+crisy1001 Not necessarily, just because they can't hear doesn't mean they won't babble gibberish as infants. Many deaf people can speak just as well as anyone else because they can read lips.
Unix One Well yes, I am aware of that......frankly I'm not exactly seeing the connection between my comment and this. I suppose though thinking about it now, the whole babbling with their hands thing might not be true, but if they saw others doing that I could see it. I'd have to watch the video again to remind myself of the context here.
crisy1001 Sorry, I know the comment was a year old, but because RUclips doesn't have a method of aging the comments or whatever, makes it easy to still feel like responding today, old comment or not.
crisy1001 I do to: like if the comment passes 1 year, put it lower in the list. 2 years or more, YT should delete it, because then fights could start that really don't need to.
This video is like the first two weeks of an Intro to Linguistics class. ALSO what are the possibilities for a Crash Course: Linguistics? Because I would watch that shit like it was my job.
Oddly enough, my daughter would practice a sound or word for a few hours or days, until she got it right, then not say it again. She would just point at things we knew she could say the name of but not say the actual word, making us have to guess sometimes about what she really wanted. (She would point at a cabinet full of items and we would have to figure out ourselves that she wanted the box of Cheerios, or whatever it was...) She wouldn't really "speak" until she was 3 and could form full sentences. At first, we thought she had developmental problems, but it turned out that she was just a stubborn perfectionist, and has remained one for her entire 21 years. lol!
I found a story my mom told me really interesting. She told me that when I was learning to walk I refused to let go of the edges of things. One day my dad and her were arguing about how to help me learn how to walk and though I didn't know how to speak yet I let go of the couch and walked towards them. I imagine that their arguing and disappointment in me caused me more anxiety than my fear of falling. When I talk to babies, I talk to babies. I have people tell me "they can't understand you" but we have no idea just how much they actually can understand. I'm sure I knew exactly what my parents were arguing about and I'm positive that I knew that I was the cause of the argument.
Spanish is considered a language there are many local accents but Spanish is one language Many Chinese speakers of say WU or Min Dan or Shanghaiiese cannot understand Mandarin most Spanish speakers can understand Spanish in multiple Spanish speaking countries believe me I speak both Mandarin and Spanish
Being multilingual. The language of my toughts changes. I mostly think in my native tongue. However alot quite often i think in English. When i think specificly, i think in English due to the fact that English has more words specifying things making it easier to think fast and accurate. This is reason why i end up using some English words even in my native tongue. This is due to the fact i either dont remember the word in my language. Or the English is more specific. As many words here are pronounced the same thus sometimes hard to get into context when trying to explain something. But mainly my tough wary. I usually think in English when I'm hanging out with English speaker like on the internett or English speaking friends. And i think in my native language when hanging out with family or work. Yoy end up thinking in a foreign language when hanging out with foreigners. This is so that you dont struggle speaking the other language fluent. This is where i notice most people struggling speaking a new language is because they don't understand enough to have toughs in that language. And thus they get strange vocabulary at times and struggles with pronunciations. Also stuttering. Thinking in that language helps you warm up before speaking it. This making you're language more fluent
I've learned English when I was 7 and I find myself thinking in English at times. It's mostly when I'm thinking about something I've read in English, when I'm talking to foreign people or when I'm thinking about some movie or a TV series in English.
I'm inclined to think that thoughts don't happen in language. In other words, we have thoughts and our brain converts them into language as a second stage. Assuming I'm right about this, this second stage - conversion into language - can have both positive and negative side-effects. Converting something into language can: a) help us to codify and clarify our thoughts (think how useful it can be sometimes to write out something you've been thinking about - whether it's a diary entry or a shopping list); but: b) it can also be very constraining (think how frustrating it can be when you struggle to put into words something you've been thinking about, let alone writing about a complex concept - such as when you're trying to finish your masters dissertation or similar).
I'm multilingual, too (depending on how you count I'm fluent in three to five languages). Like you, I think (and dream!) in different languages, too. What I find interesting is that when I think about what language I'm thinking in in what situation, there seems to be a clear pattern. For example, when I'm reflecting myself and my actions, I usually think in English. When I think in the "conversation mode" (i.e. thinking about telling someone about something or just simply thinking to myself in the manner in which I would think if I were to talk to someone), I usually think in Swiss German (except when thinking in this mode in the context of my family, in which case I usually think in High German (or Dutch)). I also usually think in High German when thinking about certain kinds of complex problems (although I frequently think about these things in English, too). What I also notice is that I often don't realize for several minutes what language I'm reading in. When browsing the internet - for example - I usually use English, but when I switch to German, or from German back to English, I usually don't notice at once.
brkatimachor I think thinking can happen both with and without language. I definitely have internal monologues sometimes, both in my mother language and in my second language. But that's not always the case.
I wasn't able to speak a comprehensive language until I was late into my 4th year. My parents took me to a doctor to see if i was deaf, but found out that my babbling was the result of living in a multilingual environment, where I tried to speak my mom's Filipino, my dad's Hungarian, and my country's English. This caused me to speak sentences combining all three of the languages, where it was eventually stopped when my parents decided only to speak English to me. English is all I know now though :P
I find that when I'm in French and I speak French I go from a fairly confident and loud and annoying person to quiet and more considerate and I always think about what I'm going to say. It's like my entire personality changes.
+Krilln That's funny, for me it's the opposite : I'm French, and a rather shy person, and it occurred to me that I become more talkative and confident whenever I'm speaking English.
+Unix One My case is a little bit different. When I speak serbian (my mother tongue) I tend to speak very, very fast, but when I speak english i speak calmly and slowly. On the other hand, when I speak turkish, I´m speeding again.
filip cvjetkovic You're lucky you can speak more than one language fluently. All I have reserved are a few phrases and words from Spanish. I can understand what's being said to me if someone speaks it, but it's almost impossible for me to speak back meaningfully.
I friggin' love linguistics. Every aspect of it. I want to do a linguistics channel SO BADLY!!! Maybe this summer, once things settle down a little. THANK YOU, HANK!!! :D
I don't know if you guys have already made a video on this but I would love to see the origins and/or the evolution of language. Where did all of these languages come from? Are new languages still emerging or evolving? I'm Iranian and I tried to look into the origins of Farsi and had to give up because it was far too complicated. Would be great if you guys could simplify it for my tiny brain.
nozrati I don’t know much about Farsi but the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari includes how the need for language originated after the agricultural revolution since our brains weren’t used to retaining large numbers. I highly recommend the book, it’s a great read
The whole subject of Chomsky and his research was probably the most fascinating part of my university courses on linguistics. I encourage everyone watching this video to read up on the stuff he proposed/found out. Really fascinating if you're interested in psychology.
That's more of a question of the id, ego, and superego. Simply, all people consciously think in their own language or another language they speak in some cases. However, all basic needs are communicated in innate neural pathways that are completely unrelated to language centres. (I believe this to be correct, although this is not my field)
That is a very interesting thought. I recently asked my friend (who's first language is Spanish but is fluent in English and lives in the UK) whether her thoughts were in English or Spanish and she didn't know what to say, she said mainly English but sometimes Spanish. Could it simply depend on the context of her thoughts?
That's an interesting question. I don't know if we can have thoughts that are separate from language at the level of conscious thought (at least I can't), but it is possible that a thought is not encoded in language before it comes to our consciousness. Still, I would think that the language we are currently reading/thinking in will have an effect on that thought anyway. One example I can think of is expressions. If you ask someone in English what do an elephant, a car and a tree have in common, the response would be different than if you asked that same question in French or another language. (The answer is "trunk" BTW).
