Visualising Infinity: The Trouble With Languages : A Mother Tongue

» bridget1 - A Mother Tongue

Very interesting. I checked out the Nova script to see WHERE, they postulated, the original language appeared. I'm glad they mentioned glaciation, because there really is little evidence left of what living in certain areas was like before the glaciers erased everything.

Would it be fair to say that the belief in an original language implies a belief in an original ancestor, populating the globe from one Garden or place? Just curious.

The problem of communication across languages was tackled by the filmmakers of the CBC mini-series Big Bear (Canadian History and Culture #2). They ended up creating a mock language for the newcomers which was incomprehensible to the First Nations characters and to the audience. Then they had the Cree speak English. An interesting approach to the problem of telling a story from the narrative position of a group whose language is unknown to the audience.

-- posted by bridget1