My Metaphor for Language: A Tribal Smorgasbord
by Kenneth Sélin
If we consider every language as a tribal smorgasbord, I think we can better appreciate the analogy especially since we all like the food of our own particular culture. Besides, food is something that no living human being can do without.
By this food metaphor, I'm suggesting that no one can do without language any more than they can food and that language is essentially food made and prepared for cranial consumption. In fact, the medieval classical view of education was that of a sower sowing his field to produce food, a derivative of the fruits of his labour directly from the land without which he could not continue to survive.
In this metaphor, I liken the land to the mind and the labour to the effort that goes into acquiring a language (or languages). During the Age of Classicism when European intellectuals-in-training turned to the classical Latin (most notably Cicero -- every so-called intellectual had to be able to write exactly like Cicero) and Greek authors and in some cases Hebrew scriptural text in order to acquire these various languages, these languages of culture were seen as a sort of exotic, searched-after intellectual food capable of not only enlightening the mind, but offers the possibilities of acquiring new insight and an enhancement to one's intellectual powers. This drive to acquire language is very much could possible be described as resemble the search by a very hungry person with "gourmet tastes" for food .
However, I hasten to add that I do believe that there is also something intrinsically and therapeutically beneficial in the "acquisition process" of more than one language that allows the food metaphor to be extended to that of a tribal smorgasbord meal whereby each language is a smorgasbord meal unique in itself in that it relates to a particular culture that has in common many elements (or ingredients) with other tribal smorgasbord meals: be they the dishes or the individual elements of a dish to indicate a fair degree of commonality. This fact seems to indicate that to some extent the degree to which there was contact with other tribal cultures allowed for a "cross borrowing mechanism" rendering the smorgasbord experience more textually rich and varied.
For example, only now Arabic muslim scholars are ready to admit that Greek contributed immensely to the enrichment of pre-Koranic Arabic in terms of words and perhaps maybe even conceptually. (This is not surprising as Greek had the world status that English now enjoys two thousand years ago in the Middle East thanks in part to Alexander the Greek that extended the Greek administrative apparatus far and wide right into India and due also in large part to the predominance of Greek communities all over the Mediterranean basin making Greece very much a maritime commercial power.) Such an admission was almost de facto heresy for the World of Islam which continued for the longest time to perceive Arabic as almost a divine-given language free from any defect and foreign corruption.
Indeed, it should be noted that Arabic has long fascinated the European psyche historically going all the way back to the days of
Charlemagne who marvelled at the priority given to language by the Arabs as a tool for acquiring knowledge and only now is the Western World only beginning to realize the extent of the
linguistic hold (be it only in an obtuse way) that Arabic exerted on Western civilization as revealed very well by my example
in French-Canadian
vocabulary by the word "cartable" (meaning "loose leaf binder") which I believe to be obviously derived from the Arabic root "katib" used in Arabin for the word "book", "library" and
even for the word "Koran". Needless to say, there must be many other words that have gone "unnoticed". Interestingly, no French
dictionary will give etymological credit for this word to Arabic and yet there can be no doubt as to its Arabic
derivation especially when given its French -Canadian usage.
The attraction of this metaphor for me resides in the notion of food as a fundamental concept that can be presented as a sequenced series of events in a smorgasbord setting, say for example of a nine course meal: certain dishes will precede or come after certain other dishes "in the natural course of events" as is the case with linguistic word order. Or it can be a helter skelter selection as in an inflectional language such as Latin.
Within this metaphor might be found the intrinsic notion that one can "acquire a taste" for certain foods not previously accustomed to: the implication being that language is a tactile, textual, audio experience that amplifies the individual's need for more as s/he becomes more aware to what extent new horizons and possibilites can be foreseen instrumentally given that language mastery does a priori extend the individual's verbal reach (i.e. hisher degrees of freedom) in quisition of greater verbal dexterity just like a food connoisseur's desire to continue to nuance his/her palate.
Why I think this food metaphor really works is because of the parallels that exist between the the mechanics of language and the eating of food. For example, the fact that dishes can be combined allows for the notion of contractions and the fact that one dish may be preferred at one time over another allows for the notion of slogans. Dishes can be appreciated for their delectable quality just as poetry can be also considered a delight. The eating rate can be compared to the speech delivery rate with its required intermittent respiratory pauses such as commas, periods, question and exclamation marks not to mention ellipses. Several mouthfuls in a row can be imagined as a comestible sentence. The pitch level can be the accompanying munching noises that one makes when easting. And in both cases the esophagus is used though the directional flow is not the same: food goes in and down while utterances come up and out.
But more often than not we are more than satisfied to only henpeck our food. The equivalent using the language comparison would be our preference for the economical use of speech as in delivering short utterances in a contextually rich setting to use the metaphor: "the food hall" where all the eating takes place. With a lot of food before us, well ... who is that hungry ...anyway, ... huh?
So give my vino and give me my pan (bread) and I'll be one happy man (or should I say person?). :-)
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Updated: January 14, 1999