Essay on Origins of Languages

Have you ever wondered how languages were even created? There are more than seven thousand languages in the world. We all speak more than one language. Every language is different just like every other person. Every language has its way to express different things. When we speak a different language, we think differently and act accordingly. I believe languages we speak or read do shape who we are because how or what you are speaking, or reading will influence the thinking process which will shape who you are.

Not only speaking but reading languages also influence your thinking process. When you read a book about anything you will try to understand what it is saying or what it is about. It gives you more knowledge, and more information, which will of course build your mind, and change your thinking process. For example, as Min Jin Lee said, “all those shelves of books had built my mind, teaching me how to shape a narrative about my people.” This example shows that reading can influence your mind and it can make you think about things from different perspectives which will build your mind. You might read a book by an author who does not speak the same language as yours. That author will write thinks based on what he knows, and how his language describes things. It will also make you think a lot differently.

Having more than one personality can make a person think differently from each personality. A person’s thoughts and actions would be according to what personality he/she is showing to the world. According to Lera Boroditsky, Charlemagne, a Holy emperor said, “to have a second language is to have a second soul.” Speaking two or more languages is just like having two or more personalities or “souls.” When a person speaks or talks in a second language, he/she will also think differently. He/she will describe things according to his/her understanding. For example, if an Urdu speaker is describing the moon as masculine, it might sound weird to the person who speaks French because the moon is more feminine in French. Another example is that there is a joke in Urdu that only makes sense to the Urdu speakers and even if they convert it to the other language, it just will not make sense to the person who doesn’t speak Urdu because there are certain words in every language that can’t be translated to make sense in another language. Lera Boroditsky said, “there are also really big differences in how people think about time, languages also differ in how they describe events, languages have all kinds of structural quirks.” These tell us how languages are different in so many ways which means it will require speakers of different languages to think contrastingly and it will shape who they are.

In conclusion, the languages we speak do shape who we are. It does matter where we get the influences from to build the minds that shape us into who we are.