"There’s a whole lot of people don’t seem to understand that you have to talk to a man in his own language before he’ll take you seriously. If you talk tough and quote Shelley they think you’re cute, like a performing monkey or something, but they don’t pay any attention to what you say. You have to talk the kind of lingo they’re accustomed to taking seriously." - Alf Coker.
It's a point well made by Shaw - principally in Pygmalion - but I would argue that it wasn't just true in the 1900s and the 1950s but true throughout the ages. People have killed over race and religion but the fundamental division separating man from man is that of language. Was it the Cherokee - I can't remember - but after the Whites landed in America, one tribe of Indians decided that their future lay alongside the newcomers. They adopted western dress, took up farming, built houses. They even developed their own written language, having been illiterate until that time. But the crucial thing is that it was their language, not the Whites' tongue. Is it going too far to wonder whether, if man had only ever had one language, history would be a lot more peaceful?
It's a point well made by Shaw - principally in Pygmalion - but I would argue that it wasn't just true in the 1900s and the 1950s but true throughout the ages. People have killed over race and religion but the fundamental division separating man from man is that of language.
Was it the Cherokee - I can't remember - but after the Whites landed in America, one tribe of Indians decided that their future lay alongside the newcomers. They adopted western dress, took up farming, built houses. They even developed their own written language, having been illiterate until that time. But the crucial thing is that it was their language, not the Whites' tongue.
Is it going too far to wonder whether, if man had only ever had one language, history would be a lot more peaceful?