I earned my doctorate in the evolution of the romance languages, including the study of the earliest literary manifestations of these languages. What fascinates me about this field is the wealth of cultural understanding embedded in the history of the language. French is an excellent example, because the French seem to be constantly attempting to define their own cultural identity. There was even a nation-wide discussion in 2010 about the definition of French identity. The French stereotypically believe themselves to be 'Gaulois', the Celts who inhabited most of western Europe. However, the French language--which is also very much a part of French identity--is almost entirely based on Latin. There are relatively few words derived from Celtic roots and many of these also appear in Latin. More interesting is the influence of Germanic languages, the invading Goths and Franks. (Note that we call is 'France' rather than 'Gaul'.) The history of conquest, invasion, and external cultural influences can all be traced in language itself.
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The history of the Polish language provides much in the way of understanding both why it has been deemed one of the most complicated languages in the world and why certain cultural barriers exist within the country of Poland. Polish was originally derived from the slavonic language, however complexities within the language have arisen from the tumultuous history has plagued the Polish region due to its proximity to nations of extreme influence. The latin influence of the Roman Catholic church, the Russian influence of the Soviet Union, and the scientific jargon adapted from the western european culture were all forcibly implemented into the Polish language. The conflicting intonations and grammatical structures resulted from less than half of the language being a form of genuine polish and the rest being comprised of 1/3 foreign and 1/4 scientific adaptations. The forced shift into the latin alphabet by christian rulers provided little reconciliation of these divisions within the language, and instead merely tripled the size of the polish dictionary due to debates over the multiple possible spellings of many of the original slavonic words.
The understanding that language is intimately linked with identity explains the cultural divisions between the speakers of the five different polish dialects: Silesia, Malopolska, Mazovia, Wielkopolska, and Kashubia. Research has shown that these five different dialects are the result of the geographical divisions in Poland which once marked the landholdings of five separate slavonic tribes. The way in which each of these tribes slowly and uniquely acquiesced to the cultural shifts dictated by the changing ruling forces over the land as a whole is thus reflected in the language and explains the cultural identification and comfort that those who speak the same dialect share with one another. The resulting cultural barriers that exist between speakers of different dialects mirror on a small scale the cultural barriers between Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks as each of these nationalities can also be understood as having evolved regionally according to differences in rule and extra-cultural adaptations from identical slavonic roots.
I had never thought of languages in an evolutionary sense. To me spanish was spanish, french was french, english was english, hebrew was hebrew, and so on. I loved learning about how Hebrew evolved. I didn't realize that hebrew had almost gone extinct before its resurgence. The Hebrew language revival movement in the 19th and 20th centuries was the process that allowed hebrew to develop from a sacred language to a written and spoken language. Through this movement modern hebrew emerged. The other aspect I found interesting was that as I looked into the history of Hebrew, specifically medieval Hebrew, I found information both on the Hebrew language and on the Jewish population that related to my history class on medieval Europe. I enjoyed being able to connect these two classes and learn something new that I could then bring to my history class for discussion.
I enjoyed the other presentations on language as well. It was interesting to see how at certain times the development and evolution of Persian and Hebrew coincided or went through similar phases. While medieval Hebrew started developing, middle Persian was developing as well. You would also think that languages which are so distinctly different from English and are spoken in the same region would have evolved from the same branch of the language tree, but Persian is part of the Indo-European language family, while Hebrew descended fromt he Afro-Asiatic language family.
I found this project very interesting. I had never realized there were so many historical element to language before. I also enjoyed finding a new topic and subject to dig into.
The history of the Farsi language led me to the striking discovery that it, as well as traditional aspects of the culture, was designed to cater to me, especially those in power. Farsi went through multiple phases in regards to the way the language was written. This directly correlates to men in power.
The first phase of manuscript was the “Script of Nails” or “Khat-e-Mikhi”. This was designed between 500 and 600 B.C. to serve as the language of the Achaemenid kings. The letters are designed to look like nails and they point in all different directions to make new letters. It was traditionally written on flat stones. It has masculine undertones by even looking like nails. It stresses the contemporary role that men are regarded as “kings” and everything should be dedicated to them.
The next manuscript is Avestaaee, which was created specifically for writing hymns in Zarathustra. Zarathustra created Zoroastrianism, which is a religion focusing on the sources of good and evil. Zarathustra’s entire life was illustrated in Avestaaee texts. Unlike the script of nails, Avestaaee was written with feather pens on animal-skin pages. It glides and is not so constricted; it is slightly similar in appearance to modern-day Farsi. An interesting fact was that Avestaaee did not connect letters to form words.
