I grew up speaking a dialect of English (Lowland Scots or Lallans). It is pretty much incomprehensible to English speakers used to a variety of Received Pronunciation (RP).

My observation is that language is a cultural artefact, and therefore strongly influenced by — and a weak influence on — social interaction. That’s why I titled this piece “I’m with Pinker on this one.” It would have been extremely unlikely growing up that I would have discussed linguistic nuance with my peers. So RP English seems a more appropriate format.

My grasp of other languages, such as French, German and Spanish is so far from fluent that I can’t comment on the changed personality effects of being multi-lingual. But my experience of dialect suggests that we use language as a tool to effect successful social interactions. It makes sense that if Greek works in aggressive situations, we’ll reach for that tool. But that doesn’t mean that Greek is de facto an aggressive language.

Lallans is again a great example of the cultural stereotyping of language. The glottal stop and other mannerisms of the dialect have become associated through mainstream comedy (Craig Ferguson, Billy Connolly et al) with aggressive, abusive and flamboyantly scatological expression. Yet the poetry of Robert Burns shows calm fluidity and gentle euphony:

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.

[Translation: The two of us have crossed the hillsides and picked the beautiful wildflowers; and now we’ve walked a long way with tired steps since those bygone days.]

In summary: it’s no the prattle, it’s the prattlers. [It’s not so much the language, more who’s speaking to whom.]