December 21, 2020
GLOBALIZATION IS ANGLOFICATION:
The Social and Political Significance of "You" (Armando Simon, December 21st, 2020, Imaginative Conservative)
In almost all other European languages that I am aware of, inanimate objects are referred to as being either male or female (English is the exception, with the neuter "it" and "the"). Try as you might, I assure you that there is no rhyme or reason why any one of the countless inanimate objects is referred to as male or female. In Italian, life is female (la vita), and the weather is male (il tempo); in Spanish, the road is male (el camino) and an orange is female (la naranja); the woman's purse is la cartera, yet the mailman's bag is el cartero, and the man's wallet is la billetera, etc. No doubt, feminists will find some bizarre rationale, spin some psychotic delusion, and dub it patriarchal oppression. Now, the really interesting thing is that such artificial gendering subtly influences peoples' psychology. For instance, a study was performed between Spaniards, who refer to a bridge (el puente) as male, and to Germans, who refer to it as female (die Brücke). In describing the qualities of the former, masculine terms were often used ("sturdy" and "strong") while the latter more frequently used female terms ("beautiful" and "elegant"). I strongly suspect that this gendering of inanimate objects originated with the first Indo-European ur-language, from which all European language subsequently evolved, with English being an aberration.Along these lines, the effects of one word in the English language, I am positive, had strong repercussions in the social and political fabric of Britain, Ireland, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, Bahamas, Jamaica, and others. That word is the word "you."English-speaking readers will be puzzled by my claim, in as much as there is no perspective. But to one who is multilingual, but much more importantly is steeped--not just experienced, but steeped--in another culture-language, that word is remarkable. Unfortunately, foreigners learning English do not see past all the many other linguistic peculiarities that one becomes aware of anytime upon learning another language.My assertion is that the word "you" was crucial to promoting political democracy and social democracy (and by the latter, I mean that there existed a relaxation of social interaction between persons).
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 21, 2020 5:51 PM
