29 letters

A short thought about communication and letters

Recently I’ve spent quite some time reading about the origin of language, speech and the alphabet. In Swedish we have 29 letters and with those few symbols and sounds we are supposed to be able to communicate our extremely intricate inner universes that are our thoughts and minds. It just doesn’t seem reasonable and effective enough.

The history of language is an enigma of it’s own. Scientists over centuries have desperately rubbed their heads to find a theory that seems logic and true. But since this specific area of study completely lacks any kind of clues there are tons of different and very creative theories. They range from ideas that humans have a specifically strong bond mother and child and that that is where language developed. Others say there are some basic sounds we started doing while we were in pain, surprised or happy. Yet another argue we had to communicate to survive, and to be able to pass down methods of making tools in very harsh living conditions. While reading through these creative ideas I get the feeling they might all together be true. But it also seems to me like a dilemma that we will never really be able to understand. And would it really help us that much in life if we did find out?

“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones. Basically it is nothing other than this fear we have so often talked about, but fear spread to everything, fear of the greatest as of the smallest, fear, paralyzing fear of pronouncing a word, although this fear may not only be fear but also a longing for something greater than all that is fearful.”

― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena 

So back to my question about the very few sounds and symbols we use. 29 letters for my 100 billion brain cells! No wonder I sometimes find communication hard and frustrating. We are a curious and forward going kind of species and the one who came up with the idea of symbols for sharing thoughts was a hell of a developer, even though I sometimes wonder and question if they knew what they were up to.