Universal Language ≠ Peace

"If languages are living things, inextricable intertwined with biological diversity, the loss of 'verbal botanies' is irreparable, and a monoglot globe is as unthinkable as a world with only one species of tree, flower, and bird." -Hawken, 96

The chapter in Blessed Unrest titled "Indigene" discusses loss of indigenous cultures and languages through extermination and the great 're-naming' (use of the Linnaean taxonomy). I grew up knowing everything has two names: common and scientific. I was a human but I was also a Home sapian. When I fill out paperwork, I fill the circle beside 'caucasian'. In truth, every object has more than two names; each language has its own way of describing things. Especially people, who Linnaeus broke up into multiple subspecies (or races).

What did this mean for the population of the world? They had their own language, and their own names for themselves and now Europeans were imposing a new system upon them with no consideration. This need to classify, while it may seem orderly and useful, cut out a huge chunk of rich world language. Hawken compares language to a living thing that grows, changes, and dies with the last person who could speak it.

Colonists assumed that native languages were inferior, simply because they could not understand them. Darwin himself said, "Their language does not deserve to be called articulate" (Hawken, 91). However, a study done on the Yámana language showed that they had around 33,000 words, and a way to describe nearly everything.

"Yámana is a language of finesse and subtlety. It has sixty-one words for kin, compared to twenty-five in English. There seems to be a precise word to describe every moment in their life." -Hawken, 92

There is a muted debate in America about a national official language. The debit sliders at most stores have an option for English or Spanish. Customers never realize that if they can read that it says 'select language' it is already in English so they punch at the button and say, "Gosh, wouldn't it be easier if everything was just in English? People who come here should speak our language." I never say anything, and I have grown so tired of hearing this I do not even give them my best service clerk smile. The ignorance that pours from a simple fly off the handle statement like this is sad. Would it be easier if world language were monoglot? Of course, we would understand each other all the time. But would that be that great a thing?

Languages are art. They represent the environment they are formed in. When translating between languages some terms simply just do not translate perfectly, because each language has its own was of describing something. My favorite example is the one Hannah gave in class that Italian's do not have a word for privacy. Simply knowing that says so much about their culture.

The wiping out of cultures and language done by conquistadors and colonialists in the 15th century up until now made extinct, or endangered, half the world's living cultural heritage (Hawken, 94).

"As cultures disappear at the rate of thirty a year, we find ourselves placing our species' cultural eggs in fewer and fewer baskets."

-Hawken, 94

Maybe we could all understand each other better if we just listened to what each person is trying to say, no matter how they say it.