Eleanor Stylianides possibly, my thoughts on this were that we all think, not first with language, but instead with concept, which is then attributed to meanings, and then the associated language, which language gets used would most likely depend on context and situation. though this is only speculation.
MoonGoddessArtemis well, if you asked that to a french person, the language they speak would have trunk in common with those words, as the word trunk, might not be attribute to an elephant, as they use a differant word for it, so there may not be similarities between those words at all.
I'm learning a new language right now and it feels so weird. Actually, I found the perfect metaphor yesterday. I bought an old Super Mario Bros game that I used to be obsessed with as a kid and found that while I could play it alright (the muscle memory and some actual memory was there), it also felt weirdly foreign and awkward. I'm not that young girl clumsily pawing at the buttons when I was a beginner, but nor am I the pro, quickly clearing levels, that I eventually came to be. So while learning Arabic is difficult and feels foreign, I'm beginning this process already knowing what language is as a concept and how communicating works. Also, I second all comments requesting a linguistics crash course.
I didn't always think in words; I could use words just fine, but I processed them slower. I thought in whole concepts; the sounds, smells, feelings, whatever was in what I was thinking about. This wasn't limited to thoughts only involving my physical senses, most abstract concepts were in feelings that I really don't know how to describe in any language I've explored. A couple years ago I realized I was having a lot of trouble translating between spoken English (I was better at written, from reading so often) and my thoughts and back fast enough to keep up with a normal conversation, so I decided to optimize that process and I changed to mostly thinking in words. It's limiting, slow, and less accurate, but I can communicate easier & faster and remember things longer without losing details. There are several other changes I noticed in myself, but I don't know if they were caused by my change in thinking. I don't really know why I'm sharing this... I guess I think maybe someone will find it interesting. Maybe it'll help with someone's research, seeing my (unusual?) story.
Zachary Riesenberger don't forget about the "prescriptive Grammar" . New words are being created everyday.i.e Selfie! ,Hashtag# :D it's gonna keep on going as technology advances and human civilization improves; in short words- as we keep on advancing towards the future we will have newer terms and thus newer words. i.e in 1995 we never used the word "Skype" let alone the verb "Skyping" cause it wasn't invented yet :) [funny fact: i just had a spelling error for the word "skyping" :P ]
I'd assume that someone with no ability for language would think in imagery. like playing out a thought in there head . rather than thinking "I want to go for a run" they would imagine themselves running. Pretty interesting topic.
The problem is, wanting to go for a run is not imagining one-self running. The urge is not comprised in the image. I'm just saying both side of the equation are not equivalent which means that a being who reasons in imagery would think in quite a different way than us. I don't have a better explanation to offer as to how they might think and yours is definitely a possibility, it's just that i see problems with it.
This goes really well with Hank's Vlogbrothers video from Friday! I've always found the acquisition of language to be incredibly fascinating, especially when it comes to learning more than one language.
As a student of linguistics in university who studies 5 languages, this episode was my favourite. :3 Language is endlessly fascinating, I stuff myself full of whatever language I can learn on a daily basis and still know next to nothing. You can always observe behaviour, but to have a richer understanding of other cultures and ways of thinking, there really is no better way than to study their language. It's the only way to really get in their noggin and *really* know what they're thinking, why, and how. Thanks so much for this episode, Crash Course!
According to my parents, I started saying "mama" and "dada" at 5 months old. At 7 months I started using simple sentences. For example, I said "Dada go bye-bye car" when I saw my father starting his car to drive away to work in the morning. At 9 months I said "Huh, that daddy-man shoo-shoo twain tink he can," alluding to "The Little Engine that Could" when I saw my father struggling to get over a steep hill while running a marathon.
Not language but metacognition (knowing about knowing or to think about your thinking) sets us apart from animals. But then again, can we be sure that animals do not possess the metacognition ability? Anyways It brings me great pleasure to see how many people watch these clips. Luckily there are still people who are curious and want to learn new things just for the fun of it. Not just for good grades.
One time my friends and I were emcees for a prize presentation event in school, and we were supposed to pronounce names for the prize winners. Our school's population is predominantly Chinese, while one of my friends is a Filipino who only speaks English and some Filipino dialect, one a Malay who speaks English and Malay and also picking up some Chinese recently, and another a Chinese like me. So we came across a Chinese name that gave my Filipino friend a lot of trouble, and it went something like: Friend: Yoon Yoo. Me: No, it's Yün Yü. Friend: Yoon Yew… Me: No, it's like (fumbles) just try to imitate the sound. Yün. Yü. Friend: Yün...Yoo. Me: Arghh (takes paper and scribbles some alphabets until it looks right) like "uin ui" except you mesh u and i together and don't move your lips while making the sound. Friend: ...what? Me: (turns to Malay friend) how do you pronounce this name? Friend #2: Yün Yü. Me: Just like that. Friend: Yoon Yoo. Me: Goddammit just let me take that name. Pronunciations glargh.
I couldn't help but be reminded of the intonation-based language of the praerie dogs, or how American crows that migrate understand French crows, but American crows that stay put don't understand what the French crows are on about, and also how dolphins seem to gossip with each other. The more we learn, I think the more we realise we are not alone in our capabilities.
pausing the video and went to google to search up kanzi, and damn, boy oh boy, it is mind blown. search it up guys, seriously, your mind will be blown away to the edge of the cosmos.
I believe we are able to think without words. Like in pictures or sounds, visual thinking, not everything I think can easyly be formulated in words, sometimes I feel like drawing a picture next to it, to illustrate.
OK, this answers a lot. I have a few memories from when I was less than 1 year old and most of them involve understanding what was said by others, though not being able to talk myself. Until now, I'd never been sure if that was just me filling in the blanks with something logical. Now I know my memories of other people's words are accurate. Thank you, Hank!
I often use a mental short-hand of skipping words and thinking of the concept specifically. This can aid in thinking faster and more deeply on a subject but relying on it too much makes interactions with people harder as actual words are required to express things externally. I'm sure this isn't that uncommon.
Egh. Close, but I have to nitpick. I'd say the smallest unit of language is a PHONE, which is the actual sound that the speaker makes. A PHONEME is the psychological representation of the smallest indivisible unit of language. For example, in English, the "t" in "top" and the "t" in "stop" are technically different "t"s-different PHONES-but to English speakers, they are the same PHONEME.
Yep - [t] and aspirated [t] in English are strictly 'allophones', since they are different realisations of the same phoneme (i.e., /t/). The same applies to morphology as well: the different plural '-s' in 'cats' and 'dogs', and the '-es' in 'glasses' are allmorphs, being different variations of the plural-marking morpheme in English.
