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On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 11:33:47AM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> Jordan DeLong scripsit:
> > Them there savages can't not thunk it like us white folk. They
> > ain't even got no word for 'compassion', I tell ye.
>
> <p lang="en-ru">Ha. As is well known, superstitious Americans cannot
> even make obvious distinction between _sinii_ and _goluboi_, but refer
> to both colors as merely "blue". Further, they introduce spurious and
> irrelevant distinction between proximal and distal parts of obviously
> unitary body part _ruka_, namely "arm" and "hand". Americans clearcut
> victims of much dreaded Whorfian mind lock.<p>
This is a good example of the total bogus shit SW-ists like to talk about.
I can talk about "light blue", or "R:0 G:0 B:200", or whatever.
I can differentiate between different shades of a color, even if I
call them all "blue". (or "light blue", "not so light blue".). Go
to a paint store sometime and you'll see what I mean---there will
be far more distinctions of "blue" than are commonplace in this
sinii language you talk about.
The fact that languages draw lines in different places doesn't
proove that speakers of the languages *think* differently or are
incapable of understanding certain distinctions, and simple
consideration suggests that they likely don't[1]. And claiming
certain sections of a population "think differently" than everyone
else counts as racism to me.
[1] A simple test could be designed for your color fetish: Just
show people who speak different languages similar shades of colors
and ask them if they can tell the difference between the two. There
will be no effect on the results based on what language people
speak, if all they are asked to do is say whether two shades are
different. The human eye is capable of percieving relatively slight
changes in light frequency, and its performance is *not* affected
by race, or the language(s) you happen to speak.
--
Jordan DeLong - fracture@hidden.email
lu zo'o loi censa bakni cu terzba le zaltapla poi xagrai li'u
sei la mark. tuen. cusku
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