Comtemporary Farsi was invented in the seventh century after Islam came to prominence. The Persians adoped the Arabic alphabet and added four new letters to create the 32-letter Farsi alphabet we know today. This is the one I am learning where you connect letters unless they only stand in the full form.
Generally, I have discovered that the language adapts depending on who is in power when a monumental change comes about. These have always occurred under the rule of men and it is striking that the alphabet can be altered to write about the ruler’s entire life.
Global Studio > Laila HartDecember 15, 2011 at 4:21pm
I know you meant 'men', but the 'designed to cater to me' amused me for a minute.
Excellent observation about the link between (written) language and power.
Laila Hart > Global StudioDecember 16, 2011 at 10:30am
Yes; I meant "men". Sorry about that, but I don't know how to edit these posts.
My personal view of Farsi's language history and the culture of Farsi speakers is that they are rarely subject to change. While creating my Farsi history project the main thing I noted was that the language in the centuries it has been spoken has not changed very much. In fact modern day citizens are capable of interpreting ancestral members of the Farsi family even though it was spoken hundreds of years ago in significant and differently labeled periods based on language evolution. The Old, Middle, and New periods of Farsi if anything only differ by levels of structural complexity with a few tenses lost here and there. Generally, the lexicon of the language has remained relatively stable and I believe the same can be said about the culture.
From what I have learned culturally from my language partner traditional values remain the same in modern day Afghanistan. Men work outside of the home. Women work inside of the home and outside with an actual job if necessary. Girls are expected from a young age to assume the role of caretaker of the home while young boys are not expected to assume any responsibilities. These traditions have been followed for centuries as well. I believe the strong uphold of cultural tradition is also reason as to why there are not many modern entertainment options. Music has always been apart of the culture so it thrives. Television shows, however, are fairly recent so they must import foreign programs to entertain themselves with because they are not popularly produced. Native speakers of Farsi have a rich culture exemplified by its rich language. Both are so rich in tradition that they find change to be unnecessary.
Understanding the appearance of Hindi language is an important aspect of studying the Indian culture. From reading about history of Hindi, I was able to learn more about the history of India. Thus the history of India and the history of Hindi language are extremely intertwined and perplexed. It made me think if Hindi language would have evolved in the same form if Persian Turks never came to the area around New Delhi and started expending further. Also, would Hindi still be the national language of India if the British had not started using it amongst the government officials? Understanding that different foreign powers had influenced Indian culture, one understands why English, Portuguese, Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish enriched Hindi. (This post is related to my MLC105 post “A very short history of Hindi language”).
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The history of the Polish language provides much in the way of understanding both why it has been deemed one of the most complicated languages in the world and why certain cultural barriers exist within the country of Poland. Polish was originally derived from the slavonic language, however complexities within the language have arisen from the tumultuous history has plagued the Polish region due to its proximity to nations of extreme influence. The latin influence of the Roman Catholic church, the Russian influence of the Soviet Union, and the scientific jargon adapted from the western european culture were all forcibly implemented into the Polish language. The conflicting intonations and grammatical structures resulted from less than half of the language being a form of genuine polish and the rest being comprised of 1/3 foreign and 1/4 scientific adaptations. The forced shift into the latin alphabet by christian rulers provided little reconciliation of these divisions within the language, and instead merely tripled the size of the polish dictionary due to debates over the multiple possible spellings of many of the original slavonic words.
The understanding that language is intimately linked with identity explains the cultural divisions between the speakers of the five different polish dialects: Silesia, Malopolska, Mazovia, Wielkopolska, and Kashubia. Research has shown that these five different dialects are the result of the geographical divisions in Poland which once marked the landholdings of five separate slavonic tribes. The way in which each of these tribes slowly and uniquely acquiesced to the cultural shifts dictated by the changing ruling forces over the land as a whole is thus reflected in the language and explains the cultural identification and comfort that those who speak the same dialect share with one another. The resulting cultural barriers that exist between speakers of different dialects mirror on a small scale the cultural barriers between Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks as each of these nationalities can also be understood as having evolved regionally according to differences in rule and extra-cultural adaptations from identical slavonic roots.
