Ways of Mankind 52-12-14 01 A Word In Your Ear, A Study In Language

Summary

Podcast Summary: Ways of Mankind 52-12-14 01 A Word In Your Ear, A Study In Language

Podcast Information:

• Title: Harold's Old Time Radio
• Host/Author: Harolds Old Time Radio
• Episode: Ways of Mankind 52-12-14 01 A Word In Your Ear, A Study In Language
• Release Date: April 10, 2025

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Introduction to Language and Communication

The episode begins with Dr. Walter Goldschmidt, an associate professor of anthropology and sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, presenting the program titled A Word In Your Ear: A Study In Language. Dr. Goldschmidt emphasizes the fundamental role of language in human societies, stating, "All people have language with which to express their feelings" (00:31). He introduces the series as an exploration of how humans live together across different times and places, with a specific focus on the intricate relationship between language and culture.

Language vs. Expression of Feelings

Early in the discussion, an Unknown Linguist challenges the notion that language is merely a tool for expressing feelings by comparing human language to animal communication. He remarks, "But language is not the same as expressing your feelings" (01:34), distinguishing between instinctual animal sounds and the structured complexity of human language. This sets the stage for a deeper exploration of what constitutes true language beyond mere expression.

Diversity and Adequacy of Languages

Dr. Goldschmidt highlights the vast diversity of languages worldwide, noting, "There are over 1500 different languages spoken in the world today" (02:48). An Unknown Linguist adds, "What's more, all these languages are adequate. They all do the job. Communication" (02:36). Despite this diversity, a common misconception persists where speakers often undervalue other languages, perceiving them as inferior or mere "grunts." This section underscores the inherent adequacy of all languages as systems of communication within their respective cultures.

Language as a Reflection of Culture

A significant portion of the episode delves into how language mirrors various aspects of culture, including place, time, age, sex, and circumstance. Dr. Goldschmidt explains, "Our language is an expression of our culture, shaped by the way we are brought up. And on the other hand, the way we are brought up is shaped by our language" (03:32). This bidirectional influence highlights the deep intertwining of language and cultural identity.

Case Studies: Trobriand Islands and Navajo Indians

The program provides detailed case studies to illustrate how language reflects and shapes cultural perspectives:

1. Trobriand Islanders:

   • Linguistic Precision: The Islanders have specific vocabulary for different types of yams and automobiles, reflecting their cultural priorities. For instance, "A word for a round object moving... one word means I am causing a round object to turn over" (24:41).
   • Cultural Consistency: They maintain distinct names for objects based on slight variations, demonstrating a non-conceptual approach to categorization.
   • Humorous Interaction: An illustrative dialogue showcases the Islanders' meticulous naming conventions for cars, contrasting sharply with the more generalized English terms.

2. Navajo Indians:

   • Verb-Centric Language: Unlike English, which is noun-centric, Navajo emphasizes verbs, aligning with their culture's focus on actions and events. Dr. Goldschmidt notes, "Our language centers on the verb expressive of acting" (25:41).
   • Polysynthetic Structure: Navajo language often combines multiple words into a single, complex verb, exemplifying a way of thinking that integrates actions seamlessly.
   • Cultural Expression: An editorial from a Navajo newspaper demonstrates how language conveys cultural attitudes towards community and responsibility without attributing blame, reflecting a collective worldview.

Polysynthetic Languages and English Comparisons

The episode explores the concept of polysynthetic languages, where single words encapsulate entire phrases. An Unknown Speaker illustrates this with an Eskimo example: "Anellarunic. When they were about to go out, cameot the boot stretcher..." (14:19). Dr. Goldschmidt compares this to English abbreviations like "UNESCO," explaining how modern languages adapt by compressing complex ideas into single terms. This comparison highlights the flexibility and evolution of language structures in response to cultural and societal needs.

