Language and Culture
Languages have shown up ever since living creatures appeared on Earth. Animals have languages, either growling or body gestures. Humans, who are separated from animals, have a different language system because vocal chords’ existence. We invented plenty of verbal languages for mandatory communication in life. However, the most important difference between animal’s language and human’s language is not the way they pronounce their words, is rather the invention of written language. Alphabets are invented by humans in addition to mere verbal pronunciation. Why we need a certain kind of written way to transfer information? It is because we need to inherit something which set us apart from animals. The “something” is culture.
Language is a carrier not only for communication, but for culture as well. In ancient Egypt civilization, hieroglyph was made due to the fact that Egypt had to record commerce interactions among other kingdoms. What is more, words were used for rituals as well. In the ancient Babylon civilization, cuneiform scripts were used to recored the first written law — the Code of Hammurabi. Cuneiform stood for order and authority in Babylon’s civilization. Moreover, in ancient China, Cangjie invented oracle bone scripts, which were the prototypes of Chinese. Those scripts, as informed in their names, were used to tell fortunes of upcoming wars etc. All ancient languages were carriers of their own culture, religion, order etc. The existence of culture contributes to the invention of human languages at the very beginning of human civilizations.
As languages have evolved till now, they all tell stories of their own history. Chinese, for example, focused more on puns and symbols to express feelings. Moon, willows, swan geese, swallows are all symbols that express specific meanings behind the lines. English, on the other hand, is a language that is more direct and straightforward, although there are symbols to express feelings as well. The style of writing due to different customs also differs. Instead of dim and vague writing in Chinese, English tends to put the thesis point at the very beginning. There are no absolute correctness or mistake between these two styles, but the differences tell us stories of dissimilar aspects of the two culture. We can infer from their languages.
There are plenty of aspects that we can learn from languages to dig deeper into their culture. Languages are closely related to human culture.
