To Marvel At Language & Literacy

 

 

Many cultures and nations over the many years of humanity have developed in parallel, often making similar, if not identical, discoveries of how to communicate, build, and stay safe. Numbers, languages, and tools developed independently across the world. They were different in each society or nation, of course, but similar enough.  

Eventually, the world was no longer in isolation. Travel by ships, trains, planes, cars, and horses brought cultures and countries together. Information got shared, and the evolution of independent systems now gets nurtured by outside influencers.  

Finding rules that could be applied to language helped everyone to communicate. The discovery or invention of words and language is one of the crucial steps in the social, civil, and cultural development of humanity.  

Could the creation or evolution of modern-day American English have been altered if our history went on a different course? 

Certainly. If early French or Spanish colonists had their way, we wouldn’t speak English at all. If we didn’t break away from the British, we never would have launched Webster’s Dictionary, with its altering of the British language. Heck, if no one came to invade current-day America, we’d be speaking one or more Native American languages and dialects.  

There will be future changes to our language. Wars, technology, and time will demand it. We really do not speak the same language as was spoken in 1624, or even 1824, for that matter.  

Language serves a purpose -- to communicate what we think, feel, want, need -- and to convey what we will do or have done. We need language to trade, to travel, and to pass along knowledge. Could something befall us that either destroys our physical ability to give or receive language? 

A language is also a piece of culture and history. It is not a just a tool, like a hammer, which serves a specific purpose. No, language itself is an art form and a piece of our ancestry. It changed and grew as society changed and grew. There is a beauty to English and to all languages. Welcome a long way from using symbols, cave paintings, and grunts.  

But language has its limits. It can only state or reflect what is known. It can’t explain what is not or what could be or what currently is that is not yet visible to us. We can’t, to a degree, even think of many things that we don’t have words yet to describe. In that sense, language limits us, forever keeping us contained to reflect only what we know, and little else beyond that.  

Many people enjoy the humor of language -- double entendre, sarcasm, and malapropisms. We like rhymes, onomatopoeias, and the poetic way of saying something. We like word riddles and games related to letters and words. We have the building blocks of what society could turn into, if only we could arrange the puzzle of words to form a truth not yet discovered.  

Words don’t exist, however, just to hold spelling bees, Scrabble competitions, or to do crossword puzzles and word jumbos. They are like the elements in the Periodic Table, each one a unique building blocking for the world not yet discovered. 

I love words and the power of writing. All authors do, too. It is time to get the rest of the population fully engaged in the English language. The sooner everyone can be on the same page of communication, the better we’ll be at exchanging or even developing new ideas. 

We must improve on the stunning rate of literacy in America. According to studies cited by www.barbarabush.org, 130 million Americans, age 16-74, lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. 

 

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Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over 3.9 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brian Feinblum now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).  This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, he has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.