Language Influencing Thought and Perception

A pivotal theme is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that language shapes our perception of reality. Dr. Goldschmidt states, "The language of each society... creates for them their own world of social reality" (26:00). This is exemplified through various cultural interactions:

• Child Discipline: Different languages encode distinct cultural values in simple phrases. For example, an English mother says, "Be good," implying the child is "bad," whereas a French mother might say, "Be wise," avoiding negative connotations (17:06).
• Naming Conventions: The precise terminology in Navajo for actions versus the noun-heavy English underscores how language priorities reflect cultural emphases on community actions versus object classifications.

Conclusion: Language as a Cultural Pillar

Dr. Goldschmidt wraps up the discussion by reiterating that language is intrinsically linked to culture, shaping and being shaped by societal values and norms. He quotes linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir: "The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached" (26:15). The episode concludes by affirming the uniqueness of human language in fostering complex cultures, emphasizing that while all languages are valid within their contexts, they each offer a unique lens through which their speakers interpret and interact with the world.

Notable Quotes:

• Walter Goldschmidt: "Language is a function of place, time, age, sex and circumstance." (03:32)
• Unknown Linguist: "Everyone knows Indians don't talk properly. They just grunt." (03:05) (Presented as a misconception to be challenged)
• Navajo Speaker: "We seek to understand it and our place within it." (23:44)
• Edward Sapir (Referenced by Dr. Goldschmidt): "The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached." (26:15)

Key Insights:

• Universality and Diversity: All human societies possess languages tailored to their unique cultural contexts, facilitating effective communication within those cultures.
• Language Structures Reflect Priorities: The grammatical and lexical structures of a language can reveal what a culture values, prioritizes, or finds essential.
• Influence on Cognition: The structure and vocabulary of a language can shape the cognitive processes of its speakers, influencing how they perceive and interact with the world.
• Cultural Preservation and Evolution: Language serves as a vessel for cultural heritage, simultaneously preserving traditional values and adapting to contemporary societal changes.

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This summary encapsulates the rich discussions and insights presented in the episode "A Word In Your Ear, A Study In Language," providing an informative overview for those who have not listened to the original program.

Transcript

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[Walter Goldschmidt]

Watch your language. Remember whom you're speaking to. To the ladies. Speak Italian to the gentlemen, French to the birds, English to the dogs. German and Spanish should be spoken only to God. A word in your ear A study in language. A program in the series Ways of Mankind, presented under the supervision of Walter Goldschmidt of the University of California, Los Angeles by the national association of Educational Broadcasters. A series designed to show how human beings live together in different times and places. A study in language A word in your ear all people have language with which to express their feelings.

[Unknown Linguist]

But language is not the same as expressing your feelings. Some people think animals have language because they can often express their feelings, as when in the Arctic wilderness we hear the wolf.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But there is all the difference in the world between that wolf and this.

[Unknown Linguist]

The four legged wolf howl expresses its feelings there and then, and so does the wolf whistle. But the whistler can back up his expression with language.

[Unknown Speaker]

How about taking in a show on Saturday night?

[Walter Goldschmidt]

And that is a communication about another time and another place. It is true language, not just expression of feeling. And all human beings have language. From the Eskimo by the Arctic sea, warm in his kayak with his suit of furs, to the Patagonian by the Antarctic Sea, shivering in his canoe with a fire in it because he wears almost no clothes at all. From one extreme to the other, all people have language.

[Unknown Linguist]

What's more, all these languages are adequate. They all do the job. Communication.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But we often think that whatever we speak ourselves is the proper thing. What the other fellow speaks is scarcely more than a string of grunts.

[Unknown Linguist]

I see by the paper There are over 1500 different languages spoken in the world today, and it says there are more families of languages among the American Indians than in the whole of the old world. Well, everyone knows Indians don't talk properly. They just grunt. Mm.

[Unknown Speaker]

Mm.

[Unknown Linguist]

You aren't listening, are you?

[Unknown Speaker]

Mm.

