News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Language affecting thought - the question arises again..

Re:Language affecting thought - the question arises again. by OneWhoFrogs on Thursday October 21, 2010 @07:50PM (#1817966)
About 50 years ago, a researcher developed a language he designed to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis called "Loglan." A speaker of its successor (Lojban) posted an AMA on Reddit last year[1]. He posted this in regards to whether or not it broadened his thinking:

I believe that learning lojban has helped me learn to think much more precisely in general. The first example of this that comes to mind is how often I see questions and confusion of family and friends as just confusion about language. I can't actually verify, of course, how much of my perspective is unrelated to lojban, how much is from lojban specifically, and how much is from learning a language that's dramatically different from English.

So while it is superior for communication, it doesn't affect our thought process.

[1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9c90z/i_speak_a_constr...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Language affecting thought - the question arises again. by RiderOfGiraffes on Friday October 22, 2010 @04:04PM (#1821260)
I speak a little lojban, and I believe it has changed the way I think. My use, construction and perception of tenses has changed, and when I was reasonably fluent I found that I tended to think in lojban when doing math.

Again, impossible to verify, entirely anecdotal, and based on introspection, but it's what seemed to happen for me.

[ Parent | on HN ]