American Heritage Schools
Languages are windows to the world of people who speak them, reflecting what they value and experience daily.
Therefore, it may not be strange that different languages enhance different areas of vocabulary. Scholars noticed that Mongol has Many words related to horsesthat Maori has many words for fetuses and that Japanese has many words related to taste.
Some calls are not surprising, such as the fact that the German has many words related to beer, or the Fijian Many fish words. Linguist Paul Zinsli wrote an entire book on mountain-related Swiss-German words.
In a recently published, scientists adopted a broad approach to understanding the links between different languages and concepts.
Using computational methods, identified vocabulary areas that are specific language characteristicsin order to provide information on linguistic and cultural variation.
Work contributes to a growing understanding of language, culture and the way they both relate.
The method
Were tested 163 LINKS BETWEEN LANGUAGES AND CONCEPTSremoved from literature.
A digital data set of 1574 bilingual dictionaries that translate between English and 616 different languages was also compiled. Since many of these dictionaries were still protected by copyright, scientists only had access to frequency counts with which a particular word appeared in each dictionary.
An example of an analyzed concept was “horse”, for which the most punctuated languages were French, German, Kazakh and Mongol. This means that the dictionaries of these languages had a relatively high number of
- Words for horses. For example, in Mongol, аргамаг means “a good running horse or riding ”
- Words related to horses. For example, in Mongol, чөөрөхөх means “bear a horse”.
However, it is also possible that the counts have been influenced by the fact that “horse” appears in example phrases for unrecognized terms.
After all, isn’t it a scam?
The findings support most of the links previously highlighted by the researchers, including the fact that Hindi has many words related to love and Japanese have many words related to obligation and duty.
Scientists were especially interested in testing the idea that innate languages have many words for snow. This notorious statement was long distorted and exaggerated. He was even considered as the “great scam of Eskimo vocabulary”, with some experts claiming that it is simply not true.
But the results suggest that the vocabulary for snow is indeed exceptional. Between 616 languages, the language with the Maximum score for “snow” It was the Inuktitut of East Canada. The other two innable languages of our data set (the Western Canada Inuktitut and the Northern Alaska Inupiatun) also obtained high scores for “snow.”
The Inuktitut Dictionary of the East Data Set includes terms like Kikalukpok, which means “ride“And apingaut, which means” first snowfall. “
The 20 major languages for “snow” include several other Alaska languages, such as Ahtena, Den’ina and Yupik Central Alaska, as well as Japanese and Scottish.
The Scottish tongue includes terms like Doon-Lay, which means “a strong snowfall,” Feaughter, which means “a sudden and slight snowfall,” and Fuddum, which means “snow drifting at intervals.”
It is possible to explore the results with one that allows you to identify the main languages for a particular concept and the main concepts for a given language.
Tongue and environment
Although languages with the best scores for snow are all spoken in snow regions, the tongues with the best scores for “rain” They are not always the most rainy zones from the world.
For example, South Africa has an average precipitation level, but the languages of this region, such as Nyanja, East Taa and Shona, have many words related to rain. This is probably due to the fact that, unlike snow, the rain is important for survival Human – which means that people continue to talk about it in their absence.
For East Taa speakers, rain is relatively rare and desirable. This is reflected in terms such as LABE || NUU-BAM, a “honorary way to go to thunder to bring rain” and | QUABA, which refers to the “water sprinkling ritual or urine to bring rain”.
The tool can also be used to explore various concepts related to perception (“smell”), emotion (“love”) and cultural beliefs (“ghost”).
Languages with the highest score for “smell” include a group of oceanic languages, such as Marshaclles, which has terms like jatbo, which means “smell of moist clothing”, meļļā, which means “blood smell“And aelel, which means” smell of fish, persistent in the hands, body or utensils. “
Prior to this investigation, the olfactory terms of the Pacific Islands had received little attention.
Some warnings
Although the analysis reveals many interesting links between languages and concepts, the Results are not always reliable And whenever possible, they should be checked in the original dictionaries.
For example, the main concepts of Plautdietsch (Low German Mennonite) include von (“de”), den (“o”) and und (“e”) – all of them little revealing. Similar words from other languages were excluded using the wikcionnaire, but the method did not filter these common words to Plautdietsch.
In addition, word counts reflect both dictionary and other elements, such as example phrases. Although the analysis has excluded words that are especially susceptible to Appear in Example Phrases (as “woman” and “father”), these words may still have influenced the results to some extent.
Most importantly, the results are at risk of perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes if they are taken by their nominal value. Therefore, caution and respect is recommended when using the tool. The concepts that the tool lists for a particular language provides, at best, a gross reflection of the cultures associated with this language.