[Unknown Linguist]

Are you listening? Mm. I say Indians don't talk properly. They just grunt. Hmm. Grunt. What do you think language is? Language. And grunts are grunts.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

One man's speech is Another man's jargon. But all people have language, and these languages are highly diverse in form. But always we begin by speaking as we think and end by thinking as we speak. Our language is an expression of our culture, shaped by the way we are brought up. And on the other hand, the way we are brought up is shaped by our language.

[Unknown Linguist]

For as we know from our own language, English language reflects place, time, age, sex and circumstance. And this is true of other languages. Language reflects place, as everybody knows. Very often the most foreign thing about a foreign country is is the foreign language.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

And English speakers can't visit one another's country without meeting the great transatlantic rift.

[Unknown Linguist]

Look, Jack, when you get off the.

[Unknown Speaker]

Streetcar, get off the pavement, get on the sidewalk, go two blocks, turn right, there's the drugstore.

[Unknown Linguist]

Around the corner, take the elevator down to the garage. You can't miss it.

[Unknown Speaker]

All right, chump? You mean when I get off the tram? Get off the road, get on the pavement, Take your second turning to the right. There's a chemist shop on the corner. Take the lift out of the garage. What do you mean, I can't miss it?

[Unknown Linguist]

Language, then is a function of place.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

And language is a function of time. Listen to the Lord's Prayer as It sounded nearly 600 years ago.

[Unknown Linguist]

Power of Father that art in heavenness, Hallowit be thy name. Thy kingdom come at two be thy will ad done as in heaven and in earth Give to us this day odour braid our other substance and forgive to us our debtors, as we forgive to our debtors and laid us not into temptation, but deliver us frae evil.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Amen.

[Unknown Linguist]

Then, quite soon after the Norman conquest, English had a tang of French to it. But let's jump back beyond 1066 and listen to English in its hard Teutonic infancy as Anglo Saxon. The Lord's Prayer in the year 1000 AD.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Feda Ura, Suthe ertun Hofnam Sithinama gahalget to become and forgifus uragiltis swaswe forgive uson kostninger Achalissus of Ifele. Language then is a function of time. And even modern English still keeps the record of that Norman conquest. The Saxons became the servants and looked after the beasts while they were alive. And their names are still the Saxon ones.

[Unknown Speaker]

Ox, calf, sheep, swine.

[Unknown Linguist]

Compare the German ox, kalp, schaff, schwein.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But when they were killed, their meat was served up to the Norman master and on the table those animals names are still the Norman ones.

[Unknown Speaker]

Beef, veal, mutton, pork.

[Unknown Linguist]

Compare the French vif vaux mouton pour Language reflects culture.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Language is a function of of age. We don't expect a child to talk like a college professor.

[Unknown Speaker]

Simple harmonic motion can therefore be represented.

[Unknown Linguist]

Graphically by a sine or cosine curve. Nor do we expect a college professor to talk like a child. What's the matter? Said the doctor. What's the matter? Said the nurse. What's the matter? Said the lady with the alligator purse. Language is also a function of sexual among the Caraya Indians of Brazil, the women and the men speak different languages. For example, the word for girl is yadokoma in the women's language, but yadoma.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

In the men's and in English. Here's a traveler chewing his cigar in the smoking room of the Santa Fe chief, but he's speaking the women's language.

[Unknown Speaker]

I don't want to be catty, but.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

My dear, it was simply too terrible. I really thought I should have died.

[Unknown Speaker]

I just wanted to sink right through the floor.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

My gracious me, I thought of Burt.

[Unknown Linguist]

And Charlie aren't wearing that same cunning Hamburg hat.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Unfortunately, in our society, the men's language is taboo to women. That is to say, they are supposed not to know it. So I'm afraid we don't dare give you an example of a lady.

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[Walter Goldschmidt]

Speaking the Men's Language Sailors present.

