Regardless of the various controversies surrounding the origin of
language, the presence of the existence of several widely differing, mutually
unintelligible forms of human speech today is undeniable. And although many
languages are radically different from one another in structure, the
differences are merely apparent since each and every one of them can be used
creatively. All languages possess the same creative
potential.
Again a close analysis of the various linguistic groups reveals
regularities, patterns and syntactic connections governing the combination of
sounds to form words. However, and regardless of this, the representation of
objects by sounds or words is arbitrary. The arbitrariness of attaching sounds
to objects account for the different linguistic groups.
The sounds which speakers of a linguistic group use in representing
ideas, thoughts, experiences and objects are arbitrary in the sense that there
is nothing in the objects so called that is representative of the sound. This
view that language is arbitrary and a cultural construct implies that an infant
learns a language by listening to the speakers of the language of the
particular community into which s/he is born; and the words used in the
language as well as the particular grammar or syntax of the language have
developed historically as a social product and been handed down by tradition.
The idea that language is arbitrary is corroborated by various linguists:
“What we call ‘horse’, the Germans call ‘pferd’, the Frenchman
‘cheval’, the Indian ‘misatim’, and so on; one set of sounds is as unreasonable
as any other”.- Bloomfield.
“I want you to remember that words have these meanings which we have
given them and we give them meanings by explanations. A word has the meaning
someone has given it”. - Wittgenstein.
“Language is a conventional system of habitual vocal behaviour. Before
the establishment of a convention, any word could mean anything” – Yuen Ren
Chao
“The fact that languages are arbitrary is sufficient evidence that they
were invented. In any language, there are conventional ways of combining words
to express the relations between ideas. There is no systematic correspondence
between the forms of language and its meanings.” – Englefield.
The point to glean from these is that all languages are equal to one
another insofar as they perform the function of aiding communication among
humans within a given geographical formation. Hence one of the worst disgraces
of colonisation, African scholars have said, is the destruction of native
languages. The colonialists came in with the impression that everything about
Africa is dark and therefore evil – from our skin colour, languages and up to
our cultures generally. The impression was that we were inferior to the
Whiteman. We must understand that every language is as good as the other. Every
language spoken is essentially a tool for communication and once a language
performs that function well, then it is as good as any other. Some people think
that we are necessarily and eternally condemned through historical exigencies
to the use of the English language. This to me is simply false. That we have,
up till this time, failed to develop our indigenous languages to the level of
creating with and in them is a fact but this has been due to negligence on our
part or inability to see the worthwhileness of pursuing vehemently such a task,
rather than being an inherent weakness in the languages themselves, neither is
it too late to begin from now to do the needful.
Our fathers and grandfathers had very little or no contact with
the English man and his language but that did not affect their creative
capabilities. They enjoyed their lives to the full, at least within the context
of the social milieu in which they lived, and when the English language did
eventually come to them, it was more of a distraction and interference than an
asset. This much the late professor tried to describe in his widely read Things
Fall Apart.
A point to note about languages is that embedded in them are all sorts
of indications of bygone cultures. This is why historians and especially
anthropological linguists pay special attention to the study of different
languages, in order to see through into a people’s past. Hence when we study
and understand a language, we invariably learn about the history of the people
who speak that language, and with it a profound acquaintance with their
contemporary culture. It is also worthy to state the role language plays
in knowledge acquisition. There is an intimate connection between knowledge and
language because knowledge is a body of ideas, concepts and theories about what
there is, expressed in one language or another. Man’s ability to pass knowledge
from one generation to another is only possible because of the availability of
language. Language has the capacity to represent objects and entities with
abstract signs and symbols.
As paradoxical as it may sound, it is also instructive to note
that language has a limiting influence on knowledge. There is the view that
language directly influences or limits thought and thus determines reality.
This is what Ludwig Wittgenstein has systematized into the famous “Picture Theory
of Language” with the catch phrases “The Limit of My Language is the Limit of
My World” and “What we cannot say, we cannot think either”. Language, curiously
has also been described as a mirror, a weapon, and a shield. In this
perspective, the position of Sapir and Whorf on the relation of language to
thought and behaviour is that language is a “symbolic guide to culture” such
that “a change of language can transform our perception of the cosmos”.
We also need to mention the point that language is an evolutionary
phenomenon – in other words it is still evolving or developing. Just like
culture which is dynamic, language is also dynamic. The dynamism of language is
decisively determined by the dynamics of the life experiences of the speakers
of the language.
If the speakers of a language do not expect to see a particular word or
situation, there will be no word for it. We need to also emphasize on the role
language plays in knowledge acquisition. In fact, there is an intimate
connection between knowledge and language, because when we talk of knowledge,
we are talking about ideas, concepts and theories all expressed in one language
or another.
Man’s ability to pass knowledge from one generation to another is only
possible because of the availability of language. Language has the capacity to
represent objects and entities with abstract signs and symbols. Again,
knowledge is best acquired only in the context of one’s own language or mother
tongue. It is more difficult to absorb and understand a concept in a secondary
language than in one’s first language. This probably explains the challenge of
education in Africa considering the fact that students are not taught in their
mother tongue but in colonial languages. Even the national policy on education
formulated by such eminent scholars as Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa, which among
other things, stipulates that the medium of instruction in schools, at least
during the formative years, should be in the child’s mother tongue, only exist
on paper.
Language is a social product invented by human beings, used by them but
again and as paradoxical as this may sound, it is true that the same human
beings who invented language also has the capacity to limit and ultimately kill
it. How? By simply seizing to speak it! A language cannot be above or live
beyond the people that speak it.
By Emmanuel Ogheneochuko Arodovwe
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