Is language not a cultural object?

<<<Kef, so you say, that if an Italian forgets Italian in favor of language, he still carries Italian culture? Is that what is implied from your reply? >>>

I don't know what Kef impied, but I am convinced that culture and language are not linked very closely together, if they a linked at all. Culture and Language are indeed like apples and oranges and if an Italian forgets Italian in favor of English, he still carries Italian culture until his culture is also assimilated to his local environment, which can last very long.

How can someone ''forget'' his mother tounge? I think that's hardly possible!

Language is used to name things, e.g. cultural objects. These objects may be unique to that culture, so in another language, there may be no word for them (or at least no native but a borrowed word for them).

So language is related to culture and vice verca!

<<if an Italian forgets Italian in favor of English, he still carries Italian culture<<
He carries it allright, but the language part of his culture is lost or weakened and this opens the door for further deculturalisation. Or better, for further cahnge towards American culture.

Language and culture are very much related...

What could you possibly mean that language is one of the last bastions of culture that globalization has not yet assaulted? This assumes globalization is not only malevolent (which is not necessarily true) and that it has not affected language (which, my understanding is, it has).

I guess, people with no linguistic conscience forget their mother tongue very easily if they don't speak it.
But, I don't necessarily think in any language, I think in a language of ideas...

I don't think at all...

One proof that culture and language are not closely linked together is the fact that US-american culture and British culture are very different (as different as e.g. British and German culture) while in both the US and England the same language is spoken.

Hmm, I don't really know if they're "very different". It wouldn't be hard for an American to adjust to living in Britain or vice versa. Sure, adjustments would have to be made, but it wouldn't be at all like moving to Japan, which is something of a challenge even if you're already fluent in Japanese!

Also, language is just one aspect of a culture. To assume that a country would have a similar culture just because it has the same language would be to commit this logical fallacy:

A has characteristic X.
B has characteristic X.
Therefore, A and B are very similar.

Filling in the blanks this way, it almost makes sense:

America speaks English.
Britain speaks English.
Therefore, America and Britain are very similar.

But if we follow the same pattern with some different words, we see why the logic is wrong:

Dogs are mammals.
Elephants are mammals.
Therefore, dogs and elephants are very similar.

In other words, whether or not American and British culture are similar, that they share the same language has nothing at all to do with that. (That America was a British colony has everything to do with it, however.)

- Kef

it's difficult to compare India and Canada, yet both were UK colonies

American culture is a British derivative with admixtures from other cultural groups particularly German, Irish and Scandinavian.

It still belong to the Anglo-Saxon group as much as Afrikaner culture belongs to the Netherlandic cultural umbrella. Get it?

Guest said:
"American culture is a British derivative with admixtures from other cultural groups particularly German, Irish and Scandinavian.

It still belong to the Anglo-Saxon group as much as Afrikaner culture belongs to the Netherlandic cultural umbrella. Get it? "

What exactly is British in the USA? Do tea time exist, do have sports the same importance in both countries? What about the way business is done? Somebody once said that the USA and GB were two countries separated by a common language....

Winston Churchill said America and Britain are two countries separated by a common language.

We do not have tea time in the US, sports are EXTREMELY important hear (American football especially, as well as basketball, not so much soccer). Business is done similarly though we surely have different vocabularies.

Skippy:
"Winston Churchill said America and Britain are two countries separated by a common language.

We do not have tea time in the US, sports are EXTREMELY important hear (American football especially, as well as basketball, not so much soccer). Business is done similarly though we surely have different vocabularies. "



I presume the imporance of sports in the US and Australia is very different from that in GB or in other European countries.

Wallonie and mediterranian France are another example - both populations speak French, but the culture is quite different. Also rural and civil culture, young and old people's culture and the way of living of a protestant and a muslim French speaker are usually very distant, while the language is a common denominator. So I would say that language is not linked with culture, it is rather linked to nationalism and the state structure your living in. One state with two languages (Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey) is a problem, two countries with the same language can have very different cultures (US and GB, Argentina, Mexico and Spain, Lombardy and Sicily etc.). Language seems to be the way you speak, culture is the content of your speach and the way you do things.

It depends on the parts of US you are talking about. Remember that US is lie a continent, and it is difficult to consider it as a whole in a cultural sense. It is quite obvious that New England and UK share more common points than New Mexico and UK despite both communities speak English.

Guest
"It depends on the parts of US you are talking about. Remember that US is lie a continent, and it is difficult to consider it as a whole in a cultural sense. It is quite obvious that New England and UK share more common points than New Mexico and UK despite both communities speak English. "

I agree, even in one single country different cultures can exist, even if a common language is spoken. In the US there are black, hispanic, white and Asian culture