Language Notes

It has been said that differences in language affect behavior and culture. And that the demise of language begets a loss of culture. From my experience with Spanish, English and a few indigenous languages, I don’t find this to be true.

Since Spanish and English are both Latin based languages, their commonalities and cognates are many and differences few. The major quirk of Spanish is the application of gender to nouns. I don’t see this as an expression of any culture, but only as a superfluous stumbling block for those learning the language. Indeed, in a world bent on eliminating gender bias, noun gender seems sexist.

The one expression of culture that I see in the Ngobe indigenous language is the lack of nouns for cousin, aunt and uncle. Male cousins are simply called “brothers”, aunts and uncles are “parents”. This is reflective of the “village as family” culture of the tribe, which is fading in modern practice. The interesting part is that most Ngobe speakers also speak Spanish, but continue the naming practice. For me, this caused a bit of confusion when I was told that someone had 20 brothers and sisters. This lack of specificity in relationship naming makes little sense today, other than being an interesting anthropological artifact.

As a side note, it is interesting how the 3 indigenous languages are used in modern Panama, where all schools teach Spanish and all businesses use the language.

The Kuna people teach Spanish in all their village schools, as well as their native tongue. Some village schools also teach English, especially in the tourist areas. But, they speak Guna only within the village to each other. Thus, I never heard it spoken in public. Even when I visited a village, I was addressed in Spanish and occasionally in excellent English.

The Embera have integrated far more into mainstream Panama society and their language is truly dying out. Only the village elders speak it, though their cultural traditions are continued in Embera. This is a bit like Catholic mass being celebrated in Latin – the form is still there, but the ceremonies are not literally understood by most.

Like the Kuna, the Ngobe have kept their language very much alive. It is spoken in most homes and young children only learn Spanish when they go to school. As noted above, language constructs of Ngobe have been folded into their Spanish expression. They often speak Ngobe in public and in front of non-speakers (like me). Since many older Ngobe never went to school, my community meetings in two remote villages had to be translated to reach the entire audience.

I fail to see how continuing these archaic languages preserves culture in any meaningful way. It only impedes the free exchange of information and ideas.