by Sandra Piddock

Created on: March 13, 2009   Last Updated: December 09, 2011

Which came first, the language or the culture? The caveman's grunt and bash over the head with a club was a language born out of a culture where life was hard and strength prevailed. Therefore it follows that each language must reflect its own culture in many ways.

There was a misplaced conception during and after World War II that the Japanese language had no word for 'surrender.' It's easy to see where it came from, as the Japanese would fight to the last man standing, and they were contemptuous of the soldiers who surrendered at Singapore and became prisoners of war. However, there is a Japanese word for surrender - 'kotuku.'

Under the Bushido code of the Samurai warriors, it was considered bad military strategy to be captured by your enemies, and a disgrace to your family to be defeated by an inferior opponent. While the Japanese have a word for surrender, they did not understand or embrace the concept of surrender, so one could argue that the culture in this case made the language redundant.

Let's now look at a different word, 'love.' In Northern European languages, the word has a hard, cold sound. 'Liebe' in German, 'liefhebben' in Dutch, 'laska' in Czechoslovakian. It sounds more like a punishment than what makes the world go round! In the Latin countries of Southern Europe, love is indeed a many splendoured thing - 'amour' in French, 'amor' in Spanish and Portugese, 'amore' in Italian.

These words are redolent with passion, originating as they do from hot-blooded, tempestuous cultures. Even if you don't speak the language, you can deduce the meaning from the sound. The same cannot be said of the others. Can you imagine Dean Martin singing a song called 'That's Liefhebben?' It doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

While Shakespeare managed to make the English language sing, in general the language is no-nonsense; we say what we mean and we say it as quickly as possible. It's the Protestant work ethic in action in our language. There's no messing about with masculine and feminine nouns either - that could suggest something to do with sex, and that's just not British.

Seriously, Southern cultures are more easy-going, and it shows in the language. The Spanish and Italian languages are neither as precise as English nor as ordered and efficient as German, and the same can be said of the people. A good example is the word 'tomorrow.' In English, it means exactly what it says: the day after today.

In Spanish, 'manana' is the word for 'tomorrow,' but it also means 'morning' and 'not today.' The word doesn't need to be exact, and neither do the people saying it. If you can pin a Spaniard down to an appointment, allow at least an hour either side of the designated time.

So does language influence culture, or is it the other way around? It's probably a bit of both, but it's certainly a fascinating subject to investigate.

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