Post AU0AnD0PI5QFqwwvCa by Jantar@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by Jantar@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #ATtW1fY1qEUmFLEwL2 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-23T03:21:35Z
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This is a fascinating study.Researchers used brain imaging to find differences in the brains of people who speak German compared to people who speak Arabic. They believe the brain differences come from speaking languages with difference structures (being read right to left versus left to right, to pick one example).https://www.iflscience.com/how-your-native-language-changes-the-structure-of-your-brain-68049#linguistics #language #brain #Neuroscience
(DIR) Post #ATtW4EewGjUviohCgS by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-23T03:22:06Z
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This line is also intriguing:"Some previous research indicates that languages learned in adulthood, and possibly even second languages learned as a child, are processed in different parts of the brain from the native language system."
(DIR) Post #ATtW9y2ywgfHwBfuwi by CarlataOld@mas.to
2023-03-23T03:23:06Z
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@grammargirl Thinking and language influence each other.
(DIR) Post #ATtWnGtKofyFfyu7kW by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2023-03-23T03:30:11Z
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@grammargirl It is definitely a different part of my brain. I think may also be tied to music, because when I was studying various languages I would get phrases stuck in my head just like strands of a song.
(DIR) Post #ATtY03JAjJGhGceDey by simongarlick@mastodon.social
2023-03-23T03:43:44Z
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@grammargirl interesting. Counterpoint: a recent paper that finds the exact opposite:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01114-5
(DIR) Post #ATtYIgJ6TIUhQsUyPI by budgibson@me.dm
2023-03-23T03:47:05Z
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@grammargirl I do think that learning more than one language changes how you think. It can be like living in two slightly different worlds at once. It’s interesting that different languages are stored in different parts of the brain depending somewhat on the order you learned them.
(DIR) Post #ATtYJxkT6uK9ocuRWq by pootriarch@sfba.social
2023-03-23T03:47:20Z
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@grammargirl it would make sense. i had a friend in switzerland, native swiss french, who married an italian. while french was the language of the house, when either of the kids addressed one parent directly, she did so in the parent's native tongue
(DIR) Post #ATtYLAdefeRC5DIYoy by morekindness@mstdn.social
2023-03-23T03:38:21Z
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@queenofnewyork @grammargirl When I saw this, I thought about the observations that some persons with dementia who have lost the ability to speak can sing songs that they know by heart. Words set to music seem to be processed/ stored differently. Which may also relate to why poems -- rhymes, rhythms -- are so memorable.
(DIR) Post #ATtYLB4b3TzLQlu4oa by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-23T03:47:34Z
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@morekindness @queenofnewyork Yes! I loved the Oliver Sacks book "Musicophilia."
(DIR) Post #ATtYQOIxHuOXuq6bXU by morekindness@mstdn.social
2023-03-23T03:48:29Z
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@grammargirl @queenofnewyork I need to read that!
(DIR) Post #ATtYSMrZcQZo1XEyR6 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-23T03:48:52Z
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@simongarlick Arg! I wish I could see the whole paper.
(DIR) Post #ATtbXAZX2lK9DLmbjM by xtel@sfba.social
2023-03-23T04:23:19Z
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@grammargirl As someone who is multilingual, I'd say it's impossible to process two language in the same part of your brain with out mixing them up.
(DIR) Post #ATtbkO1sJzdCiQLJ7A by AFutureGhost@mastodon.social
2023-03-23T04:25:42Z
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@grammargirl That is intuitively true, as someone who has tried to learn a bunch of languages. My brain is not big enough for two languages.
(DIR) Post #ATtelGY3v7ZnfMVbpA by stoicmike@zirk.us
2023-03-23T04:59:29Z
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@grammargirl There's a place in my brain full of Yiddish words for saying bad things about people, because the adults went to Yiddish for things they didn't want children to hear. But the Hungarian only exists in my brain as memories of sounds.
(DIR) Post #ATthXZqteVIHLOTzqy by msabatier@mastodon.social
2023-03-23T05:30:38Z
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@grammargirl Yes! Isn’t it fascinating? I seem to remember something from a neuroscience class about differences in processing alphabetic/phonetically vs ideographic (I think that’s the term.) languages. I could just eat this kind of thing with a spoon
(DIR) Post #ATtrk7rc1UW1qURKnA by fritzoids@mas.to
2023-03-23T07:24:55Z
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@grammargirl , which explains why I speak a mash of English, German and Spanish with my siblings, but never mix in the French I learned at school.