[Unknown Linguist]

Language is a function of occasion. There is a time for one kind of speech and a time for another. Sir James Frazer tells us that in Siam there is a special language to be used when discussing the Siamese king. When he eats or drinks or walks A special word indicates that these acts are being performed by the sovereign, and such words cannot possibly be applied to the acts of any other person whatever.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

We do not perhaps carry things quite as far as that, but nonetheless, a fellow may be greeted when he comes into the office by, hi, Charlie boy, how's the kid?

[Unknown Speaker]

What have you got to say for yourself?

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But a few minutes later, when the board meeting convenes, he is asked, but.

[Unknown Linguist]

Now, Charles, we trust you have overcome the hardships of your journey. Would you be so good as to present your report regarding market conditions in the West? The Chinese, of course, are famous for their elaborate forms of greeting. But other languages are far more complicated. For example, the Nootka Indians of Vancouver island not only distinguish by the choice of words the sex of the person speaking, the sex of the person spoken to, and whether the speaker is more or less important than the person spoken to, but also, on top of this, have a special way of talking to a man who is left handed, and a special way of talking to a man who is circumcised.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

English cannot go this far, but even so, language must be suitable to the occasion. Queen Victoria certainly knew this when she expressed her dislike of Gladstone in the words. Mr. Gladstone always addresses me as if I were a public meeting, and imagine a politician proposing in the language he uses on the platform.

[Unknown Linguist]

Unaccustomed as I am to private proposals, I kneel before you today, unwilling, nay, reluctant to assume the burdens of matrimonial office, but nonetheless prepared to bow to your opinion and dedicate myself unselfishly if I receive an unmistakable draft. Language, therefore, by reflecting place, time, age, sex and circumstance, is a function of society. Language reflects culture.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

The easiest way to see this is through vocabulary. The Eskimos have no word for coconut, and the Samoans have no word for snow.

[Unknown Speaker]

And neither do the Eskimos.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

I beg your pardon?

[Unknown Speaker]

We Eskimos have no word for snow. Ask me the word for snow and I ask you what kind of snow snow is to us Eskimos, too important to be dismissed with one word. We have many words telling us, for instance, when it fell and describing its exact condition to us. For the knowledge is vital, and our lives may depend on it.

[Unknown Linguist]

Since language reflects society, whatever is important in society has many words in the language. The Arabs have a thousand words for sword, and the Siberian Chukchi that live on the shores of the Arctic Ocean have 30 or so words describing the skins of the caribou, as, for example, this one. This word means that the underleg of the caribou skin is grayish. Also that it is light gray on the groins, but that the prevailing body color is brown. And there are innumerable similar examples. The Yuruk Indians of California place a high value on woodpecker scalps and obsidian blades. And besides the ordinary set of numerals, 1, 2, 3 and so forth, they have two extra sets. One for counting woodpecker scalps and another one for counting obsidian blades.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

English is full of relics of vocabulary that remind us that other days thought other things important. There was a time when English speaking men lived very much by hunting. They had special words for congregations of animals. A flock of sheep and a herd of cattle, but a pride of lions, a skulk of foxes and a gaggle of geese. They also had special words for the carving of each of the animals and birds of the chase when they arrived on the table ready to eat. Nowadays, if we saw a pile of game birds and wanted them carved, the cook might say, hey, Mac.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah?

Cut up them birds, will you?

[Walter Goldschmidt]

For nowadays, one game bird is much like another out of season.

[Unknown Linguist]

But to the Elizabethans, game birds were the very meat of life. And their carving required a special and ornate vocabulary.

[Unknown Speaker]

You, sir, anon dismember that heron, unbrace that mallard, allay that pheasant, wing that partridge, display that quail, unjoint that bittern thigh that woodcock, lift that swan and rear that goose. As for that curlew.

[Unknown Linguist]

Aye, sir.

[Unknown Speaker]

Unlatch it.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

A noble handful that has been replaced by other rich treasures of vocabulary as our language, like all other languages, has changed to reflect our culture.

[Unknown Speaker]

As we Eskimos found out when I was sent down to study your language. Your language is like ours. Very often our Eskimo language, like many other North American Indian languages, is polysynthetic.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

How's that?

