Why language is humanity's greatest invention | David Peterson

Prevoditelj: Antoaneta Mjeda Recezent: Sanda Liker

Spoons.

Žlice.

Cardboard boxes.

Kartonske kutije.

Toddler-size electric trains.

Električni vlakovi veličine djeteta.

Holiday ornaments.

Blagdanski ukrasi.

Bounce houses.

Kuće na napuhavanje.

Blankets.

Prekrivači.

Baskets.

Košare.

Carpets.

Tepisi.

Tray tables.

Preklopni stolići.

Smartphones.

Pametni telefoni.

Pianos.

Klaviri.

Robes.

Ogrtači.

Photographs.

Fotografije.

What do all of these things have in common,

Što sve ove stvari imaju zajedničko,

aside from the fact they're photos that I took in the last three months,

osim što su to fotografije koje sam uslikao tijekom zadnja tri mjeseca

te na njih imam autorska prava?

and therefore, own the copyright to?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

They're all inventions

Sve su to izumi

that were created with the benefit of language.

stvoreni zahvaljujući jeziku.

None of these things would have existed without language.

Ništa od toga ne bi postojalo bez jezika.

Zamislite stvaranje bilo čega od toga

Imagine creating any one of those things

or, like, building an entire building like this,

ili građenje cijele zgrade poput ove,

without being able to use language

a da ne možete koristiti jezik

or without benefiting from any knowledge that was got by the use of language.

ili da se ne možete okoristiti znanjem stečenim upotrebom jezika.

Basically, language is the most important thing

U biti, jezik je najvažnija stvar

in the entire world.

na cijelom svijetu.

All of our civilization rests upon it.

Cijela se naša civilizacija temelji na njemu.

And those who devote their lives to studying it --

Oni koji posvećuju živote njegovom proučavanju -

both how language emerged, how human languages differ,

kako je jezik nastao, kako se ljudski jezici razlikuju,

how they differ from animal communication systems --

kako se razlikuju od životinjske komunikacije -

are linguists.

su lingvisti.

Formal linguistics is a relatively young field, more or less.

Formalna lingvistika je relativno novo polje,

And it's uncovered a lot of really important stuff.

a otkrila je mnogo važnih stvari.

Like, for example, that human communication systems

Primjerice, to da se ljudski komunikacijski sustavi

differ crucially from animal communication systems,

bitno razlikuju od životinjskih komunikacijskih sustava,

that all languages are equally expressive,

da su svi jezici jednako izražajni,

even if they do it in different ways.

iako na različite načine.

And yet, despite this,

Ipak, unatoč tome,

there are a lot of people who just love to pop off about language

mnogo ljudi voli lupetati o jeziku

like they have an equal understanding of it as a linguist,

kao da o njemu imaju jednako znanje kao i lingvisti

because, of course, they speak a language.

jer, naravno, govore neki jezik.

And if you speak a language, that means you have just as much right

A ako govorite neki jezik, to znači da imate jednako pravo

to talk about its function as anybody else.

govoriti o njegovoj funkciji kao bilo tko drugi.

Zamislite da razgovarate s kirurgom

Imagine if you were talking to a surgeon,

and you say, "Listen, buddy.

i da mu kažete: "Slušaj me.

I've had a heart for, like, 40 years now.

Imam srce već 40 godina.

I think I know a thing or two about aortic valve replacements.

Mislim da znam ponešto o zamjeni aortnog zalistka.

I think my opinion is just as valid as yours."

Mislim da je moje mišljenje jednako bitno kao tvoje."

And yet, that's exactly what happens.

Ipak, upravo to se događa.

This is Neil deGrasse Tyson, saying that in the film "Arrival,"

Neil deGrasse Tyson upravo to govori u filmu Dolazak,

he would have brought a cryptographer --

on bi doveo kriptografa -

somebody who can unscramble a message in a language they already know --

nekoga tko može dešifrirati poruku na jeziku kojeg već zna -

rather than a linguist,

radije nego lingvista,

to communicate with the aliens,

da komunicira s izvanzemaljcima,

because what would a linguist --

jer što bi lingvist -

why would that be useful in talking to somebody

zašto bi to bilo korisno u razgovoru s nekim

speaking a language we don't even know?

tko govori jezik koji ni ne poznajemo?

Though, of course, the "Arrival" film is not off the hook.

Iako, ni film Dolazak se nije izvukao.

I mean, come on -- listen, film. Hey, buddy:

Mislim stvarno, taj film.

there are aliens that come down to our planet in gigantic ships,

Izvanzemaljci siđu na naš planet u ogromnim brodovima

and they want to do nothing except for communicate with us,

i žele jedino komunicirati s nama,

and you hire one linguist?

a vi zaposlite samo jednog lingvista?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

What's the US government on a budget or something?

