Loving your child's mind: On languages, cultures, and universal myths

So, you know, I'm thinking about language, and do you remember how I was explaining how Spanish and French were related last time?

Yes.

Can you explain how they're related?

Right. Well, it all started maybe these people were speaking the same language, and then maybe if they traveled away, maybe that language kind of evolved and changed. And it may still be similar, but it's different languages.

That's pretty good. Do you remember what the original language was that they used to speak?

Latin?

Brilliant. Absolutely. That's exactly right. Yeah. And do you know what famous ancient civilization spoke Latin?

Rome.

There you go. Okay. So, yeah. So Spanish and French are similar because of that. Do you know any French at all, or do you know anything other than Spanish and English, of course?

I don't know anything in French, but I am trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

That's right, that's right.

I was— or I've been busy because I've been Or we— um, since I was staying up late for a few days, I went to bed a little bit earlier, so I didn't get time to do it, but I sometimes practice it in my head.

Excellent, that's really great. Um, do you know what a cognate is?

I don't.

A cognate is a word that's similar in one language as in another, and actually there are words in Spanish and English that are cognates. Let me think. Can you think of a word that's similar in Spanish and in English?

Ah, I've heard them so many times.

How about if I say, tú eres magnífica?

Oh yeah, you are magnificent.

Yeah, and magnificent and magnifica sound pretty similar, and basically they mean the same thing. And so that's an example of a cognate, a word that's pretty similar in Spanish and in English. We could probably come up with another one. Let's see. Ah, es una día Espacial.

Special or fantástica.

Yeah, and actually fantástica is another one. So especial and special, fantástica and fantastic. Um, so why do you think there are words like that in English that are similar to words like that in Spanish?

Probably the same reason why Spanish or Portuguese or Italian and all those languages are similar.

Kind of, kind of, but it's a little bit different in English. Um, do you know any— you probably don't know any German at all?

No, I don't.

Do you know anything about the history of England, in the early history of England when it was— so probably not, but I'll let you know.

Do you, um, Not much, no.

Okay, so the short version is originally German— English was a Germanic language, so I— we say I can in English and we say ich kann in German. And so that's why there is, in general, the simpler words in English are usually German cognates, um, whereas in Spanish, let's see, how do you say I can? Yo puedo?

Si.

And si, puedo is nothing like can, whereas ich kann in German. But what happened was the French conquered the English in something called the Norman Conquest, and then all of the kings and queens and royals, all the kind of elite people, they spoke French, whereas the ordinary people spoke English. And then gradually the English and the Germanic English and the French got mixed up. And so what's interesting about English is in a way it's got this sort of German language base for the ordinary words, but most of the fancier words in English are French-related and therefore Latin-related and therefore Spanish-related. Does that make sense? Yes. So, you know, "can" is a simple word, C-A-N, 3 letters, or "ich will" is, you know, "I will" or "I want to," whereas "yo quiero" is very different. And so what's interesting is in general, if you look at fancier words, they're more likely to be cognates between certainly French and English and Spanish and English. So "magnifico," lots of syllables, "Fantástico," lots of syllables. "Especial," lots of syllables. Does that make sense?

Yes.

Do you think you can— now that you know that it's words with lots of syllables that are more likely to be cognates between English and Spanish, can you think of any other ones?

"Maravillosa." "Maravillosa." And I feel I'm not completely sure on this probably wrong, but I think cognate, or I've heard the word cognate in Spanish before, and I think it might be a cognate.

I bet it is. I bet it is.

I bet it is something like cognitivo or something.

Exactly. I bet it is. I bet it is. Um, let's see. You know, felicidad. What does felicidad mean?

Um, I think that means happy birthday. Well, um, you know, like happy or merry.

Yeah, because feliz cumpleaños, cumpleaños, cumpleaños is birthday. Um, but do you know what felicity means in English?

Felicity? No, I don't.

It is actually kind of happiness. And so actually, this is a trick for learning fancier words in English. If you know words in Spanish, sometimes that can actually help you learn And I say fancy words because felicity— people don't usually use words like felicity anymore. It's sort of an old-fashioned word, but if you read like older novels, sometimes they'll use the word felicity. And since you know Spanish, felicidad, you could read felicity and guess what it is. Does that make sense?

