Electricians learn wiring, plumbers learn pipes, kings learn languages.
აՀΨ ΨԳΦ ΘՀΘΔԳΔ ΛՀΘΔԳΔ
‘I fucking love linguistics’ — GreeLock
In ancient times, kings would ingratiate themselves with foreign rulers by speaking their language. Instantly forging a diplomatic bond with their people. Kings like this were praised for centuries by scholars and historians. Mithridates VI of Pontus was said to speak the language of every people under his rule, over 20 languages.
Buuut that was actually really rare. Cleopatra VII was reportedly the first Ptolemaic ruler in centuries to even bother learning Egyptian. So maybe learning languages is not so kingly after all?
I do love learning languages. Not so I can ingratiate myself by actually speaking them. But mainly just because I love linguistics! There are certain symbols, certain words or phrases in other languages that are just so beautiful to me. Like the Irish word for rabbits, coinín. Or the Japanese word for a trashcan, ごみばく. The Afrikaans phrase for someone who is lucky is, hy is met die helm gebore, he was born with a helmet on.
I didn't always have this love for linguistics. When I first started studying Computer Science at Rhodes University in Grahamstown South Africa, I remember seeing a poster on a billboard around campus. It was promoting Computer Science and Linguistics as dual majors. I scoffed and didn't think much of it besides thinking it was an odd combination.
Much later, at the very end of my degree I would finally get it. The very last course, before I was granted my BSc in Computer Science was called Compilers. Taught my the legendary emeritus professor Pat Terry. The man who wrote the first email in South Africa's history. This course showcased linguistics. How else would we communicate with computers without it?
In this course we wrote out own computer language. Then expressed our own language in our own language.
Culminating in the 24 hour exam, a right of passage for computer science graduates. In one long gruelling, sleep depriving session, we wrote a compiler for the compiler for the computer language we had developed over the course of Compilers. To love computer science is to also love linguistics.
One day we will move passed linguistics to pure brain to brain neural interfaces. But even then, I believe I will still think in words. One word following the next in a continuous chain of thought. Like a priori logic, one thing logically following the next. Or one kings inheriting the throne from the one before.