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New Words for an Old Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Thorsteinn Gylfason
Thorsteinn Gylfason*
Affiliation:
University of Iceland
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Extract

In his World Culture and the Black Experience Professor Ali Mazrui states that “by being left behind scientifically African languages gradually became incapable either of coping with or stimulating new areas of reflection and analysis”. He agrees with Professor Mohammed Hyder of Nairobi that “if a serious attempt were made to develop a ‘technical limb’ to Swahili, this would indeed be possible” by the simple device of writing redioaktivu for radioactive and thairodi for thyroid and so forth. He thinks, however, that “the majority of African languages have too few speakers to warrant a serious undertaking to convert them into scientific and technological languages.” In any case such an attempt “would be an extreme form of cultural autarchy”.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 33 , Issue 132 , July 1985 , pp. 17 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Ali A. Mazrui, World Culture and the Black Experience, Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 1974, pp. 87-89.

2 For this and further information see Iceland 874-1974. Handbook published by the Central Bank of Iceland on the Occasion of the Eleventh Centenary of the Settlement of Iceland, Reykjavik 1975.

3 Peter von Polenz, "Sprachpurismus und Nationalsozialismus" in Walther Killy et al.: Germanistik - eine deutsche Wissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1967, pp. 137-138.

4 Sigurdur Nordal (1886-1974), Professor of Icelandic Literature in the University of Iceland, was a profoundly influential scholar, critic, poet and playwright.

5 Simon Jóh. Agústsson, Rökfraedi, Reykjavik, Hladbúd, 1948; translation of Konrad Marc-Wogau, Rökfraedi, Reykjavik, Hladbúd, 1962.

6 Jón Sigurdsson, "Althýdan og baekumar", Idunn IX. Reykjavik 1927, pp. 62-77 and 143-152. See also Timinn, Reykjavik 12 January 1929. See further Baldur Jónsson, Mályrkja Gudmundar Finnbogasonar, Reykjavik, Menningarsjódur, 1976.

7 Peter T. Geach Reason and Argument, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1976, p. 75.

8 Cfr. Alan Davidson North-Atlantic Seafood, London, Macmillan, 1979, pp. 395-396.

9 Thomas S. Kuhn "Commensurability, Comparability, Communicability", un published but cited by permission.

10 W.V., Quine, Word and Object, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 1960, pp. 29ff.

11 See for example G.P. Baker & P.M.S. Hacker, Scepticism, Rules and Language, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984, p. 56.

12 Donald Davidson, "What Metaphors Mean" in Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984, pp. 245-264.

13 John R. Searle, "The Background of Meaning" in J.R. Searle et al. (eds.) Speech Act Theory and Pragmatics, Amsterdam, Reidel, 1980, pp. 221-232. See also J.R. Searle, Intentionality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 141-159.

14 Sigmund Freud, Über Psychoanalyse in S. Freud, Gesammelte Werke VIII: Werke aus den Jahren 1909-1913, London, Imago Publishing Co., 1943, pp. 39-40.