Re: Language makes the man

Abrigon Gusiq wrote:
> Language can be used for that so well. Sort of like "1984" with Newspeak and
> all. If people do not have a term for something, such as rebellion, then how
> can the plan it?
Even more so, how can you convince other people that rebellion is
necessary?  You could perceive that Big Brother is bad, but why?  The
only thing you could say is "Big Brother is ungood", but why?  He
deprives us of ... what?  There's no word for "freedom", "rights",
"individuality", etc., all are covered in the word "thoughtcrime", which
is a bad thing to most people.

> People want to be comfortable, to know that the person next to them speaks
> the same language, goes the same church, and all that. But also we wish to
> feel special, so we invent things like special hand shakes, key words and
> "pig latin" and like
My neighbors are Lebanese immigrants, and, when they speak with each
other, use both English and Arabic.  Much the same thing.  By using both
languages, they simultaneously express their dual identity (American and
Lebanese) and exclude others who are not in the Arab-English bilingual
community.

> How do you appreciate something that has been translated from another lingo?
> The rythem is off, and more
Even from another dialect, having grown up with the traditional Lord's
Prayer (Our Father, who art ...), I cannot get used to the modern
translation (Our father in heaven ...), it has a different rhythm to it,
and besides, the Traditional still "leaks" into the modern when I say
it, I tend to use "give us *this day*" instead of "give us *today*".

--
"It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father
was hanged." - Irish proverb
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