[Unknown Speaker]

Polysynthetic, not Eskimo word. English word polysynthetic. One word means a whole phrase. One word has in it the compressed wreckage of a phrase. Thus, suppose we wish to say in Eskimo this. When they were about to go out, they would take the boot stretcher, using it to thrash the dogs because they usually stay in the entrance passage. That is 28 words in English. In Eskimo it is 6 words. Anellarunic. When they were about to go out, cameot the boot stretcher, tingusa, they would take it anatara longo, using it to thrash with kemet the dogs torsone teomata, because they usually stay in the entrance passage.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But where does English contain words that are the compressed Wreckage of a phrase.

[Unknown Speaker]

As you put it in English, not exactly like Eskimo, but nearly like. The other day I saw a newspaper headline. Unrhe D Pease Lord UNESCO. Unrh D Pease Lord UNESCO. Back to my dictionary. I go there. I find the word Lord, nothing else. The other words are missing. Then it is explained to me these other words are not normal English. They are instead the compressed wreckage of phrases and four words. UNRWA DPs. Laud. UNESCO. United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. Displaced Persons Laud. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Seventeen words compressed into four. Well, that is about the average for Eskimo.

[Unknown Linguist]

Again, language reflects culture. As modern life sets up more elaborate agencies and organizations, modern language adapts itself and forms words and builds polysynthetic forms, almost like the Eskimo. Other languages besides English have been doing this. German, for example, Gestapo stands for Geheimer Staatspolizei Secret State Police Flak is the compressed wreckage of Flugzeug's Abwerkanone anti aircraft cannon.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

As we think, so we speak. As we speak, so we think. As we are taught reading, writing and arithmetic. As we are taught our manners and the way things are done in the world we live in, so we are taught our language. And as we learn our language from our mother's lips, we also learn the customs and attitudes of our society. For language reflects these customs and attitudes. That is, language reflects culture.

[Unknown Linguist]

Over here, for instance, here's a child misbehaving. And here comes its mother. She's going to tell it to behave properly. But let us notice carefully what word she uses.

[Unknown Speaker]

John. Be good.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Be good. The English speaking child that misbehaves is bad. It is naughty, it is wicked. So is the Italian speaking child or the Greek speaking one.

[Unknown Linguist]

But listen to what the French mother says to her child. Jean Soissage Swissage, be wise. The French speaking child that misbehaves is not bad. It is foolish, it is imprudent, it is injudicious.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

In the Scandinavian countries, things are different again. The Swedish mother says Jan Va Snell and the Norwegian mother says Jen Vlaesnil. Both mean the same thing. Be friendly, be kind. So the misbehaving Scandinavian child is unfriendly, unkind, uncooperative.

[Unknown Linguist]

Things are very different in Germany.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Hans zei artig.

[Unknown Linguist]

Be in line. The misbehaving German child is not conforming. It is out of step, out of line. A mother of the Hopi Indians of the Southwest United States has the same idea, only in a more gentle Spirit, when she tells her child, no, no.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, that is not the Hopi way.

[Unknown Linguist]

Hopi is the right thing, the proper way to do things, the way the affairs of the tribe and indeed of the universe are managed. The Hopi child that misbehaves is not bad, nor imprudent, nor unfriendly, nor quite out of line. He is not on the Hopi way. He is not in step with the Hopi view of destiny and of life.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

So even in the words a mother says to her misbehaving child, we can detect again how language reflects culture.

[Unknown Speaker]

Johnny, be good.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Jean Soissage, be wise.

[Unknown Speaker]

Jan Vosnell be friendly.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Hans ze Arctic, get back in step.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, no, no, that is not the Hop.

[Unknown Linguist]

East of New guinea in the southern Pacific lie the Trobriand Islands. The people who live there are great mariners, lively and active, but they take no interest in things changing. If a thing changes, then it becomes something else. And they call it something else.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Just as we do not introduce an old gentleman with a long white beard as the bouncing baby boy. Jim Jones. Very pleased to make your acquaintance.

