When people are to think about languages, the pragmatic differences between them are most of the time forgotten about. Different tongues entail not only different vocabulary and a few changes in terms of grammar but entirely different structures as well, the mere way in which they operate.
This field of differences has just started being studied, although various common expressions have been used extensively by the people, almost hinting at the scientific result.
One of the most popular sayings is by no one else other than Charlemagne, “To have another language is to possess a second soul”. This so-called “second soul” narrative points out the massive changes in day-to-day life when operating in different languages, thus the differences between languages themselves.
Neuronal Structure
Perhaps the most understudied subtopic of this domain is represented by the actual transmission of information happening inside people’s minds, effects that are not just taking place at the social aspect, while interacting with others, but truly within our neuronal links.
Recent study analysed German and Arabic native speakers to understand whether the peculiarities of the two languages had an impact in shaping the mind. The results showed massive differences between the two, with German speakers using predominantly the left hemisphere of the brain when talking, while Arabic speakers generate links between the two hemispheres when using the language. The reason as to why this is happening is deducted from the structures and requirements of the two languages. German tends to be very rigorous in terms of word order, therefore the usage of the more “logical” side of the brain; and Arabic’s shift from one hemisphere to the other is due to the presence of patterns in its grammar and the syntax of words.
Personality
A bit more commonly heard about is the effect of having “multiple personalities”, one for each language a person speaks. However, this is not simply a myth as many would consider, but a factual phenomenon. When learning different languages, people find themselves in different environments, perhaps at home, school, or even on vacation. So while speaking the language, people tend to associate those moments with the phases they went through learning it.
For example, citizens of Latino descent from the United States tend to be kinder and warmer when speaking Spanish, because they learned it and have continuously used it at home, compared to their more formal style when speaking in English, oftentimes used in school and learned in preschool.
Perception
Across different languages, terminology also varies, which leads to different people having entirely different perspectives on certain matters depending on their mother tongue.
Most commonly, this is observed with simple concepts such as colours. In Korean, there is a singular word for both blue and green, while in Russian there are two distinct words for lighter and darker blue. This might seem to be almost irrelevant, but when put to test, people who spoke Russian were able to differentiate between tones and hues of blue and green faster than the ones who spoke Korean. This is due to the fact that the human mind adapts so that the usage of those terms becomes intuitive. As growing up learning Russian, you have to pay more attention when classifying such colours, becoming like a second nature over time.
Although those three categories do not seem to have that great of an effect on behaviour, what they teach is that language, as a concept, is not as universal as it might be believed to be. The unique characteristics of each are exactly the reason why diversity has to be further promoted. Additionally, research in the field has been limited and new projects are just starting to arise, leaving us to wonder what new effects of language are to be discovered.
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