On eskimos and aunts

The new anthropology group blog – Savage Minds has this cartoon from Language Log.

And there is lots of further reading on this on Language Log. Geoffrey Pullum here pooh poohs the idea of language – and the words it contains – defining worldview – or is it the other way round? While here , Mark Liberman talks about The Eskimos, Arabs, Somalis, Carrier… and English.

How can our language not reflect our worldview and priorities?

Everyone has read about how many words the Eskimos have for snow – possibly the most important (or unescapable) thing in their lives. I also read in Outlook Traveller long ago that in the Polish version of Scrabble, the letter Z has a value of only 1 (I remember being dismayed at this – is nothing sacred in the world any longer?).
So, if there is a Welsh version of Scrabble, the highest value would be for the vowels….. imagine a 10 for A and 8 for I. If you don’t know what I mean, try this for size : Llanfairpwllgwyngillgogerchwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch…… this mouthful and a half is the name of a village in Wales….. for a name of this size, count the number of vowels….. If you are interested, the name translates ‘St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave’.

And what do we have?

A few hundred words to descibe each relationship – there is no single simple one word for say, aunt in Hindi – she is either your mother’s sister (elder or younger ? there are different words or different suffixes at the very least!) or your father’s sister – or your father’s brother’s wife. And I could go on ad infinitum.

And then there is god in bhagwan, ishwar, khuda…

Think about how over-rated the concept of love is – how many words exist for it in common discourse – pyar, mohabbat, prem, ishq (have I already run out of words – I need to watch more Hindi movies and more often).

And how under-rated we would like the world to believe we consider sex – I do not know of the Hindi word for sex (acknowldging embarrased ignorance here) – in Tamil, the closest word translates roughly into ‘physical relationship’… There, that is what we think of sex – keep it in its place there…

I agree with Pullum when he says – Why do people say these things about languages they purport to care about, and do absolutely nothing to check up on whether the things they are saying are even remotely close to the truth? Why is everyone so given to bullshitting about language and thought, even about the language of their own countrymen?

I am sure if we consult a linguist as he did, we would be able to come up with a list atleast as long as the one Pullum has put together in Irish. But then, if we have to consult a linguist or some kind of an expert to find a word for a normal act – and if the word (s) is not in popular use, then what is the point?

(Let us however not use this opportunity to act experts and leave all our favourite words in my comments section. Thank you)