Yes.

So there are actually people who say that in order to learn English vocabulary you should learn Latin. And you're learning Spanish instead of Latin, but you could say in order to learn some English vocabulary, you should learn Spanish because then you have all these words in Spanish. I'm tempted to find one more. Can we think of one more fancy word in English that's a cognate in Spanish? Perfecto.

Perfecto. I'm trying because I remember in my Spanish class at school, there's a list of emotions up on the wall, and I feel like some of those are cognates, and I'm trying to think of them.

I bet there are.

Let's see, the word for emotion is a cognate, but I think between Spanish and English. Emocion in Español, or something like that.

That would be a cognate, yeah. So why do you think that Human beings speak different languages. Why don't we all just speak the same language?

Culture, maybe religion.

So why do we have different cultures and religions?

Maybe it's because— or maybe when different people moved to different places, um, and just dialect, maybe that's how they— that's how maybe religions and cultures could form.

So that, um, does this mean if people move, so do people always get new dialects, religions, and cultures when they move?

No, not always.

So why would they sometimes develop new cultures, religions, and dialects and sometimes not?

Maybe by observing others and comparing them, maybe to others they could change.

So if you move to Hawaii, would you develop a new culture, religion, or dialect?

Um, probably not because— or for one, actually, I mean, I guess I could and probably not be able to get a lot of people to join in on it, but I could believe something. If you get moved to a different place.

Have you ever heard— have you ever heard the Hawaiian language?

I've heard a few simple words because my dad knows a few.

Have you tried to speak it or learn it at all?

Um, my brother found Hawaiian on Duolingo and he does it sometimes, but me, not much.

Okay, um, Hawaiian is a very, very very different language. I am pretty certain that there are probably no real cognates between Hawaiian and English. Why do you think Hawaiian would be so different than English?

Probably because maybe people who spoke English and then people who spoke Hawaiian had or did not meet or join until Christopher Columbus went to different places. And by then their language was definitely— or they didn't know about us, so why would they change their language?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's exactly right. And of course it was not specifically Christopher Columbus, it was after Columbus, but But still, you're right. Until the Europeans landed in Hawaii, there had been no contact for millions of years, maybe never. We don't know exactly what had happened, but definitely a huge separation. And so does it make sense the longer the period of history, the farther languages can diverge from each other?

Yes, it does.

Do you think cultures would diverge farther as well?

Yes.

Why? Well, do you know anything about traditional Hawaiian culture at all?

Um, what do you mean by culture? Like how they acted or how they farmed?

Well, just like Hawaiian language was very different than European languages because, you know, they evolved. Have you heard the word evolved? Do you know what it means to evolve?

Um, when something adapts or changes over time and over history.

Yeah, kind of a bit-by-bit change, and often in response to particular circumstances. So certainly, just as the languages evolved over, you know, many thousands of years in very different directions, so too the cultures evolved over in different directions over many thousands of years. So if you think of Hawaiian culture before contact with Europeans, it was very different. And do you know anything at all about its culture before European contact?

Um, me? I have a few books on some myths and legends, but like actual culture I need to study up on that.

Do you think the myths and legends are part of the culture?

Actually, yeah, that's true. Like, I have this big book— or not big book, but it's about these little people called the Menehune. Really interesting. And yes, I guess that is part of the culture.

Does it seem like the myths are maybe different from Greek and Roman myths?

Yes, they are. Like, they have— they might— or some of them still have, like, gods and mythical— or, yeah, mythical animals. There's— in some ways it's the same, but also very, very different.

So because I haven't read it, um, could you tell me a little bit more about how it's different? How are the Hawaiian myths different from Greek and Roman myths?

Well, it's not like they turn out the same, but they might have like— there, there's this big mo'o, which is lizard, and maybe there is a bit like the minotaur is pretty big and that's a half bull man.

So that's the difference, is there's a lizard in Hawaiian myths but a minotaur?

That's— it's not the main difference, but what I'm saying is it's not the same, but it may have— or it may— or like I said before, it's that they both have gods, they both have legendary or mythical creatures.