Zar američka vlada štedi?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

A lot of these things can be chalked up to misunderstandings,

Mnogo toga može biti pripisano nesporazumima,

both about what language is and about the formal study of language,

o tome što je jezik, o formalnom proučavanju jezika,

about linguistics.

o lingvistici.

And I think there's something that underlies a lot of these misunderstandings

Mislim da je nešto u pozadini mnogih tih nesporazuma,

that can be summed up by this delightful article in "Forbes,"

nešto što se može sažeti u ovom divnom članku u Forbesu

about why high school students shouldn't learn foreign languages.

o tome zašto srednjoškolci ne bi trebali učiti strane jezike.

I'm going to pull out some quotes from this,

Izvući ću iz njega neke citate

and I want you to see if you can figure out

i želim da vidite možete li dokučiti

what underlies some of these opinions and ideas.

što je u pozadini tih mišljenja i ideja.

"Americans rarely read the classics, even in translation."

"Amerikanci rijetko čitaju klasike, čak i u prijevodu."

So in other words, why bother learning a foreign language

Drugim riječima, zašto bi uopće učili strane jezike

when they're not even going to read the classic in the original anyway?

kad i tako neće čitati klasike u originalu?

What's the point?

Čemu?

"Studying foreign languages in school is a waste of time,

"Učenje stranih jezika u školi je gubitak vremena

compared to other things that you could be doing in school."

kad se usporedi s drugim stvarima koje biste mogli raditi u školi."

"Europe has a lot of language groups clustered in a relatively small space."

"U Europi se puno jezičnih skupina nalazi u relativno malom prostoru."

So for Americans, ah, what's the point of learning another language?

Dakle, zašto bi Amerikanci učili još jedan jezik?

You're not really going to get a lot of bang for your buck out of that.

Nećete baš profitirati od toga.

This is my favorite,

Ovaj mi je najdraži:

"A student in Birmingham would have to travel

"Student iz Birminghama bi morao putovati

oko 1600 kilometara da bi došao do meksičke granice,

about a thousand miles to get to the Mexican border,

a čak i tad bi bilo dovoljno ljudi koji govore engleski da se može snaći."

and even then, there would be enough people who speak English to get around."

In other words, if you can kind of wave your arms around,

Drugim riječima, ako možete mahati rukama

and you can get to where you're going,

i možete stići tamo gdje idete,

tad stvarno nema smisla učiti još jedan jezik.

then there's really no point in learning another language anyway.

What underlies a lot of these attitudes is the conceptual metaphor,

Ono što je u pozadini mnogih tih stavova je konceptualna metafora,

language is a tool.

jezik je alat.

And there's something that rings very true about this metaphor.

Nešto se čini vrlo istinitim u ovoj metafori.

Language is kind of a tool

Jezik jest vrsta alata.

in that, if you know the local language, you can do more than if you didn't.

Ako znate lokalni jezik, možete napraviti više toga nego ako ga ne znate.

But the implication is that language is only a tool,

No implicira se da je jezik samo alat,

and this is absolutely false.

a to je sasvim netočno.

If language was a tool, it would honestly be a pretty poor tool.

Kad bi jezik bio samo alat, bio bi to jako loš alat.

And we would have abandoned it long ago for something that was a lot better.

Davno bismo ga zamijenili nečim puno boljim.

Think about just any sentence.

Razmislite o bilo kojoj rečenici.

Here's a sentence that I'm sure I've said in my life: "Yesterday I saw Kyn."

Evo rečenice za koju sam siguran da sam je izgovorio: "Jučer sam vidio Kyna".

Imam prijatelja Kyna.

I have a friend named Kyn.

Kad izgovorim ovu rečenicu: "Jučer sam vidio Kyna",

And when I say this sentence, "Yesterday I saw Kyn,"

do you think it's really the case

mislite li da je stvarno moguće

that everything in my mind is now implanted in your mind

da je sve iz mog uma sad ugrađeno u vaš mozak

via this sentence?

preko te rečenice?

Hardly, because there's a lot of other stuff going on.

Teško, jer se još mnogo tog drugog događa.

Like, when I say "yesterday,"

Primjerice, kad kažem "jučer",

I might think what the weather was like yesterday because I was there.

mogao bih misliti na to kakvo je vrijeme bilo jučer jer sam bio tamo.

Ako se prisjećam,

And if I'm remembering,

vjerojatno bih se sjetio da sam nešto zaboravio poslati, što je istina.

