Language, Sounds and Intelligent Design

Apart from the question of complexity, the language gives insight into the thinking of the people speaking it. Once you start to learn a language and get beyond a certain basic level, all sorts of wonderful things open up - the language as a window into their thinking, how they formulate certain concepts, how they view their surroundings and their interaction with others.

That has been interesting from working with Australian Aboriginal people - English is often their 3rd of 4th ‘foreign’ language, and many concepts they are exposed to by the modern Australian society lacks words in their own language, so they create new descriptive words for that and then translate them literally into English. Or often they absorb the English term into their language. Anyway, fascinating topic … sorry, I’m rambling.

Interesting, thanks! Yes, that's another controversy that I am working on. And I think that part of the problem is that linguists (like biologists) don't dare go there, and think of people as a dog breeder would think of doggies: the same species, with varieties. If they only did that, they may realize that there are some differences in thought, and that not all of them are simple "cultural".

Borrowing is also a fascinating topic, and as you pointed out, there are different mechanisms by which that is done. The problem is that then, a BIG leap has been made, and the consensus is that borrowing leads to a new language (say, from Latin to Romance languages, or from Anglo-Saxon to English). The more I read, the more I'm convinced that cannot be the case. Not even to explain why there seem to be so much French in English, for example. More later!
 
Yes, I think it's a good idea to upload it to SOTT, I was thinking of translating it for SOTT in Spanish, I don't know if Chu prefers to stay only on Subtrack. What do you think @Chu ?

I don't know, you're the Spanish SOTT boss. ;-) Maybe wait until there are more followups, so that it's a more complete article? I'm not sure how SOTT worthy it is like that... But you decide.
 
I just shared my overall understanding of the idea. We can play here with specific words, characters and concepts to witness how they connect and transform.

If you don't mind, I would rather you did than on a separate thread. That's going into details that go beyond what would interest most people. The topic is vast enough for one thread. Thanks.
 
the c said that the unifying language at the time of atlantis was sanscrit. WHAT does this ai have to say about this?.
I guess that it was a rhetorical question? GPT is very stupid, so I bet you already know the answer to your question 😉


We're going a bit off topic here, I think. (...)
Also, if you remove writing, it is easier to communicate in Chinese than in Western languages. The grammar is much simpler. So, what is more or less practical is a matter of perspective.
Sorry for that. I thought I was still within the frame of the discussion since I was addressing sounds (thread topic) as well as trying to discuss about "Are all languages equally complex?" (your new post) by sharing my perception of different language components, and in the process, showing that in the end, it's all a matter of perspective!
My knowledge base of that topic is fairly limited, but I like learning about it.

p.s. I agree with the much simpler grammar in Mandarin, and as a French native, I was happily surprised.
 
I guess that it was a rhetorical question? GPT is very stupid, so I bet you already know the answer to your question 😉



Sorry for that. I thought I was still within the frame of the discussion since I was addressing sounds (thread topic) as well as trying to discuss about "Are all languages equally complex?" (your new post) by sharing my perception of different language components, and in the process, showing that in the end, it's all a matter of perspective!
My knowledge base of that topic is fairly limited, but I like learning about it.

p.s. I agree with the much simpler grammar in Mandarin, and as a French native, I was happily surprised.
well, my question regarding sanscrit was a real question. and i would have been interested how deep ai programming goes
 
Apologies for not going through your post in details now, but I hope to address some of those points in future articles or videos. This is just my take, FWIW: Although I think it goes in the right direction by trying to look at the bigger picture (and I agree with you about the few archetypal meanings), I don't quite agree with you when it comes to how languages are designed and stitched together. I think languages ARE different, because human designers are different. That's not to say that they don't share a LOT more than is usually believed, just like humans do.

I can't speak for everyone, but at least personally, I'm lacking a lot of knowledge still to make any definite assessments. And as to roots, so much has been distorted, that it hides the most significant problem: that languages were created by different engineers. With similar "parts", but not quite the same. OSIT.
Lately, for fun, I have been translating sentences and texts from many languages that I do not know and have never studied. And for the most part, I'm getting the meaning right.
So, what I said about all languages being the same, but some people just don't see it, is not only the matter of my opinion.
 
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Sorry for that. I thought I was still within the frame of the discussion since I was addressing sounds (thread topic) as well as trying to discuss about "Are all languages equally complex?" (your new post) by sharing my perception of different language components, and in the process, showing that in the end, it's all a matter of perspective!
My knowledge base of that topic is fairly limited, but I like learning about it.

No worries. I think it IS useful to compare languages the way you did. My point was only that it stops being useful when people (mostly brainwashed linguists) assume that the overall complexity is equal.

p.s. I agree with the much simpler grammar in Mandarin, and as a French native, I was happily surprised.

Me too.Thank God for small favors. ;-)
 
Here is the second part, FWIW!


I'm hoping that now there will be enough of a background to talk about language genealogies, and different cultures with different languages. But I'm not sure what yet. :-[ :-D
Thank you, Chu for writing this series. It´s a really fascinating read - and funny too :). As a complete lay in linguistics, I cannot add any specific point. Only something general, what I found most intriguing about observing different languages (mostly while on longer travels) is, how different languages open to different worlds, how different people/cultures think and view the world. To observe this, I always found mind opening and a humbling experience. So I´m really looking forward to follow your writings!
 
I think there is a typo here:

Thanks! Fixed.

Only something general, what I found most intriguing about observing different languages (mostly while on longer travels) is, how different languages open to different worlds, how different people/cultures think and view the world. To observe this, I always found mind opening and a humbling experience. So I´m really looking forward to follow your writings!

Thank you Breo. And that's exactly what I am planning on talking about next. There are two camps: the ones that think that language doesn't affect our worldview at all, and those who think language affects it A LOT. I'm kind of in the middle.
 
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