I'm sorry about sending this twice. Somehow I thought I hadn't sent it the first time.
Selma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 3:58 PM Subject: Re: NYTimes.com Article: Indian Languages: Tending the Flame > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "futurework" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 2:52 PM > Subject: Re: NYTimes.com Article: Indian Languages: Tending the Flame > > > Ed Wieck wrote: > > > I was told by a friend, who would have known, that the very last Dorset > > Eskimo, a woman, died on Southampton Island in the 1920s. Only a single > > person in Alaska is said to speak one of the Eyak languages. Many small > and > > isolated languages throughout the world have disappeared. Since language > is > > the lens through which people see reality, many different ways of seeing > > reality have disappeared. > > > > Should we mourn? Perhaps we should look at language as a tool that suits > > particular conditions and circumstances but not others. As conditions > > change, new tools are required, and old ones are no longer useful. The > > language that served the horseman on the plain or the hunter in the bush > is > > not very useful in an urban setting, in dealing with the bureaucracy, or > in > > finding a place in the labour market. It's sad, but that's how it is. > > > > Ed > > > Language necessarily narrows and channels our perception of reality. > > Other languages allow us access to perceptions of reality that we could not > have otherwise; when those languages are lost, we lose access to insights > about the possibilities of the human condition that are simply not available > in any other way. > > If we are not able to get out the box that our language puts us in we > becomes unable to solve many of the problems that are generated by the way > in which our language limits us and causes those problems. > > Wittgenstein had a great deal to say about getting out of that box. > > Selma >
