WQ - Native Languages

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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This week we've been challenged to consider the prompts "native" or "indiginous". At first I thought of my upcoming trip to my "native land" but as I began searching for quotes I was drawn instead to those that discussed "native language", which can refer to whether we first learn to speak English or Spanish or Mandarin or whatever, or can refer to more non-verbal communication as well.

I believe the United States should allow all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language . . . Apache. ~Steve Martin

That one made me laugh!

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations. ~Samuel Johnson

I don't know how many languages have been truly lost, and how many have sort of morphed or been absorbed into other languages. Rather the way English developed from older versions of the language, which borrowed from other languages. One of the most interesting books I've ever read on the subject is King Alfred's English by Laurie J. White. I got it a long time ago for my homeschool and it is one of the books I've kept and read again, and now that I've been reminded of it, I'll get it out and peruse it some more!

 

I do wonder about lost language though, because when I first learned to talk, I spoke Low German (aka Plautdietsch), so I guess you could say that is my native language. That was what my parents and extended family spoke at home. I was still very young when I also learned English, so I had no trouble with English when I started first grade. In fact, I already knew how to read so my English skills were arguably better than those of my classmates! Since I spoke English at school, at church, and with all my friends, I eventually lost the knack of speaking Plautdietsch although I understand almost all of it. And oddly, after about fifty years of not really speaking Plautdietsch, I can still understand it very well, still "think" in Plautdietsch on occasion, and my "default" words for many things are Plautdietsch words and I even have trouble remembering what the English words are for some of those things. Isn't that wild? So yes, language and especially a mother tongue, is quite fascinating to me in terms of how the mind works.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. ~Nelson Mandela

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. ~Benjamin Lee Whorf

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue. ~Tahar Ben Jelloun

The heavens declare the glory of God,

the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.

Every day it utters speech,

every night it reveals knowledge.

Without speech, without a word,

without their voices being heard,

their line goes out through all the earth

and their words to the end of the world.

~Psalm 19:2-5 (CJB)~

I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor. ~Max von Sydow

I don't know about acting, but it does seem as if the mother tongue is the one that people default to in their thoughts. I've been working on learning German (not Plautdietsch, but proper Deutsch) using the Duolingo app, and the speed at which the brain can translate and even begin to think in a different language is quite remarkable. That said, the sentences in Duolingo have sometimes been puzzling and downright hilarious! I try to screenshot the ones that really make me laugh, even as I wonder when I might need to use any of these phrases in conversation . . .

Okay, well, that last one describes pet cats in general, doesn't it? 

One last quote about spoken language. This one is a classic from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion:

"Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton the The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon." ~Professor Henry Higgins, to Eliza Doolittle

Pygmalion was adapted into the musical My Fair Lady (which I love!) and that makes me think of another form of native language―music and many art forms communicate across language barriers, and some might argue that music itself may be a native language all people can share.

Rhythm is our universal mother tongue. It's the language of the soul. ~Gabrielle Roth

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley

I studied piano from the age of three. My grandmother taught piano. I stayed at her house during the day while my parents worked. I obviously wanted to learn to play. And so she asked if she could teach me, and my mother said don't you think she's too young. My grandmother apparently said no. So I could read music before I could read, and I really don't remember learning to read music. So for me it's like a native language. When I look at a sheet of music, it just makes sense. ~Condoleeza Rice

I didn't know that about the former Secretary of State, did you? Pretty interesting. I also started learning piano and to read music starting at about three years old, so I have a sense of what she means about not remembering the process of learning to read music. And that music is a language that is easy for me to read and understand. (Well, not a full orchestral score, but most other written music!)

And the way the brain can translate the languge of written music into something we can sing or play, especially in a group, is really quite remarkable too!

Music is one candidate for a universal language that can be native to all of us, but the one language that we should all learn so well that it becomes native and natural to us is love. Love, kindness, compassion―this is what all humans long for in some way, and I believe that longing has been placed in us by our Creator, and it's really a homing signal designed to call us to him. He reaches out to us in the languages we understand, and because he gave us language in the first place, he hears our prayers and praises in whatever language we speak.

. . . a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them [the followers of Jesus] speaking in his own language. They were astounded and amazed, saying, "Look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?"

~Acts 2:6-8~

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

~Revelation 7:9-10~

I may not be able to learn a lot of other languages, but I do hope I'm learning better every day how to make love my native language.

Wednesday Quotes is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This post will be linked at #WQ #38: Native or Indigenous

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