An unwritten language (a language without a writing system) is obviously more primitive than a language that has a writing system, right? Wrong. It’s a common misconception to think that a language is somehow more primitive than another simply because it does not have a system in place to write its language down. Cultural complexity is a different story,¹ but when it comes to linguistic development no language can really be considered “primitive.” Claiming that one language is more primitive than another is tantamount to saying one people group is more biologically evolved than another. But we’re all human and come out with equally complex native linguistic abilities.

So what is it about a certain language, apart from lacking a writing system, that would make us feel like it is more primitive? How about its sounds. Do you, for example, consider the so-called African clicks on par with the sounds that you make when you speak English or Spanish or French? No, these clicks sound rather “inarticulate” to native English speakers because we don’t and many of us can’t make them. But “[s]uch a view is based on the ethnocentric attitude that the characteristics of one’s own language are obviously superior.”² A child, however, can easily learn to make and utilize these sounds from a very young age, clicking away like it’s nothing difficult. Just because we are unable to do so or it strikes our ears as strange does not make such a sound primitive or inferior.

Language is a gift from God for humanity to use to accomplish all sorts of tasks and especially to live lives that are pleasing to him. We are blessed to be able to articulate our thoughts, desires and pains. Each human speaks a language whether it be written or unwritten, voiced or signed, shared by many or shared by few; it’s still a language that accomplishes just what its speakers want it to. None are primitive.

photo credit: Grums