On language

I love languages. I speak several, having been blessed with growing up in a multi-cultural family, as well as lived in a number of countries. Moreover, I used to work in language education, in addition to proof-reading, translating, editing.

Languages, I find, are fabulously rich tools to understand culture. Languages have to be rich, since they have developed over thousands of years to explain all the experiences all the members of a community have lived through, everything they needed to convey, to teach, to share, to remember.

There are families of words, of languages, of histories. Some languages have been nearly static for a long time, their isolated peoples unchanging as well. Others, have developed flexibility in order to accommodate invasions, empires, new cultures that intertwine into a new, greater community. Then, there are the languages used as mementos, whose social anchors have disappeared, e.g. Latin, or artificial creations for specific groups, like Esperanto, Klingon, Elven.

Languages enable us to create the most beautiful tales. If one is gifted enough, think of Shakespeare, we can even create new words, yet still be understood. We can play with sentence structure, with vocabulary, with voice, with punctuation, so that mere letters become ideas, narratives, instructions to see the world under new eyes.

It is therefore understandable, I'd assume, that I find myself confused at the loss of language in modern songs. I'd go even further, and say I find myself in pain at the trend. Song is a synonym of poem, and while I accept seemingly un-poetic genres such as rap, hip-hop, etcetera, these at least use language to the fullest of its capabilities. Yet, lately, I notice a repetition of shorter lyrics, and, of these, a high percentage of swearwords. Not even creative swearwords, just mere re-use of the same four-letter simplistic expletives. Worse, in most of the cases, these are clearly fillers, adding little, if anything at all, to the message of the song.

I mourn the loss of wealth to an enemy I don't quite understand. We are succumbing to a mediocrity of thought, a paucity of expression, which bodes ill for our cultural future. I cry for the loss of the millions of words that remain unsaid day after day, millions of meanings withering, shades simplified to the most basic hues, greys gone either white or black.

I love languages, and will endeavour to keep them alive.

Promise yourself to express your thoughts in as many hues as words can provide. Love language, love your culture, love yourself.