Summary Myth 2

Some Languages are Just Not Good Enough

If we look at the languages spoken in the world today, we notice very wide differences in the use to which they are put. Most languages are the first language of some community and serve the everyday functions of that community perfectly well. A few languages have a more restricted range of uses, for instance, until recently, Latin was restricted to certain uses within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the conduct of services and formal communication within the Church. Some languages have wider functions, used as official language in the administration of whole states and nations. Yet other languages enjoy an international role, English perhaps being the best example of this.

Why are some languages not good enough? In some instances, it’s features of the structure of a languages which are picked on a reason why another language to be preferred for a particular function. In other instances, the reason why a language is “just not good enough” is that ”it is ugly, rude, barbaric”. The third reason is that you can’t discuss nuclear physics in it. Essentially, languages may differ as to the way various aspects of structure are handled, but they are all capable of expressing the same range of structural meanings. And the only way for a language to develop is to “borrow” vocabulary.