Evidential Language

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Interesting article in the Economist which explores the reasons some of the world’s 6000 languages are more difficult to learn than others. German, for example,

…has three genders, seemingly so random that Mark Twain wondered why “a young lady has no sex, but a turnip has”. (Mädchen is neuter, whereas Steckrübe is feminine.)

or Chinese…

Mandarin, the biggest language in the Chinese family, has four tones, so that what sounds just like “ma” in English has four distinct sounds, and meanings. That is relatively simple compared with other Chinese varieties. Cantonese has six tones, and Min Chinese dialects seven or eight.

The winner for hardest language appears to be Tuyuca, spoken in the eastern Amazon.

Tuyuca requires verb-endings on statements to show how the speaker knows something. Diga ape-wi means that “the boy played soccer (I know because I saw him)”, while diga ape-hiyi means “the boy played soccer (I assume)”. English can provide such information, but for Tuyuca that is an obligatory ending on the verb. Evidential languages force speakers to think hard about how they learned what they say they know.

When reading this, I was instantly struck with the thought of what politics would be like if all politicians were forced to speak evidential language.  No doubt, there would be exploding heads everywhere.

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