So here's, here's a question. Um, there are some people who think that even though myths are very different around the world there are also some similarities. So for instance, one, there's a claim that one myth that's in all human cultures is the myth of the hero, that there are heroes in Roman and Greek myths. Are there heroes in Hawaiian myths?

Yes, because there's Maui, there's different people who saved, or who saved maybe a tribe's food. Those could be heroes because food was essential.

And then one of the— going down a little bit more deeply, one of the claims about the universal hero myth is that the hero at some point goes away to do something very difficult and then comes back home in the end. Does that happen in any Hawaiian myths? In some sense, the hero has to kind of— and often when they go away, they fight the dragon or they do something really difficult and then they come back. Are there stories like that in Hawaiian myths?

Yes, there are.

Can you tell me a little bit about one?

Um, there's one where Maui has to go and snare the sun and ask it to go more slowly because it's been going too fast and no, nobody has any time to do things. And I know I've heard that myth in different— or when we've talked about different places in the world and their cultures.

So that's interesting. Why do you think that on the one hand things like languages could be so completely different, but then some myths would be common? Why would, why would human beings have some common myths despite very different languages and cultures?

Well, maybe, I mean, we're all still human, maybe, but we just have different cultures, so we might still have the same ideas except maybe put it out in different forms because I know that there's another myth where someone has to go tell the sun to slow down in a different culture.

Aha, where? Do you know what that culture is?

Uh, I don't, but I know that there is more myths about someone having to slow down the sun. And also with religions, there is a lot of like how Noah maybe built the ark for the flood. There's a lot of stories with that in different religions or mixed religions.

Do you think it's interesting to think about how human beings are on the one hand similar and on the other hand different in cultures around the world?

Yes.

I think it's really interesting. That's really interesting. Do you think of yourself as part Hawaiian?

I do, but now that I think of it, and I think I'm going to have to study up on the culture and the language.

That's sort of— I was kind of thinking now that you thought of it, you might want to a little bit, because it is a very different culture. And so now when you think about it, also you might want to learn about how the Hawaiians got to Hawaii. Do you know how the Hawaiians got to Hawaii?

A tiny bit. They're, um, they actually came from different Polynesian islands. They rode on canoes and eventually found the Hawaiian Islands.

Yep. And have you ever looked on a globe about how far other islands are from Hawaii?

I looked at a map yesterday. I wasn't quite focused on that, but I did see it.

So one of the things that's amazing to me is when you look on a globe at just how far it is, um, Hawaii is a long ways away from most other islands. And you're right, they came somehow on these canoes, but it's so far. You might start thinking about, you know, how on earth could they go that far in canoes? Because, you know, you've read stories about people like at shipwrecks or lost at sea and things like that, have you?

Yes, I have.

You know, I think, well, I love the sea. I think being in a canoe for like months at a time sounds really difficult and scary. And so you might sort of think about how the Hawaiians got there, 'cause you're totally right, they did on these small boats, but how they went that far. I'll tell you one other thing that's fascinating about the Polynesians that I've heard is that they could navigate in part by putting their hand in the water and they could feel the ocean currents just by putting their hand in the water. Does that make sense?

Yes.

Um, well, and the reason I'm fascinated is, for me, if I put my hand in the water, the ocean feels like the ocean. There's no way I would know, like, which way to go just from putting my hand in the water. And so it's fascinating to think, wow, how could they know something like that? Do you have any idea how they would know something like that from putting their hand in the water?

Years and years of being by the ocean and experience.

Brilliant answer. So you're definitely on the right track, and I want to keep these reasonably short, but yeah, I would say it would be great for you to kind of learn more about— we call it pre-colonial or pre-contact with Europeans— but about Hawaiian culture before the Europeans, because of course once the Europeans landed, then their culture stayed on its own a little while, but within a little within not too many years, the two cultures merged, and sometimes Europeans tried to destroy the Hawaiian culture. And so the original culture has mostly been kind of lost, whereas, you know, you can read about— it wasn't that long ago when European and Hawaiian cultures interacted, so you can read about the original Hawaiian culture and learn a lot about it. So, sound interesting?

Yes.

Maybe at some point you can learn Hawaiian along with your brother.

I will.

All right, have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you— I'm off next week. We'll see the week after that, okay?

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome. Bye-bye.