I think I'll have to nitpick as well. the [t] in both 'top' and 'stop' are the same; they are still the same distributional variants of the phone or speech sound [t]. A better example would be the difference between the [t] in, say, 'top' and 'take'.
as a Nerdfighter with a BA in Theoretical Linguistics who is starting a masters in Applied Linguistics - I AM SO HAPPY THAT PEOPLE WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THIS!! a lot of the stuff in this video is a simplification, but it's a good overview for people who are interested. Language is cool people! Thanks so much for making this so other people can share my passion :D
Best episode so far in this series. Looking forward to next weeks episode on Motivation. Hope Hank is as excited about motivation as he was about language :p
Rodrigo Deleon Well... i think Wu-tang is more of HIS generation, most of this generation probably doesn't even know who Method man is, lol your comment is like 2 decades late. But yeah i appreciated that reference, hip-hop is such a complex art form (more then it is credited to be), and he followed by Shaekspear which reminded me of that amazing "Hip-hop or Shakespeare" video from Tedtalks, you should check it out.
i got into a heavy feud with my brothers wife. she would tell her children jokingly they are "little devils" or "hell raisers" and i had to express to my brother that doing so could really have a negative affect of the kids. but it's not my place to tell others how to raise theyre kids. so i apologized.
I agree with you, it is not good conditioning for their self image and self confidence to be called negative names frequently, even if done so lovingly. i try to mostly say positive things to my son such as calling him "good boy," "smart", "clever", "handsome" etc. however there are worse parenting habits out there so maybe you can cut your brother and his wife some slack on this haha
Interesting they mention aphasia. I had that as a byproduct of a "childhood" disorder. Childhood is in quotes cause it's so rare they did the first long term study (with only 7 people!) in 2013 and apparently 6/7 were still affected in some degree by aphasia, or the other byproduct seizures, and I guess I'm one of the lucky 14%... I think ha. Anyways, my aphasia kicked in when I was 7 or 8 years old (mid-1990s) and I had to relearn English, both the speaking and comprehension of it; I believe more comprehension though. So, I guess it affected both the Broca's area and Wernicke's area for me.
I've always wonder if I can raise a bilingual child by Speaking always in Spanish and the mother speaking always in German (With both of us understanding Spanish and German)
It's also a great idea to let both paternal grandparents (the father's parents) and maternal grandparents (the mother's parents) help take care of your child sometimes, if possible!
It's called the One Parent One Language approach. The trick is to stick with it. The two systems will be acquired but at different rates ( if the child is around the mother more then the mother's language will be slightly more dominant). There are a lot of benefits which include delaying Alzheimer's to up to 5 years.
actually I didn't understand your language parce que ce n'est pas facile par mujhe apke video bohat pasand ayi ,onnnek onnek onneek bhalo channel eta :)
I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for creating this incredible channel. I am studying through a correspondence university which means no lecturers or lessons - and your channel has helped me tremendously with two of my psychology modules. So a huge South African THANK YOU!!! 😄
My first cat would meow in such a way it sounded like it said in, out, pet, and food. Pusskers used his limited vocabulary well, meowing with the appropriate "word" to convey what he wanted. He was a smart little bugger- held a hatchling captive to bait its parents, knew how to turn a couple of his electric toys on, the list goes on.
This is an extraordinarily informative video. As a Linguist and Speech Pathologist, this reminded me of my entire undergraduate career summed up in 10 minutes. Nice job!
My mind speaks to itself in the language of images, which until recently I wasn't aware was something not everyone does. Words were hard for me to commit to when I kept finding them so contextual. Now they act as toe tags on top of what I can best describe as a meta ideograms. Just thought I would share.
hey john green i saw two books written by you in a bookstore today and i was going to buy them but then i saw this awesome (yes i know that's not what it means) book with monsters and sword fights so i got that instead
I've been watching the psychology crash course over the past months but like slowly and I had an essay on this exact topic like 2 weeks ago and i wish i would've watched this episode
What I find fascinating is the fact that speakers of Piraha, an Amazonian language, have been found to be unable to learn how to count or do math, since their language does not include numbers.
I just read through the Wikipedia article, so there are quite a few sources. Here's one that seems to be a prominent one: edge.org/conversation/recursion-and-human-thought Also look up Daniel Everett. He's the guy who tried to teach them math, after they requested that they be taught math and numbers so that neighboring tribes wouldn't swindle them in trade (which is a new thing for them).
It seems widespread that peole were initially counting up to a certain number (5, 10, 12). Everything above that was many. Or in our past, we used approximates such as a douzen douzen (in German there was even a word for 5x12 and 12x12). It does not surprise me that it makes mathematic exercises hard. The same goes for roman numbers and odd ways of saying numbers e.g. quatre-vingt-quinze (4x20+15). PS neither English nor German are particularly logic in pronouncing numbers. thir-teen vs twenty-one... Not to forget that we count in several languages to 12 before we use combined numbers. These peculiarties give us some idea about our develeopment.
edi According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "dozen" (as well as its German equivalent "dutzend", as confirmed by DWDS) isn't even a Germanic word, as it derives from the Latin "duodecim (twelve) late in English's development, indicating that the tendency to count by twelves was not inherent to the Indo-European language family (unless it replaced an older word). I should also point out that pretty much all Indo-European languages follow the same, fairly logical pattern (Russian certainly has a weird number system, but it's not *too* far off the beaten path)
Mistran5lation I've constantly been fascinated that, while English has only 2 and a quarter conjugations for numbers, Japanese has a dozen or so number conjugations
I think that "the language makes humans different from other animals" statement is incomplete, at best. All social animals communicate and have basic understanding of abstract concepts (social relations are kind of abstract). If anything, it's the (probably unmatched by other earthly creatures) extent of its complexity. But there are definitely other characteristics which contribute to "humanity". Some overlap with language and (thus) abstract thinking, but don't have to be identical to them - strong social ties, long learning period and adaptive capabilities. There are others though, and they have also been crucial - ability to precisely manipulate objects of many dimensions or outstanding eyesight, for example. I think that "sapience", human uniqueness and superiority (however one understands them), is not identical with intrinsic qualities ("soul cell") - but is rather encored in capabilities possible thanks to them. These differences are often seen as "quantitative" (a rock used by an ape is technically a worse version of man's hammer), but I think there are some objective thresholds - leaving Earth, creating better human (education, rational physical "conditioning", and such can be put under this, although SF stuff is probably a more significant threshold), longtime data storage and its worldwide distribution, fast technological progress in general. So, it is more about being tall enough to reach the trapdoor, rather than having a non-zero height.
i believe language very much influences how you think, as language is a huge part of culture in it self. huge philosophical notions such as freedom, fairness, power, ect all have very different meaning depending on what language your speaking in. and how you view things such as those largely impact your way of thinking and living.
Ah man, I have been watching your Sci Show videos for awhile and have been pining over how smart you seem... Thank you so much for crediting all the people who make this wealth of information possible. I really enjoy learning, and try to soak up as much as possible, but I was getting discouraged by the vast amount of topics you cover with such confidence. You truly have a gift for making learning fun. Please let my math teacher in on your tricks. Thanks for the videos.
You done goofed with morpheme's definition. You defined a lexeme. A morpheme is the smallest unit of morphology. Whilst most morphemes are lexemes, the reverse is not true. An idiom, like "pulling my leg" is its own lexeme in that it's meaning cannot be predicted from its components but is made of four separate morphemes, pull, -ing, my and leg.
"What I might do while looking for the bathroom in Sweden." But... but Swedes are the most proficient in English out of all of the non-English speaking countries... 90% of them are proficient I know its probably a joke but STILL
When my dad wanted to learn another language and started studying Swedish I asked him, "Why? Almost all of them can understand you in English!" It's a very pretty language, but not the most practical for an English speaker's second language.
Linguistics are so fascinating. I tried some time ago to make a edutainment series on all the amazing things about it, but I never got to it. This reminded me of that. Maybe I should try to start that up...