I'll probably remember there was something I forgot to mail, which I did.

Ovo je bila planirana šala, ali stvarno sam zaboravio poslati nešto.

This was a preplanned joke, but I really did forget to mail something.

To znači da ću to morati napraviti u ponedjeljak

And so that means I'm going to have to do it Monday,

because that's when I'm going to get back home.

jer se tad vraćam kući.

And of course, when I think of Monday,

Kad pomislim na "Monday" (ponedjeljak),

pomislit ću na Manic Monday od The Banglesa. Dobra pjesma.

I'll think of "Manic Monday" by the Bangles. It's a good song.

And when I say the word "saw," I think of this phrase:

Kad kažem riječ "saw" (vidio; pila), pomislit ću na ovu rečenicu:

"'I see!' said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw."

''Vidim', reče slijepac dok je uzimao čekić i zapil(j)io (se)."

I always do.

Uvijek to pomislim.

Svaki put kad čujem ili kažem riječ "saw", uvijek pomislim na to

Anytime I hear the word "saw" or say it, I always think of that,

jer je moj djed to govorio

because my grandfather always used to say it,

pa me podsjeća na njega.

so it makes me think of my grandfather.

Vraćamo se na Manic Monday, iz nekog razloga,

And we're back to "Manic Monday" again, for some reason.

i na Kyna, kad kažem nešto poput: "Jučer sam vidio Kyna",

And with Kyn, when I'm saying something like, "Yesterday I saw Kyn,"

pomislit ću na okolnosti u kojima sam ga vidio.

I'll think of the circumstances under which I saw him.

And this happened to be that day. Here he is with my cat.

To je bio taj dan. Bio je s mojom mačkom.

And of course, if I'm thinking of Kyn,

Naravno, kad mislim na Kyna,

I'll think he's going to Long Beach State right now,

pomislit ću da upravo pohađa Long Beach State

i sjetit ću se da su moj dobar prijatelj John i moja majka

and I'll remember that my good friend John and my mother

diplomirali na Long Beach Stateu,

both graduated from Long Beach State,

moja rođakinja Katie upravo pohađa Long Beach State.

my cousin Katie is going to Long Beach State right now.

Opet smo na Manic Monday.

And it's "Manic Monday" again.

No ovo je samo djelić onoga što vam se događa u glavama

But this is just a fraction of what's going on in your head

at any given time while you are speaking.

u bilo kojem trenutku dok govorite.

And all we have to represent the entire mess

A sve čime možemo uobličiti taj cijeli nered

that is going on in our head, is this.

koji nam se događa u glavi je ovo.

I mean, that's all we got.

Ovo je sve što imamo.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Is it any wonder that our system is so poor?

Je li ikakvo čudo što nam je sustav tako loš?

So imagine, if I can give you an analogy,

Ako vam smijem predložiti jednu analogiju,

imagine if you wanted to know what is it like to eat a cake,

zamislite da želite saznati kako je to jesti kolač,

if instead of just eating the cake,

ako biste umjesto jedenja kolača,

you instead had to ingest the ingredients of a cake,

morali probaviti sastojke nekog kolača,

one by one,

jedan po jedan,

along with instructions

zajedno s receptom

about how these ingredients can be combined to form a cake.

kako se ti sastojci mogu kombinirati da bi nastao kolač.

You had to eat the instructions, too.

Morali biste pojesti i recept.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

If that was how we had to experience cake,

Kad bismo morali tako iskusiti kolač,

we would never eat cake.

ne bismo ga nikad jeli.

And yet, language is the only way -- the only way --

Ipak, jezik je jedini način

that we can figure out what is going on here, in our minds.

na koji možemo dokučiti što se događa u našem umu.

This is our interiority,

To je naša unutrašnjost,

the thing that makes us human,

ono što nas čini ljudskima,

the thing that makes us different from other animals,

ono što nas razlikuje od životinja,

is all inside here somewhere,

sve ovo negdje unutra,

and all we have to do to represent it is our own languages.

a sve što imamo da bismo to izrazili su naši jezici.

A language is our best way of showing what's going on in our head.

Jezik je najbolji način da pokažemo što nam se događa u glavi.

Imagine if I wanted to ask a big question, like:

Zamislite da želim pitati nešto važno poput:

"Kakva je priroda ljudskog mišljenja i emocija?"

"What is the nature of human thought and emotion?"

What you'd want to do

Ono što biste htjeli

is you'd want to examine as many different languages

je proučiti što je više različitih jezika

as possible.

moguće.

One isn't just going to do it.

Jedan ne bi bio dovoljan.

