Power in language

Throughout history people have previously made great journeys over great distances to fight and kill one another, in the name of one theology or another. To kill, in the name of one power, or another, or to kill simply in the name of greed. Others, far more importantly I believe, have travelled vast distances in the interest of learning, or to discuss with or hear the thoughts of great thinkers. Aside from such cultures as the Roman Empire and Greek Empire (from whom much of our current Western Civilisation is supposed to have derived), they, while conquering, also gathered information and developed great techniques to record and share it.

Interesting question for you, the reader, here. In keeping with this current blog about communication. What is recorded as being the spoken language of the Roman Empire, In particular in Italy (as we call it today)? Please don’t think Latin…. (Too late!) or English (seriously?).  Now think about it for a moment. There existed, in the one place, a massive variety of persons from all parts of the Empire. Romans, Gauls, Goths, Greeks, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Nubian's, Persians, etc, etc etc, as well as an incredible number of gathered soldiers, slaves and merchants from all parts of the known world. Any ideas, yet? You can see why language skills are essential. Not just for keeping up with the local gossip. It has been officially confirmed that the common language was, Greek. And not just because of the Rosetta Stone (Please tell me you don’t have to look up what that was? For those who do). It was the stone tablet containing the same passage in three languages (Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek) and led to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics by the early archaeologists. Learning languages we sometimes need such a device to find the common ground.

Many others also contributed to a wealth of historical and relevant knowledge. This is why history is crucial. I have read in another book source that Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī  (yes, I had to copy that out very carefully) a Persian scholar responsible for developing the decimal place in the western number system (among many, many other things) made extensive journeys from China to India and Greece in the 8^th century, at a time when travel was definitely not a rapid event, simply to pursue knowledge. How hard is it today for young people to travel down the road to their local library or to hear a speaker at the university (if you have one nearby)? Even if offered a lift. Yet offer a movie and they are out the door, or a concert ticket (for the right one they would probably walk over broken glass) and they come back no brighter, just more excited. But such people as al-Khwārizmī , contributed vast amounts of knowledge, to what many in the general populace today, have ignored or forgotten.

(Continued tomorrow)