Quite honestly any animal can form language, though they use a much simpler form. complex mammals like dolphins, whales, and apes have very complex calls and sounds. They almost have a very basic grasp of language, at least comparative to toddler language. They may not be able to speak like us, but to say language only exists in humans is not true in my opinion.
Hi there, I'm currently studying linguistics, so I understand your confusion. However, to define a set of signs as a 'language', it needs to conform to other parameters than the ability to communicate. For example, we can talk about abstract concepts such as time and space or theoretical ideas (let's take Einstein's theory of relativity), whilst complex mammals such as dolphins or even primates like Kanzi, although they have a remarkable skill for memorizing sequences,will only communicate to give warnings or orders (e.g.: "Look out, a shark!" or "Give me a banana!"). I could give you some counter-examples (e.g. bees can use their 'dance' to communicate the location of pollens to their hive), but it's all a mattter of degree.Human language is something which currently no other species is able to use, be it verbally or through sign language. In the late 20th century, experiments with primates proved that even chimpanzees or gorillas never fully grasp the syntax ot cognition that our language requires. Then again, certain species have other ways to communicate, of course. They're just not able to talk about the same complex subjects as us. Hope this helps!
Illier1 Well, experiments have actually been inconclusive about finding out whether primates really understand the meaning behind signs. It's also very likely that Kanzi remembered that using the combination "hand+marshmallow" will reward him with a roasted marshmallow. You can't really call that language acquisition. Chimps are also unable to understand grammar (prepositions, word order etc.). One of Chomsky's most important (and contested) statements is the one about 'Universal Grammar'. He claims that humans are born with an innate skill for language, a set of grammatical rules which allow us to rapidly learn a language. Of course, it's more complicated than that, but I'd recommend reading 'The Language Instinct' by Steven Pinker or one of Chomsky's work. Mind staying critical tho, as Pinker and Chomsky aren't always right. And yes, different groups of a species can have unique 'languages'. Most birds have a different way of communicating for example, but just like whales they only communicate out of necessity. You won't ever hear small-talk with animals, it's always a warning, order or a way to get food.
Not necessarily. It really depends on the baby's environment. If the child is hearing, and they are sent to daycare at a reasonably young age (like under 4, for instance), they will very quickly pick up the spoken language and speak it with the same proficiency as any other child. If the child is also deaf, they will not need any additional assistance other than simply learning from their parents in order to learn sign language. If they are introduced to their first language after the critical period of language learning, additional effort with a counselor can result in perfectly fluent language acquisition, but it will not be effortless like it is for infants.
Hi Hank! Your work with both CrashCourse and SciShow is spectacular. Both channels are incredibly powerful learning tools and have helped me in my undergraduate degree. On the language topic, would it be possible to post a video about acquisition of a second language? This is a particularly interesting field and I am sure that a lot of people would find it helpful in learning new languages.
I think animals do speak their own languages, they can speak to each other just as easily as we can speak to our friend, and when different species of animals speak, it's like their listening to another language. Animals can also recognise names and link words to concepts, so they should be able to understand normal language too.
+SmashBrosGuys2933 That's not quite how it works. While some animals may have distinct warning calls depending on what predator is nearby, it never really goes beyond that in terms of simplicity.
Who knows, maybe there's more to dolphins than has previously been assumed. That really goes beyond any of my knowledge as a language geek/ amateur - but I can tell you that "language" isn't the case for most animals when it comes to communication.
This is the sad case of the 'feral child' "Genie". She was completely isolated from birth and never properly acquired language of any kind even after she was rescued.
Binge watching crash course videos instead of doing my Psych. Readings??? (Or any school related assignment for that matter) I call this: ✨Productive procrastination✨
I speak English at home but I speant ages 0-9 in Spanish speaking countries. When i'm speaking English, I think in English and when I speak Spanish I think in Spanish. Now I live in China, learning Mandarin (rather than aquiring it through exposure). When I speak Chinese I think in English and I transate it in my head before saying it.
can we get a crashcourse linguistics? that would be wonderful.
+Inez Allen (Valkiro) I support this.
That's my dream Crash Course.
+Inez Allen (Valkiro) Yes! That would be fantastic!
+Inez Allen (Valkiro) Am I the only that whishes for Linguistics CC hosteed by John rather than Hank?
+3006spikespiegel yes. I feel John have become too full of himself after he have published his books
Deaf babies will babble with their hands!? I don't know why but that blew my mind, really amazing!
+crisy1001 Not necessarily, just because they can't hear doesn't mean they won't babble gibberish as infants. Many deaf people can speak just as well as anyone else because they can read lips.
Unix One Well yes, I am aware of that......frankly I'm not exactly seeing the connection between my comment and this.
I suppose though thinking about it now, the whole babbling with their hands thing might not be true, but if they saw others doing that I could see it. I'd have to watch the video again to remind myself of the context here.
crisy1001 Sorry, I know the comment was a year old, but because RUclips doesn't have a method of aging the comments or whatever, makes it easy to still feel like responding today, old comment or not.
Unix One Mm yeah, it's cool, I wasn't offended or anything, it's all cool. Do wish YT would improve that tho :/
crisy1001 I do to: like if the comment passes 1 year, put it lower in the list. 2 years or more, YT should delete it, because then fights could start that really don't need to.
This video is like the first two weeks of an Intro to Linguistics class. ALSO what are the possibilities for a Crash Course: Linguistics? Because I would watch that shit like it was my job.
Definitely!
Since we don't have a crash course linguistics, check out @TheLingSpace! They do a lot of really cool videos! :)
Nativlang has a lot of stuff about language history.
"Want Juice" and "No Pants" are things I chant nearly every day after work.
Four years late to this party but: LMAO 😂
lol...dirty jokes at their finest!
Six years late to this party but: LMAO
Oddly enough, my daughter would practice a sound or word for a few hours or days, until she got it right, then not say it again. She would just point at things we knew she could say the name of but not say the actual word, making us have to guess sometimes about what she really wanted. (She would point at a cabinet full of items and we would have to figure out ourselves that she wanted the box of Cheerios, or whatever it was...) She wouldn't really "speak" until she was 3 and could form full sentences. At first, we thought she had developmental problems, but it turned out that she was just a stubborn perfectionist, and has remained one for her entire 21 years. lol!
ladymalora Observer bias. Flawed observation.
@@november8289 ??
Watching crashcourse psychology as a way to procrastinate from my psychology revision..... yeah because that makes total sense....
Once again, Crash Course saves the day when my brain gets too tired of staring at my notes. Love the psych series, HUGE help for a college student :)
I found a story my mom told me really interesting. She told me that when I was learning to walk I refused to let go of the edges of things. One day my dad and her were arguing about how to help me learn how to walk and though I didn't know how to speak yet I let go of the couch and walked towards them. I imagine that their arguing and disappointment in me caused me more anxiety than my fear of falling. When I talk to babies, I talk to babies. I have people tell me "they can't understand you" but we have no idea just how much they actually can understand. I'm sure I knew exactly what my parents were arguing about and I'm positive that I knew that I was the cause of the argument.
I love how these crashcourses exactly add up to the chapters of the book used in my introduction to psychology class. (Gleitman et al., 2011)
i am so happy he said Mandarin instead of Chinese.
你说普通话
By that standard, it's wrong to say that Spanish is a language since Hispania has more than one language.
