While emphasizing on the impact of language, al-Dai-al-Ajal Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin RA stated:
What is Lisan-al-Dawah?
Language of the Dawoodi Bohra community. Written in Arabic script, it is a version of Gujarati dialect spoken in Western India, with a blend of Arabic, Urdu, Persian and English
History of Lisan-al-Dawah:
al-Dai-al-Ajal Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin RA, emphasizing on the impact of language stated:
How are language and cultures inter related?
Scientists and linguists have conducted various studies and researches on how language shapes the way people think and behave. Language is part of culture and culture has an effect on the way a person thinks, which initiates behaviors
Language is not only words but also pronunciations, tone, and particular dialects. All of these parts of a language are shaped by culture. Culture, meanwhile, is influenced by shared experiences, environment, and history. Language is created and shaped by the needs of a culture as it changes. This means that language and culture are fluid, shifting to reflect one another and the changing landscape of the world.
For example, in many European cultures, a “good day” is a sunny day, while in many African cultures a “good day” is a rainy day. Different culturally shared values provide the context for interpreting the term for “good”.
Unique peculiarities with specific languages around the world
inanimate objects have genders in German, Russian, Spanish or French.
Colors are distinguished differently in other languages. In some languages, there are no separate names for orange and yellow even if the people know that there are differences between these two colors. The Russian language distinctly identifies the lighter blues as “goluboy” and calls the darker blues as ”siniy.”
Even today, the Japanese refer to specific vegetation, apples and vegetables as ”ao” (such as blue apples, blue leaf, blue grass)
Do Languages impact thoughts?
The ostensible purpose of language is to transmit thoughts from one mind to another. Language represents thought, but does it also determine thought?
The way speakers interpret the things they feel, hear and see can be complicated because it is influenced by personal experiences, norms, cultural rules, traditions and languages. Thoughts come from words and these thoughts initiate behaviors.
The role of language in emotion:
Common sense suggests that emotions are physical attributes that have little to do with the words we use to label them. Yet recent psychological constructionist accounts reveal that language is a fundamental element in emotion that is constitutive of both emotional experiences and perceptions.
According to the psychological constructionist Conceptual Act Theory (CAT), an instance of emotion occurs when information from one’s body or other people’s bodies is made meaningful in light of the present situation using concept knowledge about emotion. The CAT suggests that language plays a role in emotion because language supports the conceptual knowledge used to make meaning of sensations from the body and world in a given context.
Click to know how Love and sadness are far more nuanced than the English language permits
Impact of Languages on children:
Adults do not realize the impact their words have on young children. The effect is greater the younger the child is. Because a young child still does not have a firm concept of time, denying the child something could mean a protest through bad behavior because the child’s facility to express himself or herself is still limited.