I had never thought of languages in an evolutionary sense. To me spanish was spanish, french was french, english was english, hebrew was hebrew, and so on. I loved learning about how Hebrew evolved. I didn't realize that hebrew had almost gone extinct before its resurgence. The Hebrew language revival movement in the 19th and 20th centuries was the process that allowed hebrew to develop from a sacred language to a written and spoken language. Through this movement modern hebrew emerged. The other aspect I found interesting was that as I looked into the history of Hebrew, specifically medieval Hebrew, I found information both on the Hebrew language and on the Jewish population that related to my history class on medieval Europe. I enjoyed being able to connect these two classes and learn something new that I could then bring to my history class for discussion.
I enjoyed the other presentations on language as well. It was interesting to see how at certain times the development and evolution of Persian and Hebrew coincided or went through similar phases. While medieval Hebrew started developing, middle Persian was developing as well. You would also think that languages which are so distinctly different from English and are spoken in the same region would have evolved from the same branch of the language tree, but Persian is part of the Indo-European language family, while Hebrew descended fromt he Afro-Asiatic language family.
I found this project very interesting. I had never realized there were so many historical element to language before. I also enjoyed finding a new topic and subject to dig into.
The history of the Farsi language led me to the striking discovery that it, as well as traditional aspects of the culture, was designed to cater to me, especially those in power. Farsi went through multiple phases in regards to the way the language was written. This directly correlates to men in power.
The first phase of manuscript was the “Script of Nails” or “Khat-e-Mikhi”. This was designed between 500 and 600 B.C. to serve as the language of the Achaemenid kings. The letters are designed to look like nails and they point in all different directions to make new letters. It was traditionally written on flat stones. It has masculine undertones by even looking like nails. It stresses the contemporary role that men are regarded as “kings” and everything should be dedicated to them.
The next manuscript is Avestaaee, which was created specifically for writing hymns in Zarathustra. Zarathustra created Zoroastrianism, which is a religion focusing on the sources of good and evil. Zarathustra’s entire life was illustrated in Avestaaee texts. Unlike the script of nails, Avestaaee was written with feather pens on animal-skin pages. It glides and is not so constricted; it is slightly similar in appearance to modern-day Farsi. An interesting fact was that Avestaaee did not connect letters to form words.
Comtemporary Farsi was invented in the seventh century after Islam came to prominence. The Persians adoped the Arabic alphabet and added four new letters to create the 32-letter Farsi alphabet we know today. This is the one I am learning where you connect letters unless they only stand in the full form.
Generally, I have discovered that the language adapts depending on who is in power when a monumental change comes about. These have always occurred under the rule of men and it is striking that the alphabet can be altered to write about the ruler’s entire life.
I know you meant 'men', but the 'designed to cater to me' amused me for a minute.
Excellent observation about the link between (written) language and power.
Yes; I meant "men". Sorry about that, but I don't know how to edit these posts.
My personal view of Farsi's language history and the culture of Farsi speakers is that they are rarely subject to change. While creating my Farsi history project the main thing I noted was that the language in the centuries it has been spoken has not changed very much. In fact modern day citizens are capable of interpreting ancestral members of the Farsi family even though it was spoken hundreds of years ago in significant and differently labeled periods based on language evolution. The Old, Middle, and New periods of Farsi if anything only differ by levels of structural complexity with a few tenses lost here and there. Generally, the lexicon of the language has remained relatively stable and I believe the same can be said about the culture.
From what I have learned culturally from my language partner traditional values remain the same in modern day Afghanistan. Men work outside of the home. Women work inside of the home and outside with an actual job if necessary. Girls are expected from a young age to assume the role of caretaker of the home while young boys are not expected to assume any responsibilities. These traditions have been followed for centuries as well. I believe the strong uphold of cultural tradition is also reason as to why there are not many modern entertainment options. Music has always been apart of the culture so it thrives. Television shows, however, are fairly recent so they must import foreign programs to entertain themselves with because they are not popularly produced. Native speakers of Farsi have a rich culture exemplified by its rich language. Both are so rich in tradition that they find change to be unnecessary.
Understanding the appearance of Hindi language is an important aspect of studying the Indian culture. From reading about history of Hindi, I was able to learn more about the history of India. Thus the history of India and the history of Hindi language are extremely intertwined and perplexed. It made me think if Hindi language would have evolved in the same form if Persian Turks never came to the area around New Delhi and started expending further. Also, would Hindi still be the national language of India if the British had not started using it amongst the government officials? Understanding that different foreign powers had influenced Indian culture, one understands why English, Portuguese, Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish enriched Hindi. (This post is related to my MLC105 post “A very short history of Hindi language”).