importance of language in a culture

1. Importance of Language and Communication! By: Niv Chanakya Win

2. Culture: Culture refers to the following Ways of Life, including but not limited to: Language : the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of expression. Arts & Sciences : the most advanced and refined forms of human expression. Thought : the ways in which people perceive, interpret, and understand the world around them. Spirituality : the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-being of human beings, expressed through language and actions. Social activity : the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a variety of festivities and life-celebrating events. Interaction : the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions.

3. The Iceberg Model of Culture

4. The Language of Israel Originated from the Semitic languages of the Middle East around 10th to 7th century BCE. Was divided in to many forms, different regions had different dialects of Hebrew. Most are extinct and some united to form the Modern Hebrew Language. Aleppo codex Joshua 1.1 11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum

5. continued Hebrew was dominated by Arabic. The medieval times brought in the math and science from different culture and put them into Arabic script for everyone to understand. Many ancient kingdoms of Syria, Mesopotamia and Tiber adopted the Arabic script. due to the Koran being only in Arabic, people who converted to Islam spoke Arabic.

6. Language of India Originated from the Indo-Iranian region. Possible roots from the Greek. Was widely spoken as Sanskrit. Combines with Arabian to form the new script of Hindi. Converted to Hindi during the Mughal Rule in India. Now spoken throughout the country and also in many parts of the world in small numbers. Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script, Bihar or Nepal, 11th century. Modern script of Hindi during 19th century.

7. continued The Sanskrit Script was the only language until the 1200’s. Arabic entered with the invaders from Persia and mixed Persian scriptures with the Sanskrit to make the Hindi that is spoke throughout India in modern times. In the early 1950’s, soon after the separation of India and Pakistan, Urdu was also one of the major scripts formed during the 1500’s making it easier for Indian and Pakistani Muslims to understand the Arabic alphabet.

8. Language of Thailand: Heart/Spirit Shared by Thais Over 100 words involve or are based off the symbol of the heart (therefore intermediate cultural aspect) Demonstrate possibly how Thais value empathy, compassion, and other positive characteristics of the human condition Deep level meaning for this symbol could be how Thais believe that humans are inherently moral – (corresponds to Thai concept “kreng jai”) This value complements on the group-centric society Thais, live by. Someone from an individualistic society might feel uncomfortable with the Thais’ outreaching sympathy

9. Handshakes It is considered rude to shake, bear gifts, or eat with your left hand Practice occurs in Egypt and India It is an example of intermediate level culture because there are many cultural interpretations for hand motions People of other cultures might not be immediately aware of this handshake rule and thereby provoke conflict In India, the rationale for not shaking with individuals with the left hand is because it is considered “unclean” This thereby shows how Indians possibly value hygiene and cleanliness

10. Works cited <http://www.onlyinsamui.com/thai_etiquette.html> http://www.culturallycompetentmentalhealthnj.org/docs/SouthAsianIndians.pdf http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/doing-business-egypt.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devnagari http://www.roshan-institute.org/474552 http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/intercultural-iceberg-model.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=hebrew&pbx=1&oq=hebrew&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3524l4683l0l5173l6l6l0l2l2l0l270l804l0.2.2l4l0&fp=1&biw=1366&bih=623&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b