Language Interrupted Introduction

A. Now that we have seen that languages tend naturally to develop beyond what is necessary to communication, we are in a position to begin examining how languages’ complexity can differ depending on historical circumstance.

B. One lesson I have tried to convey is that there are no “simple” languages in the world, even when they do not have tables of endings as European languages tend to. A language without endings will usually have tones like Chinese. Overall, there are many ways for a language to be complex beyond even tones, such as the classifiers, evidential markers, distinctions between shades of possession.

C. Linguists often remind students and readers that all languages are complex, with the implication that all languages are equally complex. This, however, is not quite true. In reality, many languages are more complex than others.

D. It is natural to suppose that the more advanced a society is, the more complex its language will be. And it is true that only a language with a history of writing can amass an enormous vocabulary. But a language is not only its words but also its grammar, and usually, a language spoken by a small, preliterate group is more complicated than English, Spanish, Japanese, or other First World languages.