Spanish is considered a language there are many local accents but Spanish is one language Many Chinese speakers of say WU or Min Dan or Shanghaiiese cannot understand Mandarin most Spanish speakers can understand Spanish in multiple Spanish speaking countries believe me I speak both Mandarin and Spanish
Roman Soiko Castillian is not the only language of Spain. There are other Spanishes. Not everyone agrees with Castillian being referred to as Spanish.
well Galician I guess
I wish crash course would add a 'further reading/viewing' section to videos.
Being multilingual. The language of my toughts changes.
I mostly think in my native tongue.
However alot quite often i think in English. When i think specificly, i think in English due to the fact that English has more words specifying things making it easier to think fast and accurate.
This is reason why i end up using some English words even in my native tongue.
This is due to the fact i either dont remember the word in my language. Or the English is more specific. As many words here are pronounced the same thus sometimes hard to get into context when trying to explain something.
But mainly my tough wary.
I usually think in English when I'm hanging out with English speaker like on the internett or English speaking friends. And i think in my native language when hanging out with family or work.
Yoy end up thinking in a foreign language when hanging out with foreigners. This is so that you dont struggle speaking the other language fluent.
This is where i notice most people struggling speaking a new language is because they don't understand enough to have toughs in that language.
And thus they get strange vocabulary at times and struggles with pronunciations. Also stuttering.
Thinking in that language helps you warm up before speaking it. This making you're language more fluent
Bad spelling. Written on phone.
I've learned English when I was 7 and I find myself thinking in English at times. It's mostly when I'm thinking about something I've read in English, when I'm talking to foreign people or when I'm thinking about some movie or a TV series in English.
I'm inclined to think that thoughts don't happen in language. In other words, we have thoughts and our brain converts them into language as a second stage.
Assuming I'm right about this, this second stage - conversion into language - can have both positive and negative side-effects. Converting something into language can:
a) help us to codify and clarify our thoughts (think how useful it can be sometimes to write out something you've been thinking about - whether it's a diary entry or a shopping list);
but:
b) it can also be very constraining (think how frustrating it can be when you struggle to put into words something you've been thinking about, let alone writing about a complex concept - such as when you're trying to finish your masters dissertation or similar).
I'm multilingual, too (depending on how you count I'm fluent in three to five languages). Like you, I think (and dream!) in different languages, too. What I find interesting is that when I think about what language I'm thinking in in what situation, there seems to be a clear pattern.
For example, when I'm reflecting myself and my actions, I usually think in English. When I think in the "conversation mode" (i.e. thinking about telling someone about something or just simply thinking to myself in the manner in which I would think if I were to talk to someone), I usually think in Swiss German (except when thinking in this mode in the context of my family, in which case I usually think in High German (or Dutch)). I also usually think in High German when thinking about certain kinds of complex problems (although I frequently think about these things in English, too).
What I also notice is that I often don't realize for several minutes what language I'm reading in. When browsing the internet - for example - I usually use English, but when I switch to German, or from German back to English, I usually don't notice at once.
brkatimachor I think thinking can happen both with and without language. I definitely have internal monologues sometimes, both in my mother language and in my second language. But that's not always the case.
"Want juice! No pants!" Words to live by.
see, this is the type of guy I would look for in a party. Just to talk about stuff that expands my intellectuelness
*intellect
But yes I agree LOL wholeheartedly
I wasn't able to speak a comprehensive language until I was late into my 4th year. My parents took me to a doctor to see if i was deaf, but found out that my babbling was the result of living in a multilingual environment, where I tried to speak my mom's Filipino, my dad's Hungarian, and my country's English. This caused me to speak sentences combining all three of the languages, where it was eventually stopped when my parents decided only to speak English to me.
English is all I know now though :P
I find that when I'm in French and I speak French I go from a fairly confident and loud and annoying person to quiet and more considerate and I always think about what I'm going to say. It's like my entire personality changes.
+Krilln
_yeah me too. i am in french immersion and the same thing happens to me_
+Krilln That's funny, for me it's the opposite : I'm French, and a rather shy person, and it occurred to me that I become more talkative and confident whenever I'm speaking English.
+Krilln I wish I was you. I took Spanish for two years and I can't really speak it, I can understand it more than anything.
+Unix One My case is a little bit different. When I speak serbian (my mother tongue) I tend to speak very, very fast, but when I speak english i speak calmly and slowly. On the other hand, when I speak turkish, I´m speeding again.
filip cvjetkovic You're lucky you can speak more than one language fluently. All I have reserved are a few phrases and words from Spanish. I can understand what's being said to me if someone speaks it, but it's almost impossible for me to speak back meaningfully.
these videos have been very helpful when prepping for college psychology exams. glad i found these!
This show is honestly so helpful! Thank you for making knowledge so accessible, & thank you for enriching my education!
The reveal that Kanzi is a bonobo was horrifying. I hope Hank wasn't in charge of breaking to news to his "mother"
I friggin' love linguistics. Every aspect of it. I want to do a linguistics channel SO BADLY!!! Maybe this summer, once things settle down a little. THANK YOU, HANK!!! :D
maybe too late to the party, but how things going?
@@kupamanduka I was about to ask that, you barely beat me to it! I mean, by barely I mean 10 months but...
This series (Crash Course Psychology) is saving me as I study for my AP Psych exam later today
I don't know if you guys have already made a video on this but I would love to see the origins and/or the evolution of language. Where did all of these languages come from? Are new languages still emerging or evolving? I'm Iranian and I tried to look into the origins of Farsi and had to give up because it was far too complicated. Would be great if you guys could simplify it for my tiny brain.
nozrati I don’t know much about Farsi but the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari includes how the need for language originated after the agricultural revolution since our brains weren’t used to retaining large numbers. I highly recommend the book, it’s a great read
The whole subject of Chomsky and his research was probably the most fascinating part of my university courses on linguistics. I encourage everyone watching this video to read up on the stuff he proposed/found out. Really fascinating if you're interested in psychology.
hmmm. do people think in their own laanguage, or do we think in the meanings, and then translate it into the language we understand?
That's more of a question of the id, ego, and superego. Simply, all people consciously think in their own language or another language they speak in some cases. However, all basic needs are communicated in innate neural pathways that are completely unrelated to language centres. (I believe this to be correct, although this is not my field)
That is a very interesting thought. I recently asked my friend (who's first language is Spanish but is fluent in English and lives in the UK) whether her thoughts were in English or Spanish and she didn't know what to say, she said mainly English but sometimes Spanish. Could it simply depend on the context of her thoughts?
That's an interesting question. I don't know if we can have thoughts that are separate from language at the level of conscious thought (at least I can't), but it is possible that a thought is not encoded in language before it comes to our consciousness. Still, I would think that the language we are currently reading/thinking in will have an effect on that thought anyway. One example I can think of is expressions. If you ask someone in English what do an elephant, a car and a tree have in common, the response would be different than if you asked that same question in French or another language. (The answer is "trunk" BTW).
Eleanor Stylianides possibly, my thoughts on this were that we all think, not first with language, but instead with concept, which is then attributed to meanings, and then the associated language, which language gets used would most likely depend on context and situation. though this is only speculation.
MoonGoddessArtemis well, if you asked that to a french person, the language they speak would have trunk in common with those words, as the word trunk, might not be attribute to an elephant, as they use a differant word for it, so there may not be similarities between those words at all.
