Mike Taylor: Thinking Indian by preserving Indian languages

Language is a prison that constrains our minds, limits our capacity to reason and determines our behaviors. The implication of this is: if an Indian does not know his language, he is unlikely to think or act like an Indian. If we speak in an Indian language, we start thinking like an Indian; likewise, if we speak in a European language like English, we think like a European and eventually become one. Some researchers disagree and favor the weaker version of the Whorfian hypothesis (linguistic relativity) that language very profoundly influences and affects our thinking, our view of the world, our perceptions of reality, cognitive processes, decision making, thought patterns and behaviors. So while the strong version of the Whorfian hypothesis maintains that language determines thought, the weak version asserts that language profoundly influences thought.

Consider Pormpuraaw, an isolated Aboriginal community in Australia. They don't use words like left or right or forward or back because everything is in terms of the four directions. If you ask one of them, “Where's your wife?” the response might likely be “she is to my north-northwest.” They say things like, “my northeast hand is hurting.” If he is facing the other way, he will refer to the same hand as his southwest hand without even thinking about it. If you sit too close to a Pormpuraaw girl, she might thoughtlessly tell you to move a little to the southeast. These natives have to stay directionally well-oriented at all times. Otherwise they simply are not able to communicate with each other. They are constantly aware of the cardinal directions at all times. This enables them to perform amazing navigational feats well beyond the capabilities of other humans. If you blindfold them and try your best to disorient them during a game of hitting the piñata, they still manage to know where the cardinal directions are. Their language instinctively trains them to be acutely cognizant of the four directions, whatever they might be doing. Even if you drop them in the middle of strange and unfamiliar mountains in the night, they manage to find their way back. This is the enormous power of language.