The Power of Language: Tower of Babel

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Genesis 11:5-6)

1. What does the image, and the story, suggest about the benefits of everyone speaking the same language? What are the drawbacks?

- If every single human being speaks the same language we would be a very organized society, we can understand each and create amazing things. The drawbacks of everyone speaking the same language would be that we would not have different cultural aspects, we would all be from the same society. Lack of ethical culture.

2. What does the story suggest about the social functions of language?

- Language is used to communicate, if we all know the same  language we could communicate with no problem, there would be a great teamwork, same as there was in the story to create the tower of babel.

Mesoamerica:

The Aztecs told the story of CoxCox (a man) and Xochiquetzal (a woman) survived the horrors of the earth by floating on a bark. Then, after they had their first children on land, they found out these were unable to speak. Such feature changed when a dove landed upon their heads, granting each one with a different language.

Brazil:

The Ticuna people from the Upper Amazon tell the story that everyone was one united in a single tribe, all speaking the same language, until two hummingbird eggs were eaten ( the legend doesn't say whom). After this event, the tribe split into different groups and dispersed across the globe.

Africa:

The Bantu people from East Africa tell the story of a severe famine that struck the first people of the world (who spoke the same language at the beginning). This drove everyone to madness, causing them to wander in all sorts of directions, mumbling strange words not know by men before.

The History of Language

Answer these questions based on the video “The History of Language”

1. Why is it said that people in East Africa developed more than the rest?

Because they had developed a better language than the rest. (1:38 on Video)

2. What happened to the earlier languages on Earth?

All of the earlier languages have been erased, they have been lost these languages dont longer exist and there is no trace of the. (2:12 on Video)

3. According to Dr Johanna Nichols, what were the first utterances made by Humans?

Dr Johanna Nichols said, "I suspect that the first utterances consisted of things that were transition between calls and words." (2:17 on Video)

Language: Constant Change

Answer these questions based on the video "Language: Constant Change"

1. What is the biblical story of "the Tower of Babel"?

The story basically shows how language was recreated, were people were trying to build a tower, very high to reach the sky, for their over ambition, God created all of these languages among them so they could not talk to each other. 

2. What does historical evidence tell us of this biblical event?

In our world we can see many advanced types of language. At the moment God created all of the languages, every different culture and society began.

3. What's the relationship between genes and language?

If people have similar genes they speak similar languages, genes change much more slower, if you look at the genes the populations are very similar.

4. Why do languages constantly change?

Language is always constantly changing because they are learned, transmited. And every generation interacts with their own peers.

Why do we talk?

1. Which is the 'trick' (process) that enables us to communicate something to others?

Making a sequence of noises by pushing air to our mouth. The thought that is in my head will go to the other person your are communicating to. Thanks to the sound. (1:25 on Video.)

2. Do animals talk? If not, What do they do to communicate?

Animals don't talk, they communicate by making certain sounds that have no meaning at all. (1:43 on Video.)

3. What do we express when we talk?

At the moment we talk, the human uses the words to express themselves. We also express our thoughts processes that are unique to ourselves. (1:58 on Video.)

4. What did Dr Deb Roy try to achieve in his house?

He tried to find out how can Human Being communicate with language, so he started when we first learn how to talk, as a Child. He knew that to discover how we talk he had to see and hear the children 24 hours a day 7 days a week to examine every detail. Until he was the age of 3. (3:40 on Video.)

5. Which are the earliest stages in language for a child?

The typical development stages of language are that a Child will go from babbling to using single words usually as a request or need he is looking for. And then they will start a two-word stage, which is putting to words together like "more milk", very quickly, the child will be talking complex sentences. (5:30 on Video)

6. What external and internal factors made the data recollected in the experiment into something they could use?

He focus on the two-word stage, which will be normally seen in the birthday number 2 or 3. They had to see who said what, annotations of where these people were. The language of the child was influenced by the repetition of the words by the parents, and who said it, the relationship between who said what. The child would put more atention on one of the words the parents said. If he liked more the mother he could put more atention on what the mother was talking about. (6:20 on Video.)

7. How did the parent's speech change from their son's first word until he could utter more complex structures? 
On the early moments of their childs life, they had to simplified their speech, they would not ask if he wanted a apple, they would just say apple?. Then, when the childs on speech developes, they began to use longer sentences again. (7:20 on Video.)

8. What does Dr Deb Roy compare the "blossoming" of a speech form?

Like timelapse that a video can show us of the blossoming of a flower, what we are going to hear is the blossoming of a speech form. (8:16 on Video.)

Statements about Language

Reflect on the following statements about language:

- "Language surrounds us every day and we know how to recognise it" (Language A: Course Companion)

Everyday we can hear many diferent sounds, almost imposible to count. There is a difference when we hear many of the sounds during day or night, maybe cars, cell phones rining, or even animal sounds, than the Language we hear coming from a human being, a sound we can understand and respond to, a sound we recognise.

- "A word is one or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by the language"

(http://anthro.palomar.edu/language/language_2.htm)

Like the sentence says, a Word is one or more sounds that in COMBINATION have a specific meaning assigned by the language. The language combines the sounds and make each meaning different, some words may sound the same, such as Knight or Night, one may be a battle knight and the other ones meaning is the time of the day "night", but we apply each combination to understand the language. "Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations"

- "The most powerful tool known is the one we use to build every other tool"

(http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/blog/what_language)

The most important tool for society, is the Language, may be seen as a not such important tool, but imagine what would human beings do if language would not exist. Imagin you have a medical problem, there would be no way to explain what you feel. Mute people may not know how to speak the language, but with time, they learn to write the language. This tool we call language, is the main reason why everything we know exists, people get together, ideas, and many other things.