It seems a reasonable speculation to me that the fact that English is read from left to right and Chinese is read from top to bottom affects the perceived direction of time. I don't think that's a chicken and the egg problem though as I believe the direction of writing is influenced by the tools - a theory goes that ancient languages are written right to left because that's the direction which would be comfortable for a right handed person using a hammer and a chisel to carve on stone. Do semitic languages think of time going right to left?
This week I've been thinking about Ukraine. I understand that it was settled by the Rus who were Vikings that came down the Volga River. Is it reasonable to think that Finnish is unlike the other Scandavian languages not because of who settled Finland but because Sami speakers settled Ukraine? I understand that I'm talking about roughly a 1000 years ago which is much later than when your Proto-Indo-European speakers moved West from the steppes of Ukraine.
Mr McWhorter, if you read these comments, I would just like to point out as a native speaker of Polish, that never once in 30 years have I encountered the word "czas" being used to refer to the weather. The Polish word for weather is "pogoda".
I read about a tribe in Australia which has no concept of ownership and look at things through the idea of being north, south, east, west, etc. Not sure if you're familiar with it but would be interesting to hear what you think of the language.
This was the first episode I have listened to of this podcast and I am ready to binge! I am a high school Spanish teacher and the coincidence of the Aymara mention, while we are watching the film "También la lluvia" in AP Spanish right now was perfectly timed! Also.... the Seinfeld reference, broadway references, and overall fascination with language and language change in this show is awesome! My students tend to find out what the field of linguistics is from me, and I am looking forward to sharing this with them! :) Thank you for making my day!
Speaking of Russian год /got/ ("year"), that's also a root connected to weather, the Russian word for which being погода /pagoda/ ("weather"). Great show.
It seems a reasonable speculation to me that the fact that English is read from left to right and Chinese is read from top to bottom affects the perceived direction of time. I don't think that's a chicken and the egg problem though as I believe the direction of writing is influenced by the tools - a theory goes that ancient languages are written right to left because that's the direction which would be comfortable for a right handed person using a hammer and a chisel to carve on stone. Do semitic languages think of time going right to left?
This week I've been thinking about Ukraine. I understand that it was settled by the Rus who were Vikings that came down the Volga River. Is it reasonable to think that Finnish is unlike the other Scandavian languages not because of who settled Finland but because Sami speakers settled Ukraine? I understand that I'm talking about roughly a 1000 years ago which is much later than when your Proto-Indo-European speakers moved West from the steppes of Ukraine.
I was surprised not to hear this tune
https://g.co/kgs/LA73n2
Mr McWhorter, if you read these comments, I would just like to point out as a native speaker of Polish, that never once in 30 years have I encountered the word "czas" being used to refer to the weather. The Polish word for weather is "pogoda".
Thanks for the interesting show!
"Slangingly"?
I read about a tribe in Australia which has no concept of ownership and look at things through the idea of being north, south, east, west, etc. Not sure if you're familiar with it but would be interesting to hear what you think of the language.
This was the first episode I have listened to of this podcast and I am ready to binge! I am a high school Spanish teacher and the coincidence of the Aymara mention, while we are watching the film "También la lluvia" in AP Spanish right now was perfectly timed! Also.... the Seinfeld reference, broadway references, and overall fascination with language and language change in this show is awesome! My students tend to find out what the field of linguistics is from me, and I am looking forward to sharing this with them! :) Thank you for making my day!
Speaking of Russian год /got/ ("year"), that's also a root connected to weather, the Russian word for which being погода /pagoda/ ("weather"). Great show.