I'm learning a new language right now and it feels so weird. Actually, I found the perfect metaphor yesterday. I bought an old Super Mario Bros game that I used to be obsessed with as a kid and found that while I could play it alright (the muscle memory and some actual memory was there), it also felt weirdly foreign and awkward. I'm not that young girl clumsily pawing at the buttons when I was a beginner, but nor am I the pro, quickly clearing levels, that I eventually came to be. So while learning Arabic is difficult and feels foreign, I'm beginning this process already knowing what language is as a concept and how communicating works. Also, I second all comments requesting a linguistics crash course.
Great now I can't stop paying attention to his hands.
Gah!!
Haha, like a magician
😂
A good movie relating to this topic: "Arrival", by Denis Villeneuve.
Great thank you! I just watched the trailer, it looks good! I'm gunna watch it tonight =]
I didn't always think in words; I could use words just fine, but I processed them slower. I thought in whole concepts; the sounds, smells, feelings, whatever was in what I was thinking about. This wasn't limited to thoughts only involving my physical senses, most abstract concepts were in feelings that I really don't know how to describe in any language I've explored. A couple years ago I realized I was having a lot of trouble translating between spoken English (I was better at written, from reading so often) and my thoughts and back fast enough to keep up with a normal conversation, so I decided to optimize that process and I changed to mostly thinking in words. It's limiting, slow, and less accurate, but I can communicate easier & faster and remember things longer without losing details. There are several other changes I noticed in myself, but I don't know if they were caused by my change in thinking.
I don't really know why I'm sharing this... I guess I think maybe someone will find it interesting. Maybe it'll help with someone's research, seeing my (unusual?) story.
Language: Crash Course Psychology #16
Sometimes I feel like I'm still in the babbling stage of language development.
hank i could kiss you, i srsly got an B+ in intro into psych only because of this series
Wait If we only have a finite amount of words in the English language we can't have an infinite number of combinations of those words
Zachary Riesenberger don't forget about the "prescriptive Grammar" . New words are being created everyday.i.e Selfie! ,Hashtag# :D it's gonna keep on going as technology advances and human civilization improves; in short words- as we keep on advancing towards the future we will have newer terms and thus newer words. i.e in 1995 we never used the word "Skype" let alone the verb "Skyping" cause it wasn't invented yet :)
[funny fact: i just had a spelling error for the word "skyping" :P ]
I have to ask a question: why do we mix languages together?
I'd assume that someone with no ability for language would think in imagery. like playing out a thought in there head . rather than thinking "I want to go for a run" they would imagine themselves running. Pretty interesting topic.
The problem is, wanting to go for a run is not imagining one-self running. The urge is not comprised in the image. I'm just saying both side of the equation are not equivalent which means that a being who reasons in imagery would think in quite a different way than us. I don't have a better explanation to offer as to how they might think and yours is definitely a possibility, it's just that i see problems with it.
What if they have aphantasia and can't see images in their head?
I used to study Psychology in school and crash course psych is both entertaining and nostalgia inducing. I enjoy :)
This goes really well with Hank's Vlogbrothers video from Friday! I've always found the acquisition of language to be incredibly fascinating, especially when it comes to learning more than one language.
I love this episode. Please do more on language and linguistics!
Do a Crash Course Linguistics series! Yours truly, a linguistics major student.
As a student of linguistics in university who studies 5 languages, this episode was my favourite. :3
Language is endlessly fascinating, I stuff myself full of whatever language I can learn on a daily basis and still know next to nothing. You can always observe behaviour, but to have a richer understanding of other cultures and ways of thinking, there really is no better way than to study their language. It's the only way to really get in their noggin and *really* know what they're thinking, why, and how. Thanks so much for this episode, Crash Course!
I absolutely adore languages and learning new languages and have been doing so since I was young. This was extremely interesting~
it was two pizza I called purple brother on the television ...lol
This is incredibly confusing for people who haven't been to part of them video yet
i wish this guy is my professor. :
Noam Chomsky. Agree or disagree, he's a very smart guy.
This guy makes explaining this stuff look easy, but he is making it easy to understand, and it's also hilarious! Well done, Crash Cruse.
According to my parents, I started saying "mama" and "dada" at 5 months old.
At 7 months I started using simple sentences. For example, I said "Dada go bye-bye car" when I saw my father starting his car to drive away to work in the morning.
At 9 months I said "Huh, that daddy-man shoo-shoo twain tink he can," alluding to "The Little Engine that Could" when I saw my father struggling to get over a steep hill while running a marathon.
Not language but metacognition (knowing about knowing or to think about your thinking) sets us apart from animals. But then again, can we be sure that animals do not possess the metacognition ability?
Anyways It brings me great pleasure to see how many people watch these clips. Luckily there are still people who are curious and want to learn new things just for the fun of it. Not just for good grades.
I have an a level english language exam with half of the paper being on child language acquisition, this was very helpful as a little recap. DFTBA
That was a surprisingly good and astonishingly extensive summery of my three years of linguistics learning in university. I'm speechless.
One time my friends and I were emcees for a prize presentation event in school, and we were supposed to pronounce names for the prize winners. Our school's population is predominantly Chinese, while one of my friends is a Filipino who only speaks English and some Filipino dialect, one a Malay who speaks English and Malay and also picking up some Chinese recently, and another a Chinese like me. So we came across a Chinese name that gave my Filipino friend a lot of trouble, and it went something like:
Friend: Yoon Yoo.
Me: No, it's Yün Yü.
Friend: Yoon Yew…
Me: No, it's like (fumbles) just try to imitate the sound. Yün. Yü.
Friend: Yün...Yoo.
Me: Arghh (takes paper and scribbles some alphabets until it looks right) like "uin ui" except you mesh u and i together and don't move your lips while making the sound.
Friend: ...what?
Me: (turns to Malay friend) how do you pronounce this name?
Friend #2: Yün Yü.
Me: Just like that.
Friend: Yoon Yoo.
Me: Goddammit just let me take that name.
Pronunciations glargh.
"It was two pizza, I call purple brother on the television" -Hank I was dying of laughter! LOLOL
I couldn't help but be reminded of the intonation-based language of the praerie dogs, or how American crows that migrate understand French crows, but American crows that stay put don't understand what the French crows are on about, and also how dolphins seem to gossip with each other. The more we learn, I think the more we realise we are not alone in our capabilities.
pausing the video and went to google to search up kanzi, and damn, boy oh boy, it is mind blown.
search it up guys, seriously, your mind will be blown away to the edge of the cosmos.
"Wu Tang lyrics" I'm glad you're Hip to the Hop
Since you mentioned speaking with your hands it's all I can pay attention to when watching this video :P
I believe we are able to think without words. Like in pictures or sounds, visual thinking, not everything I think can easyly be formulated in words, sometimes I feel like drawing a picture next to it, to illustrate.
The last 6 episodes all so have been a vast improvement on the earlier episodes.
Keep it up.
"Want Juice! No pants!"
A constant mood and words to live by
Crash Course Linguistics!!
OK, this answers a lot. I have a few memories from when I was less than 1 year old and most of them involve understanding what was said by others, though not being able to talk myself. Until now, I'd never been sure if that was just me filling in the blanks with something logical. Now I know my memories of other people's words are accurate. Thank you, Hank!
I understood everything you said, and English is my second language! Thanks for the video.
I often use a mental short-hand of skipping words and thinking of the concept specifically. This can aid in thinking faster and more deeply on a subject but relying on it too much makes interactions with people harder as actual words are required to express things externally.
I'm sure this isn't that uncommon.
