Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.
Language and identity are so fundamentally intertwined. You peel back all the layers in terms of what we wear and what we eat and all the things that mark us, and in the end, what we have are our words.
One gains a double benefit in writing about the past, conjuring up how things might have been, and at the same time acquiring a different perspective on the present.
If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around us.
Language is memory and metaphor.
When we developed written language, we significantly increased our functional memory and our ability to share insights and knowledge across time and space. The same thing happened with the invention of the printing press, the telegraph, and the radio.
Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.
Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.
I write about modern people who share a deep sense of connection to the mysteries of the past. I find that I understand myself and my world better when I'm able to peer into history as a mirror.
I do sometimes look back at things I've written in the past, and think, 'I just don't remember being the person who wrote that.'
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