Language is the miracle that makes it possible for us to ponder about the miracle that we are, that we are experiencing, that we are observing, that we are aware of, that we sometimes even completely are overlooking.
While sitting behind my computer, over Skype I get lessons in the Hindi language.
I have started doing this in order to go throught the proces of learning a language from scratch consciously. Not jus a language, but a language with for me uncommon sounding sounds and a different alphabet than the languages that I already know more or less, that being in the order from more to less Dutch, English, German and French.
One of the curious things of language is that you can speak about walking while sitting:
I walk.
I am walking.
I walked.
I can walk.
I want to walk.
I have to walk.
I will walk.
I would walk.
I should walk.
And, still sitting, we can make the statements about us walking into questions:
Do I walk?
Am I walking?
Did I walk?
Can I walk?
Do I want to walk?
Do I have to walk?
Will I walk?
Would I walk?
Should I walk?
And then, still sitting, we can deny the statements about us walking:
I am not walking.
I did not walk.
I can not walk.
I do not want to walk.
I do not have to walk.
I will not walk.
I would not walk.
I should not walk.
By now I can produce those sentences and many variations of it with a limited set of verbs and some personal pronouns. And all this also in combination with a limited set of nouns.
All of this for now mainly in the direct context of the one hour hindi lessons.
When I hear Indians speak Hindi I have really no clue what they are talking about.
I’m just starting to recognize the melody of the language. Which is nice.
So, in short, while learning all this, observing what is going on in the mind and the body while doing this is fascinating.
It becomes totally clear that there is nothing given of a language to begin with.
It is pure conditioning: finding a route throught the mind to connect sound to meaning and then repeating till it by itself forms a loop.
I started out with saying “One of the curious things of language is that you can speak about walking while sitting”.
This simple statement implies a lot of things.
It implies a conscious being with the capacity to learn and speak language.
In our world this implies a human being with a body and a functioning mind.
Also it implies the possibility of lying.
And what not?
Article on language: How the language you speak changes your view of the world
