My view of languages is that they’re sort of like an operating system for the mind. There are certain concepts that I can only express in certain languages. For example: the German zeitgeist. I can just say that in German, but there isn’t an English equivalent. I have to describe is as spirit of the times, general feeling, the vibe of society. Same with the Russian домохозяйства, I can call it home economics/housekeeping, but in English that phrase is much more gendered, and doesn’t really encompass the same concept of running an entire household not just in the cooking and cleaning sense, but also in terms of financial priorities and decision making regarding the family (see, I’d say family planning but that only means birth control in English).
Hence, operating system of the mind. The same way that you need an emulator to run mac software on windows, you need to spend more time describing certain concepts when the language has no word for them.
This also leads to differences in thinking. When you lack the words to express your thoughts, then you don’t talk about them. You don’t refine them into clear concepts. And eventually, you stop thinking them altogether.
Orwell was on point with newspeak. Language control is directly thought control. Taking away the words necessary to express thoughts makes those thoughts unthinkable.
Not a bad idea, but a bad conclusion.
My view of languages is that they’re sort of like an operating system for the mind. There are certain concepts that I can only express in certain languages. For example: the German zeitgeist. I can just say that in German, but there isn’t an English equivalent. I have to describe is as spirit of the times, general feeling, the vibe of society. Same with the Russian домохозяйства, I can call it home economics/housekeeping, but in English that phrase is much more gendered, and doesn’t really encompass the same concept of running an entire household not just in the cooking and cleaning sense, but also in terms of financial priorities and decision making regarding the family (see, I’d say family planning but that only means birth control in English).
Hence, operating system of the mind. The same way that you need an emulator to run mac software on windows, you need to spend more time describing certain concepts when the language has no word for them.
This also leads to differences in thinking. When you lack the words to express your thoughts, then you don’t talk about them. You don’t refine them into clear concepts. And eventually, you stop thinking them altogether.
Orwell was on point with newspeak. Language control is directly thought control. Taking away the words necessary to express thoughts makes those thoughts unthinkable.
Household?