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Language extends and limits thought. Languages can have remarkable differences in their expressiveness and that enriches the minds of those who speak them. It's

Language extends and limits thought. Languages can have remarkable differences in their expressiveness and that enriches the minds of those who speak them. It's not wonder that being a polyglot has supposed cognitive benefits.

hollerith 1y ago
There are some who hold those beliefs, but they give only extremely weak arguments. It's hard to imagine that the benefits of learning and thinking in one language rather than another outweigh the benefits of learning a language like English that gives a person access to a vast literature and vast economic and social opportunities. I am not distressed by the thought of an adult's deciding to learn Welsh as a hobby just as I'm not distressed by an adult's spending time on any hobby, but it is painful for me to image a child's being taught an obscure language like Welsh out of some almost-certainly-false belief that it will give him or her access to powerful modes of thought that are unavailable to speakers of other languages. It strikes me as almost mistreating the child to restrict his intellectual, social and economic opportunities in this way (unless the child can pick up second and third languages easily, which is not most children). I'm not saying that I understand how a language interacts with a developing child's brain well enough to say with confidence that Welsh cannot grant anyone the ability to think in ways that are not possible in other languages. I am open to having my mind changed. But nothing I've ever read over many conversations even begins to change my mind. It's all very simplistic argumentation, e.g., "Society teaches us that diversity is good; so clearly linguistic diversity must be good", e.g., "<<Sapir-Whorf hypothesis>> sure is an impressive term probably coined by super-smart professors, so it is probably true".
- Daishiman 1y ago
  Are you a polyglot or is this sheer speculation?
  - hollerith 1y ago
    A person does not need to be a polyglot to notice that an assertion is repeated over and over again on the internet and is never accompanied by any halfway-decent explanation for why it might be true.

hollerith 1y ago

There are some who hold those beliefs, but they give only extremely weak arguments. It's hard to imagine that the benefits of learning and thinking in one language rather than another outweigh the benefits of learning a language like English that gives a person access to a vast literature and vast economic and social opportunities. I am not distressed by the thought of an adult's deciding to learn Welsh as a hobby just as I'm not distressed by an adult's spending time on any hobby, but it is painful for me to image a child's being taught an obscure language like Welsh out of some almost-certainly-false belief that it will give him or her access to powerful modes of thought that are unavailable to speakers of other languages. It strikes me as almost mistreating the child to restrict his intellectual, social and economic opportunities in this way (unless the child can pick up second and third languages easily, which is not most children). I'm not saying that I understand how a language interacts with a developing child's brain well enough to say with confidence that Welsh cannot grant anyone the ability to think in ways that are not possible in other languages. I am open to having my mind changed. But nothing I've ever read over many conversations even begins to change my mind. It's all very simplistic argumentation, e.g., "Society teaches us that diversity is good; so clearly linguistic diversity must be good", e.g., "<<Sapir-Whorf hypothesis>> sure is an impressive term probably coined by super-smart professors, so it is probably true".

Daishiman 1y ago
Are you a polyglot or is this sheer speculation?
- hollerith 1y ago
  A person does not need to be a polyglot to notice that an assertion is repeated over and over again on the internet and is never accompanied by any halfway-decent explanation for why it might be true.