Language's Point of View: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that a person's language, through its vocabulary and structure, shapes the way that person perceives reality, thinks and behaves. In reality this theory is very controversial; the strong hypothesis (that language determines thought) is practically debunked, but the weak version of the hypothesis (that language influences thought) is quite arguably true at least in some situations, though there is significant debate over the extent of how true it is and in what situations it is true.

Many Native American languages—Navajo and Apache, for instance—use the same word for 'foreigner' and 'enemy' as they were wary of people they were unfamiliar with (since they had come to know all in the area). Interesting also, it’s actually a bit like that in Indo-European languages where "guest" and "hostile" (via Latin "hostis") are both derived from the same Proto-Indo-European word meaning "stranger". In both cases it is a lack of knowledge about the subject that forces a negative connotation to the term “stranger” in societies. This automatically creates linguistic connections between a neutral word like “stranger” and a more negative word like “enemy” or a “hostile” person/thing etc.

As these languages have connected/ combined words and meanings, which initially misplaces connotation and eventually simply integrates that connotation into the word, other misconceptions have continually been made about languages being interpreted by non-native speakers. For example it's a common urban myth that the Inuit people have an unusually large number of words for 'snow'. This is an illusion caused by the particularities of Inuit grammar, and the fact there are multiple dialects of the Inuit language. In fact, in each dialect they don't have a large number of words for ‘snow’, but have a detailed terminology for different types of snow. (Examples found in article: “What are nine Eskimo words for snow”) This makes sense as they live in a place where it's snowy almost year round and knowing what kind of snow you're dealing with could be vital in many situations. Then, too, English has quite a number of words for snow itself - especially English spoken by people in places where it snows a lot. Just goes to show, the inverse Sapir-Whorf effect - that language tends to adapt rather quickly in order to more easily convey concepts one needs to talk about, is inarguably true.

“An estimated 7,000 languages are spoken in the world but more than half of them are dying out so fast that they will be lost completely by the end of the century as children learn more common languages, such as English or Spanish.” -Native languages hold the key to saving species

So if the weak version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is at all correct in that language influences thought, then we are losing all of these different culture’s ways of thinking and the knowledge that they’ve acquired through these particular ways of thinking.

In the movie “Teachings of the Tree People” there are an incredible number of examples of this knowledge, which was acquired through their belief in the coexistence, and interconnectedness of man and nature, that is quickly becoming extinct – with language, but also if this hypothesis is correct, it is possible that knowledge is becoming extinct in direct correlation with the loss of language- because of it. Think about it, one of the best ways to encourage the degradation of a culture is to create a lack of interest among its adolescent population – and what’s a great way to do that? To not allow their native language to be their first language, in terms of this hypothesis, to give them a different way to think, behave, and perceive the world right off the bat.

In this movie Bruce Miller (above) is the sort of “main character” and his life story is a very interesting one. This Skokomish man as a youth went to a western college, joined the army and served for America overseas, he lived in New York and was a member of the Native American Theater, and after all of his travels and life as a westerner he ached for home, so he went back to his home in Washington State and lived among his people as an elder who knew many of the old ways and traditions. He was so important to the native peoples for this reason, he grew up in extended family and not a boarding school like many – he had knowledge he could pass down to the next generation to keep the culture alive. He taught some people how to weave baskets, some to strip a tree's bark for the materials to create shelter, others of the native plants species and their medicinal uses. Their knowledge was of the surrounding nature because their “perception of the world,” their thought patterns, as well as their language were shaped by the world around them, and by the belief that man and nature could live in “coeval,” a mutual determining relationship.

Those plants and animals that these natives are not only closely tied to, but also very knowledgeable of are needlessly becoming extinct or threatened in the same way the languages are. Buried in some of these languages is the key to learning more about them and maybe even saving them.

Dr. David Harrison (in the article quoted above) cited the example of a South American skipper butterfly, Astraptes fulgerator, which scientists thought was just one species until a DNA study six years ago revealed that it was in fact 10 different species whose camouflaged coloration made the adult forms appear practically identical to one another.

If the scientists studying this species had spoken to the Tzeltal-speaking people of Mexico (descendants of the Maya) they might have come to this conclusion much sooner because Tzeltal has several descriptions of the butterflies based on the different kinds of caterpillar. The people living in the territory of these butterflies care very little about the adult butterfly, but care very much about the larvae because the caterpillars affect their crops and agriculture; in fact their survival could ultimately depend (some years) on their knowledge of which larvae is eating which crop etc. Because of this they have a very fine-tuned classification system for them.

Dr. Harris said “Indigenous people often have classification systems that are often more fine-grained and more precise than what Western science knows about species and their territories."

If, as in this case their knowledge of the species is less obvious than say, medicinal uses (which westerners are very interested in), then the knowledge embedded in their language, and the point of view that the specific language creates in a person can die forever with that language. We cannot let this trend continue; we cannot let upwards of 3,500 languages be lost by the turn of the century.


Stephanie