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29 January 2021

Language and the human race

 If someone were to walk upto me and speak in a language I know not, about snow I would not understand anything of what he or she just said.  After this if I'm asked for a judgement or opinion about this person's knowledge of snow, it would be unfair for me to state that the person does not know anything about snow.  the fact that I did not understand the other does not mean that the other doesn't know.  Similarly it would be unfair to judge me as ignorant, because I do know something about snow but not how the other person spoke about it or what he or she said about it.  I'm yet to know that language.  

So me alone or another person alone does not become the sole criterion of judgement about the rightness or wrongness of a language - or even knowledge.  Language is a community adventure.  And by community, I mean the world community!  Anything less than the whole human race expressing its opinion or judgement is partial.  


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