Language matters

HAVE you ever heard a Navajo Indian speak?

Not like in old western movies, but on their homelands, in the high desert plains of the USA, quietly amongst themselves?

Ironically, for such a land-locked nation in the Utah/arizona/new Mexico borderlands, where they speak what’s called “Diné bizaad”, it sounds like the soothing, gentle wash of the sea lapping at a shoreline beach. Lots of ‘sh’ sounds; whispered. It’s really beautiful. Around 150,000 people speak it in the USA but it’s understood in Canada and Alaska where the Navajo are believed to have originated. Oh, the stories they can tell. Our language says a lot about us (pun intended). All the little nuances – those unspoken understandings we have inside our culture – are actually revealed in the words we do – or don’t – say, and how we say them.

Take classical Arabic, a language quite literally as old as the hills and spoken long before it was written. It evolved to be really amazing when it is spoken.

So when it does get written down, you can use 1000 classical Arab words to say what an Aussie can in 25. That’s a slight exaggeration, but a case in point.

Many old languages did have a lot of work to do: be the news, tell stories, remember history, journal memory: in all, they are – or were, if they’re one of the 573 extinct languages – very, very long, spoken books.

So, in between checking your phone, watching the footy or trying to un-see your energy bill, what does all this really matter today?

Language still defines us and is a badge of honour to our identity.

Another case in point: Scrabble has just released an Aussie edition! Strewth!

Being understood is at the heart of our language – until cultures cross. Talking with someone who can’t speak your language makes it hard to communicate.

It can be comical or frustrating, but without an interpreter or taking the time to learn each other’s language, the gaps in understanding can’t be filled.

And we all know what happens when human beings can’t understand something – they fear it.

We get busy filling in the gaps to justify that fear and create fictional stories, like, ‘all Muslims are terrorists’ or ‘all Americans are stupid’.

Our Language Matters is the 2017 theme for NAIDOC. In this week’s edition, Dubbo Photo News highlights many facets of Indigenous culture including the conservation of the Wiradjuri language which is more like a time capsule or aural tradition.

Today, in Australia, there are just 60 from 250 Indigenous languages still considered “alive”.

No matter what the language, however, the true power of words is in the listening.