Tongues

In my first post I commented on my motives for writing in English, a language of which I am not a native speaker. I thought I would like to keep writing a little bit about languages, why I find interesting learning more of them, and the few ones I actually know a bit.

Each language you learn is just like discovering a whole new world. The range of possibilities of expression in each language is quite different. Even between languages with a strong similarity and genetic relationship (Indoeuropean languages, for example, the ones I know most about), you can find an infinite field of exploration, from diverse grammatical structures to the neverending subtleties of vocabulary. And to think that what was a sole language in the Late Neolithic (Proto-Indoeuropean) has given rise along six thousand years to Sanskrit, Persian, Hittite, Greek, Latin, Russian, German, English or Welsh... When you start to read in some other language, especially ancient and remote ones, and you can contemplate the very different ways people are able express the very similar essential feelings we all share, a true revelation comes upon you concerning what language means to us humans.

That is because language is fundamental in our self-definition and self-understanding. All our experiences and knowledge are mediated, passed through the filter of linguistic categorization. Language is for us humans a foundation and a boundary without which simply we would not be what we are.

Right now, I study German and Modern Greek mostly, but the languages I feel a greatest affinity for are ancient ones. I love my Ancient Greek (most of all, always) and my Latin, but this past year I have been fortunate enough to take up a bit of Hittite and Coptic (the Ancient Egyptian tongue written by Christians using the Greek alphabet in the last centuries of Antiquity, how cool is that?!). In the past I tried also Biblical Hebrew and Arabic, and it was great. I think Arabic is probably the next one I would be most interested in studying more profoundly, taking in account how extended and culturally relevant it is, both in the past and today.