English, you're not normal.
Compared to most languages, there are things you're just lacking.
You're a fine tongue, don't get me wrong.
But take an animated moment to consider some of the main linguistic skills you're missing,
and what it might take to unlock them.
Turns out there's a lot that languages around the world share but English doesn't have access
to.
It has to make you wonder, what features are you missing, which languages have them, and
if you were English (like you were a whole entire language) how could you achieve the
same things?
And can I talk about these without messing up the pronunciation?
Let's go!
First one – easy to spot, easy to hear and super common: reduplication.
Say sounds, say them again.
Do this to change meaning: take Indonesian saya, me, and turn me into saya-saya, oh poor
me.
Do it with only part of a word, Pangasinan style: one amigo, many amimigo.
Do it because Australia is chock full of reduplicated place names.
Do it for so many reasons!
This happens seemingly everywhere outside Europe.
If you decide to join the reduplicating world, just look to the English... -based creole
in Ghana.
Reduplicate light in "som lait-lait-lait-lait-lait-lait", and it is lights scattered all over the place.
One language reduplicates its way into another skill English doesn't have.
If you spoke it, it'd be easier for you to solve the following puzzle.
Here are three children.
They're proud of themselves today.
Why?
Let them tell you: "hi, uhm, did you know we read three books"?
Question: how many books total were read by these children?
Well, ask a Georgian.
If the children said the number "sami", it's three total.
If they reduplicated "sam-sami", it's three each.
So, English, a proposal for you.
Try adding onech, twoch, threech.
You're so polite to make that distinction.
But wait, you're English, you don't have politeness.
Which actually makes you like most of the world, but very unlike most Europeans, who
almost unanimously have an informal and a formal way to address "you".
Du/Sie, tu/vous, εσύ/εσείς, and the list goes on.
Throughout India languages get even more polite. Malayalam has at least seven yous ranging
from intimate to high honorific, and Marathi even has one for when you meet a stranger
and don't know which you to use yet!
If you want to add some politeness to your English, don't look far, get back in
touch with your inner "thou".
Which, pro tip, was not the polite you!
You know what else most languages have that English doesn't?
Adjectives.
That act like verbs.
In Kenya the Luo have a word for "tall", which they can treat just like a verb.
And they're far from alone in this strategy.
She happies, she doesn't happy.
It'd be so simple.
Here's a big tip you can take from the rest of the world: better ways to ask questions.
From the data we've got the single most common question-asking strategy is to add a question
particle, usually to the end or less the beginning of your sentence.
So in Majang, in Ethopia, you tack on an /ŋ/: you went to work today-ŋ?
Or why not put the particle near the exact words you're asking about, like -chu do in
Kichwa: wasimanchu rinki, you going to the HOUSE?, or wasiman rinkichu?
you GOING to the house?
Another way English can follow the global norm is to stop forcing whos and whats
to the front.
Whom did you see?
No, that's awkward, so awkward. Just do it like Swahili. Instead try you saw who, wewe uiona nani.
The who is enough to let you know it's a question, and the parallel word order between your
Qs & your As is beautiful.
See, better questions.
It's time to talk about China.
In Mandarin, you can be someone or something with shì, but you are somewhere with zài.
This kind of split between being versus being-at is very common, and it looks really normal
outside of a broad Europe-y area.
Languages that do this often take advantage of verbs for temporariness or a change of
state, so take a page from Irish history and make that difference: You are a student, but
you stand here.
Talk about the weather in English, and you'll use a lot of its.
It rained.
It's sunny.
Who or what does this "it" refer to anyways?
Well, maybe nothing.
So why not drop it?
In many languages, you do just that!
If you studied Spanish or Italian, you know about llueve or piove.
No subject ever.
So it's your turn, English.
Save yourself a syllable: snowed, rained.
One of my favorites is instrumentals versus comitatives.
Tell me, English, how many withs do you have?
Just the one, the one "with".
But how many could you have?
In a normal language, the answer is two!
I built it with friends; we built it with hammers.
In the Ainu language of Hokkaidō, there's a word "tura" for going-with, and a different
"ani" for the, uh, using-with.
Finnish makes the same difference but with suffixes.
If they can have two withs, why can't you?
Before I get to my number one thing you're missing out on as an English speaker, an honorable
mention I appreciate in some languages I've met.
It doesn't seem to be the most popular strategy around the world, but in certain areas it
absolutely is: clusivity.
If we're talking about us, we just have a "we" to use.
But languages in the Pacific like te reo Māori distinguish tātou, a bunch of us including
you, from mātou, me and some other people but excluding you.
They also complicate this by having duals for two of us or plurals for three plus, so
you'll need to juggle tāua, māua, tātou and mātou just to say "we", and that's not
even the biggest Oceanic strategy.
That's right, Lihir, you know who you are, keep doing your thing.
One last one for you, English.
C'mon, the longtime language nerds out there saw this coming.
Welcome to the world of evidentials.
So many languages give you a way to encode the evidence you have for what you're saying.
These can include markers for auditory evidence, visual evidence, indirect inference,
or quoted hearsay.
In the Sherpa language, evidentials tell you whether the person speaking witnessed the
event they're talking about.
This is a stretch for English, but let's get crafty and try.
The patio's wet and you infer it rained.
You were there when it was raining.
And if you're into this, there's someone else you should be listening to.
Ok, look English, you're unusual.
Be happy being you.
But if you're feeling it why not try out some of these awesome features you don't have.
Also, what about the opposite, the things you do have but other languages don't?
Hmm, says he, maybe someone should animate that...
Thanks for watching.
This was fun.
I leaned a lot on WALS for maps and data.
As usual, dig into my sources doc for more, though recognize this one was about sparking
interest and not proving points.
With my patrons supporting me, I am hard at work on a more epic history, too.
Meanwhile, thanks for letting me get a bit playful.
Stick around and subscribe for language!