Linguistic streamlining

It is smart to design a boat so that it has the least possible resistance through the water. The Vikings gave their ships a smooth, elongated shape, reminiscent of a drop. And then they passed the word on, streamlining.

Streamlining is about everything other than boat building. It has long been the development principle of modern society – to make things efficient in the short term, to gain time, to let everything converge towards a common and often low standard. We remove anything that looks like a detour.

The language is a good example: I'd like a burger with fries, said a Swede who didn't bother to speak Scandinavian in Copenhagen. But language is not just words. They are keys to opening doors to other cultures, other perspectives.

After all, we are learning this in the field of biodiversity: when coral reefs die, it threatens entire ecosystems, and when the bees are gone, the food disappears with them. The same happens in our companies: the streamlined management is a dead end.

Linguistic streamlining is a threat of roughly the same magnitude. English is a fine language, but the convergence towards tourist English creates a stagnation where the sky becomes low in a world without color and pulse.

(Languages are reflections of places, landscapes, cultures. Every language is a window).

Let's take... er, Gaelic: Every single letter of the Gaelic alphabet is associated with a tree. So deep is the relationship between language and nature in the ancient Scottish worldview that each of the seventeen letters of the Gaelic alphabet reflects the people's connection to their land. A is Ailm (Elm), B is Beith (Birch), C is Calltain (Hazel) and so on. And then you can take the word 'Bruchlas', which describes the light whoosh that birds make when they land in Scottish trees.

Danish is similarly a language born from windy coasts. It's called splashing when water gently gurgles. It can also shower and trickle. Faroese can talk about rain in a thousand ways, the Italians about the beauty, enjoyment and joy of life.

Isn't that ironic? In the pursuit of effective communication, we risk losing the most valuable thing: the diversity of voices that tell stories about countries, cultures and people we would otherwise never have known.

You have to know your own. You have to study others.

A language is not just an exchange of words.

It is a new horizon.