***** Interesting. that's a different take on. But I do think your referring to a different thing. I wounder if there related.
Egh. Close, but I have to nitpick. I'd say the smallest unit of language is a PHONE, which is the actual sound that the speaker makes. A PHONEME is the psychological representation of the smallest indivisible unit of language. For example, in English, the "t" in "top" and the "t" in "stop" are technically different "t"s-different PHONES-but to English speakers, they are the same PHONEME.
Yep - [t] and aspirated [t] in English are strictly 'allophones', since they are different realisations of the same phoneme (i.e., /t/). The same applies to morphology as well: the different plural '-s' in 'cats' and 'dogs', and the '-es' in 'glasses' are allmorphs, being different variations of the plural-marking morpheme in English.
I think I'll have to nitpick as well. the [t] in both 'top' and 'stop' are the same; they are still the same distributional variants of the phone or speech sound [t]. A better example would be the difference between the [t] in, say, 'top' and 'take'.
Daruqe I am being taught everything he is saying in linguistics class...
as a Nerdfighter with a BA in Theoretical Linguistics who is starting a masters in Applied Linguistics - I AM SO HAPPY THAT PEOPLE WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THIS!! a lot of the stuff in this video is a simplification, but it's a good overview for people who are interested. Language is cool people! Thanks so much for making this so other people can share my passion :D
Best episode so far in this series. Looking forward to next weeks episode on Motivation. Hope Hank is as excited about motivation as he was about language :p
ey he said wu tang lyrics, he understands us young people xD
Rodrigo Deleon Well... i think Wu-tang is more of HIS generation, most of this generation probably doesn't even know who Method man is, lol your comment is like 2 decades late. But yeah i appreciated that reference, hip-hop is such a complex art form (more then it is credited to be), and he followed by Shaekspear which reminded me of that amazing "Hip-hop or Shakespeare" video from Tedtalks, you should check it out.
i got into a heavy feud with my brothers wife. she would tell her children jokingly they are "little devils" or "hell raisers" and i had to express to my brother that doing so could really have a negative affect of the kids. but it's not my place to tell others how to raise theyre kids. so i apologized.
*on, not of.. *their, not theyre
I agree with you, it is not good conditioning for their self image and self confidence to be called negative names frequently, even if done so lovingly. i try to mostly say positive things to my son such as calling him "good boy," "smart", "clever", "handsome" etc. however there are worse parenting habits out there so maybe you can cut your brother and his wife some slack on this haha
I am relieved to see the return of his fish. :)
i'm just now watching this video after i found out i've been accepted to study linguistics at uni and i'm so !!!! yes !!! language(s) !!!
I hereby nominate that we start calling John the 'purple brother'.
In case you'd like to know:
"Ursäkta, var är toaletten, snälla?" is how I would ask for directions to the bathroom in Sweden
Interesting they mention aphasia. I had that as a byproduct of a "childhood" disorder. Childhood is in quotes cause it's so rare they did the first long term study (with only 7 people!) in 2013 and apparently 6/7 were still affected in some degree by aphasia, or the other byproduct seizures, and I guess I'm one of the lucky 14%... I think ha.
Anyways, my aphasia kicked in when I was 7 or 8 years old (mid-1990s) and I had to relearn English, both the speaking and comprehension of it; I believe more comprehension though. So, I guess it affected both the Broca's area and Wernicke's area for me.
Who else looked up Kanzi on google? LOL ! Crash Course makes learning anything enjoyable, so happy I found this channel :)
I've always wonder if I can raise a bilingual child by Speaking always in Spanish and the mother speaking always in German (With both of us understanding Spanish and German)
yes, each parent speaking only one language is even recommended by some people
evanna11 (when raising a child bilingually)
It's also a great idea to let both paternal grandparents (the father's parents) and maternal grandparents (the mother's parents) help take care of your child sometimes, if possible!
PopDood that'd make a spoiled child
It's called the One Parent One Language approach. The trick is to stick with it. The two systems will be acquired but at different rates ( if the child is around the mother more then the mother's language will be slightly more dominant). There are a lot of benefits which include delaying Alzheimer's to up to 5 years.
actually I didn't understand your language parce que ce n'est pas facile par mujhe apke video bohat pasand ayi ,onnnek onnek onneek bhalo channel eta :)
Whoa some of that was in French but then I got confused 🤣
@@gabriellameattray9778 haha. It's English, french, hindi and bangla. In that order.
I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for creating this incredible channel. I am studying through a correspondence university which means no lecturers or lessons - and your channel has helped me tremendously with two of my psychology modules. So a huge South African THANK YOU!!! 😄
My first cat would meow in such a way it sounded like it said in, out, pet, and food. Pusskers used his limited vocabulary well, meowing with the appropriate "word" to convey what he wanted. He was a smart little bugger- held a hatchling captive to bait its parents, knew how to turn a couple of his electric toys on, the list goes on.
"It was two pizza, I call, purple brother on the television."
- Hank Green, 2014
I saw this in my sub box and thought you were announcing a crass course in languages for a second. :(
This is an extraordinarily informative video. As a Linguist and Speech Pathologist, this reminded me of my entire undergraduate career summed up in 10 minutes. Nice job!
My mind speaks to itself in the language of images, which until recently I wasn't aware was something not everyone does. Words were hard for me to commit to when I kept finding them so contextual. Now they act as toe tags on top of what I can best describe as a meta ideograms. Just thought I would share.
***** how many times did you have to practice that "It was two pizza I called purple brother on the television" to say it so naturally? lol
hey john green i saw two books written by you in a bookstore today and i was going to buy them
but then i saw this awesome (yes i know that's not what it means) book with monsters and sword fights so i got that instead
Sorry, this video is hosted by John's brother, Hank.
goddamit
Haha
Banzarro Ur profile picture
this is the one of the best channels on youtube
I've been watching the psychology crash course over the past months but like slowly and I had an essay on this exact topic like 2 weeks ago and i wish i would've watched this episode
What I find fascinating is the fact that speakers of Piraha, an Amazonian language, have been found to be unable to learn how to count or do math, since their language does not include numbers.
That's actually really interesting. I'd love to read up on that! Do you have any sources for that?
I just read through the Wikipedia article, so there are quite a few sources. Here's one that seems to be a prominent one: edge.org/conversation/recursion-and-human-thought
Also look up Daniel Everett. He's the guy who tried to teach them math, after they requested that they be taught math and numbers so that neighboring tribes wouldn't swindle them in trade (which is a new thing for them).
It seems widespread that peole were initially counting up to a certain number (5, 10, 12). Everything above that was many. Or in our past, we used approximates such as a douzen douzen (in German there was even a word for 5x12 and 12x12).
It does not surprise me that it makes mathematic exercises hard. The same goes for roman numbers and odd ways of saying numbers e.g. quatre-vingt-quinze (4x20+15).
PS neither English nor German are particularly logic in pronouncing numbers.
thir-teen vs twenty-one... Not to forget that we count in several languages to 12 before we use combined numbers. These peculiarties give us some idea about our develeopment.
edi According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "dozen" (as well as its German equivalent "dutzend", as confirmed by DWDS) isn't even a Germanic word, as it derives from the Latin "duodecim (twelve) late in English's development, indicating that the tendency to count by twelves was not inherent to the Indo-European language family (unless it replaced an older word).