(DIR) Post #ATuK57BcX9bQXiayAa by jemal@jemal.contact
2023-03-23T12:42:27Z
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@grammargirl My first thought was that Ancient Greek was written boustrophedonically, so you had to read right to left and left to right - what does THAT do to your brain?
(DIR) Post #ATvG4QiwCfseBlYb7w by MakeAppPie@techhub.social
2023-03-23T23:32:13Z
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@grammargirl I've had an interesting lesson in changes in language and changes of thinking. In Hawai'i how one think is of directions is not the four compass points. While they exist, one is more likely to hear directions based on Mauka(towards the mountains) and Makai (towards the ocean). Buildings and garages use them extensively. I've only lived here six months and I doubt I could give you directions without thinking in those terms. I have no idea which way north is without think that I'm leeward with the ocean on my left would be probably pointing north.
(DIR) Post #ATvNhnQcQCtBZvhsjg by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-24T00:57:49Z
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@MakeAppPie Interesting! I feel like I had a piece about something similar years ago, but I can't find it right now.
(DIR) Post #ATxSYsxuDdTxLUDfcG by MakeAppPie@techhub.social
2023-03-24T15:51:33Z
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@grammargirl I think I read it. It sounds familiar now Came out as your response to the move Arrival I vaguely recall.
(DIR) Post #ATzG7anQqtx22jSYeO by Jantar@mstdn.social
2023-03-25T21:51:40Z
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@grammargirl Yes, that was very interesting. I would like to read more about that.
(DIR) Post #ATzMShliivalTR6qIq by lacouvee@mastodon.online
2023-03-25T23:02:42Z
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@grammargirl people who learn languages like Chinese where words are compromised of characters may retain this even after a stroke - whereas people who know languages that require decoding of syllables may not.
(DIR) Post #ATzYEaGX1QBVbDYPse by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-26T01:14:38Z
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@lacouvee Fascinating!
(DIR) Post #ATzYrYmIUF8gHMztom by Jantar@mstdn.social
2023-03-25T22:01:37Z
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@budgibson @grammargirl Bertrand Russell stated that language not only serves to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.Since we also know that in some languages there are words (for things) that have no equivalent in other languages, that would mean that those people (up to a point) think differently too.On a less technical level, learning another language means getting exposed at least somewhat to another culture, which can change you.
(DIR) Post #ATzYrZt4MY9NifAp0q by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-26T01:21:40Z
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@Jantar @budgibson I can't speak to it in depth off the top of my head, but I know linguists dispute the idea that people's range of thoughts are limited by the lack of specific words. This is a pretty good overview: https://www.thoughtco.com/sapir-whorf-hypothesis-1691924
(DIR) Post #ATzadRP9ItmvGVZ77Q by lacouvee@mastodon.online
2023-03-26T01:41:30Z
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@grammargirl it is - I always say that my two fluent languages, French and English, operate of separate tracks, rarely crossing. I don't yet know where Lik'wala, the verb and suffix heavy Indigenous language I am now learning, resides.
(DIR) Post #ATzcFiT0PnuD8oBTlY by budgibson@me.dm
2023-03-26T01:59:39Z
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@grammargirl @Jantar I think there are two views rooted in the philosophy of meaning: one is that the meaning of the whole is derived from the component parts (words) and the other that the component parts derive their meaning from the greater whole. My personal experience is that people from different language communities live in different zeitgeists and evolve their communications to suit. It’s a complicated topic with a lot of back and forth relationships.
(DIR) Post #ATzdnZEdLSdUJEAPxY by budgibson@me.dm
2023-03-26T02:16:58Z
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@grammargirl @Jantar Here’s a great article titled, “We’re all Wittgensteinians now” that also goes into this debate of where meaning resides with specialist reference to LLMs like chatGPT.
(DIR) Post #ATzhwSWk3PfJva8GuG by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-03-26T03:03:23Z
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@budgibson Thanks! I'll check it out.
(DIR) Post #AU0AnD0PI5QFqwwvCa by Jantar@mstdn.social
2023-03-26T08:26:40Z
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@grammargirl @budgibson I know. I'm a (lapsed) linguist myself - though I haven't really kept up with developments in the field for a long time.I don't think I ever believed Russell was totally correct on this (and I doubt he did) but there is a layer of truth there.Language is, if not the engine of thought, at the very least fuel - and we need languages for certain types of thought, as rungs on ladders of meaning (with my apologies to Wittgenstein.)