Re: Magic languages was Re: Trying GMail

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

> The idea that magic uses ancient languages is old; after all,
> magical knowledge is usually imagined to be ancient.  Hence, people
> use whatever ancient language they know of, and for Europeans,
> the most common answer is Latin.
One of the many tragic facets and consequences of the cultural gap
between many Australian Aboriginal groups and the Europeans who
control their world, is that there are those who believe that English
must be a magic language. I quote from chapter 8 of, "Why Warriors
Lie Down and Die" by Richard Trudgen:

    After many years of this type of experience, the people start to
    see /all/ dominant culture knowledge a mystical - even English
    itself. One Western-educated Yolngu leader said to me in July 1999,
    'I used to believe English was magical, that if I just knew the
    English words and how to use them, even without really
    understanding their meaning, [good] things would happen for me.'
    An elder, also Western-educated, said to me one day, '/Wämut/, can
    you teach me the right way to pray to God in English so I will not
    be sick any more?" I asked him what he meant. 'Well,' he replied,
    'Yolngu are sick because we do not know the proper English to talk
    to God so he can heal us. If you could teach me this English then
    we will be healthy like Balanda' ["balanda" = white person,
    derived from "hollander"]. He was very surprised that there was no
    special 'magic' English language.

Adrian.