mean?

A: For your search. All is drawn from some more ancient form.

Q: Okay, let's leave that for now. I was digging into the Sanskrit alphabet and found that it says that it was essentially 'invented' by the great Hindu grammarian, Panani, which means that it may simply be arbitrary. And, for some reason, digging into it further does not seem to interest me...

A: Because you have not yet connected these dots.

and:

A: The roots of all languages are identical...

Q: What do you mean?

A: Your origin.

Q: You mean Atlantis?

A: Is that your origin?

Q: You mean Orion?

A: Interesting the word root similarity, yes?

Q: Well, the word root similarities of a LOT of things are VERY interesting! It is AMAZING the things I have discovered by tracking word roots...

A: The architects of your languages left clues aplenty. And, you have the rare opportunity to learn far more of this by being taught to speak and understand other languages.

Thorbiorn expanded on that in a thread entitled: A perspective on Cosmo-genealogy .

Hope this helps the discussion going a bit further.

 

[Palinurus]

I just remembered that Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation) toyed with this concept of common ancestors for different races in Season 6, Episode 20 (overall episode 146) entitled The Chase .

It turns out, this was a common background feature for most Star Trek franchises. See:

THEORY: Did These Three Ancient ‘Star Trek’ Species Evolve From the Same Ancestor?

This article contains a video clip from The Chase with the most important declaration with regard to this subject.

Learning is fun, for sure !

 

[Alejo]

Thank you so much Chu!

I am personally a huge fan of your videos, the topic is fascinating to me and I am very glad you're making the effort to put it out there. Everytime I watch one of your videos i spend the rest of that day thinking about the words I am using as the day goes by :).

Keep it up!

 

[Aaron r]

Really fascinating Chu. Thank-you.

In my work I have learnt to speak a "pigeon" english because I interact with many Australian Aborigines. For many Aboriginal people in the top end of Australia, English can be the second, third or even fourth language they speak.

I find Pidgeon is a very basic and direct form of language with very little nuance. I do not know how nuanced their mother tongues are. When I speak Pidgeon too much I feel like my thoughts/thinking become very simple as well. I actually yearn to read some good SOTT articles to counteract that feeling.

Once again fascinating topic, thank-you.

 

[ryu]

Thank you Chu for making these videos! I'm very interested by languages. I've found that when you learn a language, you access to a new way of thinking, of seeing the world and you can get in touch with the "soul" of a people.

Thank you again.

 

[Ryan]

Thanks @Chu! I really enjoyed these series of videos that you posted on LinkedIn. Your ideas about language are very unique and interesting. I hope this thread will provide you with some new keys to unlock your knowledge further!

I went looking for Abraham Abehserah's book, "Babel, the Language of the 21st Century", but couldn't find it on Amazon. If it's out of print that could explain it, although I haven't searched through some of the more specialty booksellers yet. If you've got any referral links that would be awesome.

Learning a second (or third, or fourth!) language is such a great activity, because the process naturally disrupts habituated, automatic thought patterns and challenges one to really understand the meaning of what it is you're trying to say, and how that meaning might best translate into the destination language. After a few years of learning Russian part-time, I can definitely say that not only is it useful and beneficial, it also widens your social circle quite a lot, as well!

Looking forward to the discussion!

 

[Chu]

Thanks @Palinurus for the quotes. Yes, that thread started by Thorbjorn is great!

In my work I have learnt to speak a "pigeon" english because I interact with many Australian Aborigines. For many Aboriginal people in the top end of Australia, English can be the second, third or even fourth language they speak.

I find Pidgeon is a very basic and direct form of language with very little nuance. I do not know how nuanced their mother tongues are. When I speak Pidgeon too much I feel like my thoughts/thinking become very simple as well. I actually yearn to read some good SOTT articles to counteract that feeling.

You mean "pidgin" (but it sounds like "pigeon", which is interesting because it involves traveling long distances ). And I understand how you feel! In fact, for centuries linguists studied pidgins because they saw them as remnants of "primitive" languages, and the path towards discovering how the language capacity originated in humans. Well, that was dead wrong if you ask me, and it was more influenced by Darwinism than anything (Westerners saw pigdin speakers as "savages"). The main reason why it can only be wrong is that pigdins never start from scratch, and are a rather simplified form of communication between peoples who ALREADY have a fully delevoped mother tongue. So, claiming that that got language started doesn't make sense. But if you want to understand why they tend to be so simple, just check the wiki page here: Pidgin - Wikipedia

I'll probably be talking about this and more related topics in the next series, so if you subscribe to my channel you'll see them.

It's interesting how you feel your thinking becomes more simple. I think language has a lot to do with that, and that it definitely affects the way we think (how many times a day do you think WITHOUT words, for example?). So, you're not crazy.

