Is your natural language enough?

Natural languages are languages such as: Zulu, English, Kiswahili, French, Chinese, Hausa, Russian, etc. These languages effectively help us in the transmission of messages and meanings. Yet, there are differently abled persons who can’t use these natural languages the way average people would. Speech is universal but not everyone can make a speech. A prerequisite for speech making is an early exposition to sounds of a language. If by error of nature or nurture you cannot, from birth, hear a sound around you, then you are not likely to be able to perform on the phonological level of language description.

You are sound deaf. In other words, you are dumb. The dumbness here is not about being unintelligent, it’s about not being able to produce a sound. Children learn by imitation. If you hear nothing, you imitate silence. This is the reason children who cannot catch up with the sound patterns of a language grow into adults who can’t use a natural language like people who first learnt the sound patterns of a language as children.

Your speech organs must be functioning effectively if you must make the most of any natural language. Your ears, mouth and eyes are of the utmost importance. You are at a great disadvantage if you cannot use them in the race for language acquisition.

Assuming your ears and mouth are canceled, you can use your eyes in the battle of communication. You will see the letters whose sounds you’d never experience; you will see the words whose meanings you’d never really get to understand; you will see a noisy world bumping up and down silently. You watch waves splashing against the rocks.

Someone shows you the word “splash” in the dictionary but that definition only gives you the spattering of liquid devoid of the sound of water scattering. You are on a bus, waiting to alight at the next stop. You get up from your seat and move to the door. You press the dud bell a thousand times but because you are a dud just like that bell, the world doesn’t hear a beep of you. The bus keeps moving as chatterers chatter away. It’s a noisy world; you are the only silent one.

You strap a baby to your back. A little boy by your side holds your hand. A handbag dangling down your arm. I see your eyes: red and glassy. That’s what you resort to: a self-pity party. Then I lend you a voice: “Driver, next stop.” The Bus halts. You alight. I stay put in my seat and watch you leg your way back to your bus stop. Other eyes come in my way, expecting me to vacate my seat. I adjust my posture and throws my eyes on the road ahead. The chu chu chu resumes.

The goal of every natural language is the communication of meaning. That meaning could be limited in given circumstances because there are persons who can neither use nor understand natural languages.

The world has gotten to that point where such persons are taught how to make meaning and pass their meaning across to others by the use of other means of communication which we can safely call “other forms of language.” Hence, body language, sign language etc.

It is not wise to measure such forms of language against natural language and discredit them on the account that we cannot describe them on all levels of language description. The most important of the parameters through which we measure a language is semantics.

No matter how adept we become at the use of the words in any natural language, if we cannot communicate meaning, we are not achieving anything. Sometimes our body language communicates more than we mean by oral utterances.

Every word is often emotion laden. That is, there is no time you speak or write that you don’t show emotion no matter how passive the showing seems. A simple “welcome” in words could translate to “get out” by the way your voice sounds or the expression on your face. How often do we say noble words with ignoble attitude! It is just so easy to say A while you do B. Such are the circumstances that reflect the inadequacy of natural languages.

Yes, people don’t do what they mean every time but it is easy to be found out when you do something that is foreign to your nature. It will show somehow. You can pretend to be a great dancer but as the music progresses, you will be out of tune if you are not truly one. I can afford to lose the words of a character at the theatre; I just make do with the great diction of their action.

No wonder they say “action is louder than words.” In my book, action is not just louder but more meaningful than words. Unwritten or unrecorded words are not to be trusted. The speaker can deny ever enunciating such things. Even written words can lose objectivity depending on the writer. That is why we question the accuracy and truism of history.

Obvious it is that lots of deceits attend the use of natural languages. Yet, they remain the easiest, the most affordable means of communication for an average person. But as you lazily juggle words in communication, remember those who have to juggle their thoughts using their hands, faces and legs; those who don’t have the linguistic wherewithal for lazy communication.

Omidire, Idowu Joshua studied English and Literary Studies at the University of Lagos. He has been part of several literary productions. He writes and edits for individuals and companies.