The Benefits of Learning Another  Language – Part1

Linguistics is the study of language and all its aspects. Questions of language and its functions began to emerge during the eighteenth to nineteenth century, among European scholars. But Europeans were certainly not the first to ponder language history and structure. Indian scholar Panini organized a collection of data and analysis on the grammar and sound of Sanskrit in the fourth or fifth B.C.E. Because of these investigations we now have a much better understanding of language functions. Some principle elements of any spoken language may include “the speech sounds themselves, the system of using certain sounds to tell words apart in a given language, the forms of words, the structures by which words are combined into phrases and sentences, and the meaning components”. In the terms of linguists these are known as phonetics, phonemic, morphology, syntax and semantics. Language also has certain designs.

An example of language design can be something like arbitrary speech, which is a speech that allows us to be able to talk about things hypothetically or imaginatively. This type of speech helps us solve theoretical problems. There’s also productive speech, which means when we take conventional vocabulary and speaking patterns to create new messages and new vocabulary and patterns. This design partly contributes to the evolution of speech. Shifting from “basic word writing to syllabic writing” then from “syllabic to alphabetic” is a product of generational rebuilding of learned information, so systems of writing and notation have been restructured by what works best. Humans have also created various mediums of communication, which essentially is multiple ways to teach languages. An example of this can be ASL or American Sign Language. It’s a visual language that possesses all the “structural features and design complexities of a spoken language” only with a different manifestation.

After developing a relative understanding of language history and its functions, we can begin to delve into the science of learning languages, its effects on the brain and how it can benefit us.  Learning a language is important for the brain’s health. “Research shows that children deprived of early exposure to linguistic communication (which happens sometimes with deaf babies) do not develop the neurological structures in the brain necessary for handling the complexities of language later”. Children who aren’t taught how to communicate at a certain age are shown to suffer from neurological damage, thus leaving children intellectually stunted as a result. And though I must stop here, I’ll be happy to write more on the subject in next months column. Till next time!