I should also point out that pretty much all Indo-European languages follow the same, fairly logical pattern (Russian certainly has a weird number system, but it's not *too* far off the beaten path)
Mistran5lation I've constantly been fascinated that, while English has only 2 and a quarter conjugations for numbers, Japanese has a dozen or so number conjugations
I think that "the language makes humans different from other animals" statement is incomplete, at best. All social animals communicate and have basic understanding of abstract concepts (social relations are kind of abstract). If anything, it's the (probably unmatched by other earthly creatures) extent of its complexity.
But there are definitely other characteristics which contribute to "humanity".
Some overlap with language and (thus) abstract thinking, but don't have to be identical to them - strong social ties, long learning period and adaptive capabilities.
There are others though, and they have also been crucial - ability to precisely manipulate objects of many dimensions or outstanding eyesight, for example.
I think that "sapience", human uniqueness and superiority (however one understands them), is not identical with intrinsic qualities ("soul cell") - but is rather encored in capabilities possible thanks to them. These differences are often seen as "quantitative" (a rock used by an ape is technically a worse version of man's hammer), but I think there are some objective thresholds - leaving Earth, creating better human (education, rational physical "conditioning", and such can be put under this, although SF stuff is probably a more significant threshold), longtime data storage and its worldwide distribution, fast technological progress in general.
So, it is more about being tall enough to reach the trapdoor, rather than having a non-zero height.
Daniel Everett disproved Chomsky's theory of universal grammar through his findings with the Piraha.
i believe language very much influences how you think, as language is a huge part of culture in it self. huge philosophical notions such as freedom, fairness, power, ect all have very different meaning depending on what language your speaking in. and how you view things such as those largely impact your way of thinking and living.
it's a metaphor
What is?
when he said it there was a cartoon with a cigarette, it's a reference to the fault in our stars
+mickeynotmouse Oh okay
mickeynotmouse 👏🏻
So does this mean when I have kids I just need speak a bunch of languages around them and then there will be almost nothing they can't pronounce?
Ah man, I have been watching your Sci Show videos for awhile and have been pining over how smart you seem... Thank you so much for crediting all the people who make this wealth of information possible. I really enjoy learning, and try to soak up as much as possible, but I was getting discouraged by the vast amount of topics you cover with such confidence. You truly have a gift for making learning fun. Please let my math teacher in on your tricks. Thanks for the videos.
I love the little shout-outs to Nerdfighteria and to John's books in this video. Also, yay for IPA!
You done goofed with morpheme's definition. You defined a lexeme. A morpheme is the smallest unit of morphology. Whilst most morphemes are lexemes, the reverse is not true. An idiom, like "pulling my leg" is its own lexeme in that it's meaning cannot be predicted from its components but is made of four separate morphemes, pull, -ing, my and leg.
"What I might do while looking for the bathroom in Sweden."
But... but Swedes are the most proficient in English out of all of the non-English speaking countries... 90% of them are proficient
I know its probably a joke but STILL
When my dad wanted to learn another language and started studying Swedish I asked him, "Why? Almost all of them can understand you in English!" It's a very pretty language, but not the most practical for an English speaker's second language.
Gosh!!!! What a great way of talking. Oh, and those hands, they confirm every word you are saying. I'm in love.
Linguistics are so fascinating. I tried some time ago to make a edutainment series on all the amazing things about it, but I never got to it. This reminded me of that. Maybe I should try to start that up...
Quite honestly any animal can form language, though they use a much simpler form. complex mammals like dolphins, whales, and apes have very complex calls and sounds. They almost have a very basic grasp of language, at least comparative to toddler language. They may not be able to speak like us, but to say language only exists in humans is not true in my opinion.
Hi there,
I'm currently studying linguistics, so I understand your confusion. However, to define a set of signs as a 'language', it needs to conform to other parameters than the ability to communicate.
For example, we can talk about abstract concepts such as time and space or theoretical ideas (let's take Einstein's theory of relativity), whilst complex mammals such as dolphins or even primates like Kanzi, although they have a remarkable skill for memorizing sequences,will only communicate to give warnings or orders (e.g.: "Look out, a shark!" or "Give me a banana!").
I could give you some counter-examples (e.g. bees can use their 'dance' to communicate the location of pollens to their hive), but it's all a mattter of degree.Human language is something which currently no other species is able to use, be it verbally or through sign language. In the late 20th century, experiments with primates proved that even chimpanzees or gorillas never fully grasp the syntax ot cognition that our language requires.
Then again, certain species have other ways to communicate, of course. They're just not able to talk about the same complex subjects as us.
Hope this helps!
Illier1 Well, experiments have actually been inconclusive about finding out whether primates really understand the meaning behind signs. It's also very likely that Kanzi remembered that using the combination "hand+marshmallow" will reward him with a roasted marshmallow. You can't really call that language acquisition. Chimps are also unable to understand grammar (prepositions, word order etc.). One of Chomsky's most important (and contested) statements is the one about 'Universal Grammar'. He claims that humans are born with an innate skill for language, a set of grammatical rules which allow us to rapidly learn a language. Of course, it's more complicated than that, but I'd recommend reading 'The Language Instinct' by Steven Pinker or one of Chomsky's work. Mind staying critical tho, as Pinker and Chomsky aren't always right.
And yes, different groups of a species can have unique 'languages'. Most birds have a different way of communicating for example, but just like whales they only communicate out of necessity. You won't ever hear small-talk with animals, it's always a warning, order or a way to get food.
Do babies of deaf parents need to be sent to a speech counselor?
Not necessarily. It really depends on the baby's environment. If the child is hearing, and they are sent to daycare at a reasonably young age (like under 4, for instance), they will very quickly pick up the spoken language and speak it with the same proficiency as any other child. If the child is also deaf, they will not need any additional assistance other than simply learning from their parents in order to learn sign language. If they are introduced to their first language after the critical period of language learning, additional effort with a counselor can result in perfectly fluent language acquisition, but it will not be effortless like it is for infants.
Hi Hank! Your work with both CrashCourse and SciShow is spectacular. Both channels are incredibly powerful learning tools and have helped me in my undergraduate degree. On the language topic, would it be possible to post a video about acquisition of a second language? This is a particularly interesting field and I am sure that a lot of people would find it helpful in learning new languages.
THANKS FOR SAVING MY EDUCATION ALL THE TIME
I think animals do speak their own languages, they can speak to each other just as easily as we can speak to our friend, and when different species of animals speak, it's like their listening to another language. Animals can also recognise names and link words to concepts, so they should be able to understand normal language too.
+SmashBrosGuys2933 That's not quite how it works. While some animals may have distinct warning calls depending on what predator is nearby, it never really goes beyond that in terms of simplicity.
oh really? how do you explain these dolphins then?
facebook.com/groups/animalcognition/permalink/1121463507906556/
Who knows, maybe there's more to dolphins than has previously been assumed. That really goes beyond any of my knowledge as a language geek/ amateur - but I can tell you that "language" isn't the case for most animals when it comes to communication.
This is the sad case of the 'feral child' "Genie". She was completely isolated from birth and never properly acquired language of any kind even after she was rescued.
Binge watching crash course videos instead of doing my Psych. Readings??? (Or any school related assignment for that matter)
I call this: ✨Productive procrastination✨
I speak English at home but I speant ages 0-9 in Spanish speaking countries. When i'm speaking English, I think in English and when I speak Spanish I think in Spanish.
Now I live in China, learning Mandarin (rather than aquiring it through exposure). When I speak Chinese I think in English and I transate it in my head before saying it.