 

[Chu]

Thank you Chu for making these videos! I'm very interested by languages. I've found that when you learn a language, you access to a new way of thinking, of seeing the world and you can get in touch with the "soul" of a people.

Indeed! And sounds, although neglected, have a lot to do with that too, I think. Parts 2 and 4 may be the most interesting to you in this case. And I made another one a while ago about French speakers learning English, which I think you'd like, because I mentioned exactly what you just said, and more.

 

[Chu]

I went looking for Abraham Abehserah's book, "Babel, the Language of the 21st Century", but couldn't find it on Amazon. If it's out of print that could explain it, although I haven't searched through some of the more specialty booksellers yet. If you've got any referral links that would be awesome.

The link is under the video, but you may not find the book if someone already bought the last copies. I'm going to have to scan that one and share it. I'll let you know as soon as I have it! You're not the only one who asked, and it's an amazing book, but difficult to get.

Learning a second (or third, or fourth!) language is such a great activity, because the process naturally disrupts habituated, automatic thought patterns and challenges one to really understand the meaning of what it is you're trying to say, and how that meaning might best translate into the destination language. After a few years of learning Russian part-time, I can definitely say that not only is it useful and beneficial, it also widens your social circle quite a lot, as well!

I agree! One that topic, you may find this study interesting:

Is the polyglot brain different? MIT researchers are trying to find out. - The World from PRX

Susanna Zaraysky, speaker of nine languages, seems to be able to pick up French or Portuguese almost overnight. In reality, it’s not so effortless — but is she cognitively predisposed to attaining fluency in so many languages? We follow her to an MIT lab where researchers put her through a...

www.pri.org

All the while, technicians scan her brain and monitor blood flow, which tells them which regions are most active at any given moment.

Results so far have been on the face of it, counterintuitive, says lab director Fedorenko. The control group here are monolinguals, people who only speak one language. For them, the regions of the brain that are associated with language appear quite large on activation maps.

“But for the polyglots,” Fedorenko said, “it looked like it was way on the end of a continuum where these regions were small.”

In other words, the polyglots were less — not more — engaged.

IOW, it's more about the mind than the brain! Same with any specialty anybody has. Otherwise, for those of us who speak several languages, there wouldn't be any room left in our brain for anything else.

 

[jess]

Thank you very much Chu for sharing,
the way you present and conduct it, besides the content itself, makes it very interesting.

Personally for me the language (still in the process of learning English), when some time ago I was studying basic grammar, etc. it felt very tedious, almost like formulas but more complicated with no apparent sense in my interpretation with my little knowledge of it.

About the sound, in what you comment in the videos (sorry if it becomes too personal my comment) super interesting, personally is not a strong area for me the grammar and the rules in the language, and at the beginning of my encounter with English the sound I was associating it with the tone of voice, and at the beginning of my encounter with English, I associated the sound with the tone of voice, body reading and facial expressions of people when they spoke, It was almost like being deprived of the auditory sense because I could not understand what they were saying, it was very emotional for me the encounter with English, then little by little I was catching more the meanings and the vocabulary.

 

[Palinurus]

While searching for something completely different, I stumbled upon another more recent (2021) thread about language (one page), also by thorbiorn:

Transcripts about language

 

[Ryan]

The link is under the video, but you may not find the book if someone already bought the last copies. I'm going to have to scan that one and share it. I'll let you know as soon as I have it! You're not the only one who asked, and it's an amazing book, but difficult to get.

The corresponding video? Or one of the other ones? I had a quick look and couldn't find it.

One that topic, you may find this study interesting:

Indeed! I wonder if this finding would be applicable to other areas of activity as well - so that expert accomplishment in a "blink" sense would actually involve less activity in the brain? It kind of makes sense - when a behaviour is reactive and subconscious, the brain is probably "running hot" using less efficient pathways, whereas when consciousness and intuition are active, the pathways are probably more efficient, achieving results with more "conductivity" of energy.

I would be interested to see the magnetic field patterns compared in these two types of scenarios for different tasks, but that's probably digressing a bit from languages.

 

[Chu]

The corresponding video? Or one of the other ones? I had a quick look and couldn't find it.

Ah, you're right, I only left the reference there. It's here:

Amazon.com

For that price, it's better if I scan it and share it.

Indeed! I wonder if this finding would be applicable to other areas of activity as well - so that expert accomplishment in a "blink" sense would actually involve less activity in the brain? It kind of makes sense - when a behaviour is reactive and subconscious, the brain is probably "running hot" using less efficient pathways, whereas when consciousness and intuition are active, the pathways are probably more efficient, achieving results with more "conductivity" of energy.

I haven't looked it up, but my guess is that it certainly applies to anyone who has any kind of specialty. The more frequent usage, the less you need your actual brain, or rather, the more solid the connection to the information field in that area.