[Unknown Linguist]

Buster here isn't any more a bouncing baby boy than I am. Ah, but you see, once upon a time I was in the long, long.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Ago, but he isn't now. And in fact we don't think of him as a kind of modified infant, but as something else, an old gentleman, a different kind of animal.

[Unknown Linguist]

Now the Trobriand Islanders think like this all the time. They raise a yam crop and a first rate yam is called Taitu. But an overripe yam is not overripe Taitu. It's different, it's Ioanna. And a Ioanna with underground shoots isn't Yoana anymore, but Silisata. Though with new tubers on the underground shoots, it isn't Silisata of any kind, but rather Yardena among the Trobriand Islanders. In short, the name of a thing alone is all you need say about it.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

How different with us. Consider the case of a fellow being shown a new baby, red faced, boiled looking, dribbling, cross eyed and squalling. The fond parents are watching you like hawks. You have to say something. But what?

[Unknown Speaker]

How intelligent looking.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

But it looks like a moron.

[Unknown Speaker]

How beautiful.

[Unknown Linguist]

Just look at the ugly little beast.

[Unknown Speaker]

How small and tiny.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

For that they'll kill you. He's 3,32 of an ounce, overweight. He's a giant.

[Unknown Speaker]

How exactly like his father.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Say that and he'll punch you right in the nose. There's nothing you can say all you can do is shuffle around from one foot to the other and look as foolish as the baby.

[Unknown Linguist]

But in the Trobriand Islands, the whole thing's simple. Show a Trobriand Islander the same messy, bellowing brat and he says, how baby? How baby? Which nobody can deny, and everyone's happy.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Yet our language is like the Trobriand in some ways, just as our society is like theirs in some ways. They place a high value on yams and have an elaborate yam vocabulary. We place a high value on other things and have an even more complicated and exact vocabulary to describe the special objects of our interest. Just look here. Standing on a downtown street corner, we have a Trobriand Islander. He's come to study our society. He's talking to a guy and writing down the answers.

[Unknown Speaker]

What is the name of that thing on wheels going by now? The green one.

That's a Plymouth.

Plymouth. There's another green one, also a Plymouth.

[Unknown Linguist]

No, it's green, but it ain't a Plymouth.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's a Studebaker.

[Unknown Linguist]

Studi has kind of a turret in the middle.

[Unknown Speaker]

Then here is a great big Studebaker.

[Unknown Linguist]

No, the big one with the kind of turret. That's a Cadillac.

[Unknown Speaker]

Here's another big one. That is a Cadillac.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

No, no, look at the back.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's a Lincoln.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

And so it goes on, of course, that Trobriander will be there for a week and then we'll break it to him that there's a difference between the 51 model and the 50 a week. He'll be there for a year, but.

[Unknown Linguist]

When he does go home, he'll talk to his friends just as our travelers come home and talk to us.

[Unknown Speaker]

They are a very peculiar people attaching fantastic importance to little differences between their automobiles. So that a certain kind of small automobile is called a Plymouth, but with a turret in the middle. It is not a Plymouth with a turret, but a Studebaker. Quite a different word. And a big thing like a sort of Studebaker with other differences here. And there is not a big Studebaker, but a different world. Again, a Cadillac. And so it goes on. They are a very peculiar people.

[Unknown Linguist]

How Trobriand. But now we end with the most striking and interesting example of language reflecting culture, the wonderful and varied language of the Navajo Indians. The Navajo Indians live in the great Red Desert of the southwest United States, not very far from the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Their nomadic life is filled with uncertainties and they seek security and balance in ritual and ceremony by which they find their place in the natural harmony of the universe and health and a sense of belonging.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Now life on this vast, unconsidering mountain desert is very much influenced by forces the Navajo do not command. The long drought, sudden torrential rain, the.

[Unknown Linguist]

Sweep of epidemic disease, and the Navajo view of the universe seems to be connected with what they have learned from the country that is their home.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

We try to control nature.

[Navajo Speaker]

We seek to understand it and our place within it.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

To us, the world is made up of beings and things that act on other beings and things.

[Navajo Speaker]

To us Navajo, the world is one of actions and events associated with things and among which our own acts are only a few among many.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Our outlook is centered on things. Our language is centered on nouns, which are the names of things. The first words our children learn might well be the names of things.

[Unknown Speaker]

Man, ball, boat, bird.

[Navajo Speaker]

Our Navajo outlook is focused on actions and events, our language on verbs. The first words our children learn may well be those expressive of actions.

[Unknown Linguist]

Standing, rolling, sailing, flying.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Navajo words like those of Eskimo are often polysynthetic. The compressed wreckage of phrases. Take this single word, nash a and it means I am causing a round object to turn over.

[Unknown Linguist]

Navajo has many words for what we speak of as moving, a word for a round object moving, a fabric moving, and many more. And pronouns and adverbs are only parts of the verb, for the verb is central in Navajo speech, just as actions are central in Navajo thinking.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

We have a few verbs that are perhaps similar. The word shrug must carry with it the idea of shoulder. You can't shrug your stomach.

[Unknown Linguist]

In English we say John is dying, just as we say John is walking or John is working, for we speak even of death as though it were an act performed. But the Navajo translated says something like.

[Navajo Speaker]

Dying is taking place with John.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

We are active toward nature. We think of our world as full of objects doing things to other objects. Our language is centered on nouns, the names of things.

[Navajo Speaker]

We Navajo see ourselves as part of nature, in harmony with it. Our world is one of actions to which we and other things are linked. Our language centers on the verb expressive of acting.

[Unknown Linguist]

Finally, here is an editorial in a Navajo newspaper. The writer is angry. He wants to know why a school is not built at Kayenta, though other places have schools. But he expresses his indignation in the Navajo way.

[Navajo Speaker]

The school at Kayenta in vain. We are hoping for it. Many children here have no school to attend to. One who comes here to see there are 300 or more children who are in this state who have no school. Therefore let a school become a reality. Here at Kayenta, long ago this matter was brought up. Why is this so? Please.

[Unknown Speaker]

Did you notice how this Navajo was expressing indignation? The things he is angry about are described as the currents of as something just naturally happens, you and I wouldn't take this point of view. We'd look for the person or thing responsible, someone to blame. This difference is in our language just as it is in our thinking. In English, we emphasize nouns, which are the names of things the Navajo emphasizes verbs, which indicate action, and the noun is just incorporated in the verb itself. These cultural differences, which are part and parcel of language, are the real stumbling blocks to all translation. As a matter of fact, we lost some of the true Navajo flavor in translating the speech. As you might well believe, language is peculiarly human. No animal society has a language. Aristotle spoke of man as a political animal. But the fact is that other animals do have social systems, and the distinction is far from clear. But animals, though they can and do communicate, lack our ability to recreate experience in words. They can't accumulate knowledge and transmit it from one generation to another and build thereby the large and complex systems of behaving we call cultures. In fact, it is fair to say that without this ability, without this unique gift, cultures would be impossible, and therefore it is a crucial one to man's unique position in the world. Though languages may differ widely from each other in sounds and vocabulary and grammar, all are adequate as systems of communication within the societies in which they are found. The language of each society, however, sets for its speakers certain modes of observation and interpretation and quite literally creates for them their own world of social reality. As the linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir put it, the worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. Perhaps this fact can best be shown by pointing out that modern physicists like Einstein have had to develop a language, not just new words, in order to express what they now believe to be the true nature of of matter and of the universe.

[Walter Goldschmidt]

Dr. Walter Goldschmidt, Associate professor of anthropology and sociology of the University of California.

[Unknown Linguist]

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[Walter Goldschmidt]

Culture in the series Ways of Mankind.

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[Unknown Linguist]

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[Walter Goldschmidt]

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