To give you an example,

Primjerice,

here's a picture I took of little Roman,

ovo je slika malog Romana

that I took with a 12-megapixel camera.

koju sam uslikao kamerom od 12 megapiksela.

Now, here's that same picture with a lot fewer pixels.

Ovo je ista slika s puno manje piksela.

Obviously, neither of these pictures is a real cat.

Očito, nijedna od tih slika nije prava mačka.

But one gives you a lot better sense of what a cat is than the other.

No jedna vam daje puno bolji dojam o tome što je mačka.

Language is not merely a tool.

Jezik nije samo alat.

It is our legacy,

On je naše nasljeđe.

it's our way of conveying what it means to be human.

To je naš način da prenesemo što znači biti čovjek.

And of course, by "our" legacy, I mean all humans everywhere.

Naravno, pod naše nasljeđe mislim na sve ljude svugdje.

And losing even one language makes that picture a lot less clear.

Gubitak samo jednog jezika čini tu sliku puno nejasnijom.

So as a job for the past 10 years

Tako mi je zadnjih 10 godina posao,

and also as recreation, just for fun,

ali također i razbibriga,

I create languages.

smišljanje jezika.

These are called "conlangs,"

Zovu se "smijezici",

short for "constructed languages."

skraćeno od "smišljeni jezici".

Now, presenting these facts back to back,

Iznoseći redom ove činjenice,

that we're losing languages on our planet

da na našem planetu gubimo jezike

and that I create brand-new languages,

i da ja smišljam sasvim nove jezike,

you might think that there's some nonsuperficial connection

mogli biste pomisliti da postoji neka dublja veza

between these two.

između njih.

In fact, a lot of people have drawn a line between those dots.

Zapravo je mnogo ljudi to povezalo.

This is a guy who got all bent out of shape

Ovo je lik koji se razbjesnio

that there was a conlang in James Cameron's "Avatar."

što postoji "smijezik" u Avataru Jamesa Camerona.

He says,

On kaže:

"But in the three years it took James Cameron

"U tri godine koliko je trebalo Jamesu Cameronu

to get Avatar to the screen, a language died."

da Avatar dođe na ekran, jedan jezik je izumro."

Probably a lot more than that, actually.

Zapravo, vjerojatno više njih.

"Na'vi, alas, won't fill the hole where it used to be ..."

"Na'vi, nažalost, neće ispuniti tu prazninu..."

A truly profound and poignant statement --

Stvarno duboka i potresna izjava -

if you don't think about it at all.

ako o njoj uopće ne razmislite.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

But when I was here at Cal,

Međutim, dok sam bio na Caltechu,

I completed two majors.

završio sam dvije studijske grupe.

One of them was linguistics, but the other one was English.

Jedna je bila lingvistika, ali druga je bila engleski.

And of course, the English major, the study of English,

Naravno, studij engleskog

nije zapravo studij engleskog jezika,

is not actually the study of the English language, as we know,

nego studij književnosti.

it's the study of literature.

Literature is just a wonderful thing,

Književnost je predivna stvar

because basically, literature, more broadly, is kind of like art;

jer je u osnovi poput umjetnosti,

it falls under the rubric of art.

potpada pod umjetnost.

And what we do with literature,

Ono što radimo s književnošću,

authors create new, entire beings and histories.

autori stvaraju nova bića i priče.

And it's interesting to us to see

Zanimljivo nam je vidjeti

what kind of depth and emotion and just unique spirit

koju vrstu dubine i emocija te jedinstvenog duha

authors can invest into these fictional beings.

autori mogu unijeti u ta izmišljena bića.

So much so, that, I mean -- take a look at this.

Toliko da - pogledajte ovo.

There's an entire series of books

Ovo su cijele serije knjiga

that are written about fictional characters.

napisane o izmišljenim likovima.

Like, the entire book is just about one fictional, fake human being.

Cijela je knjiga o samo jednom izmišljenom liku.

There's an entire book on George F. Babbitt

Postoji cijela knjiga o Georgeu F. Babbittu,

from Sinclair Lewis's "Babbitt,"

iz romana "Babbitt" Sinclaira Lewisa,

and I guarantee you, that book is longer than "Babbitt,"

i jamčim vam da je knjiga duža od "Babbitta",

which is a short book.

koji je kratak.

Does anybody even remember that one?

Sjeća li se uopće itko te knjige?

Prilično je dobra, mislim da je čak bolja od romana Main Street.

It's pretty good, I actually think it's better than "Main Street."

Samo moja nepopularna misao.

That's my hot take.

So we've never questioned the fact that literature is interesting.

Nikad nismo preispitivali činjenicu da je književnost zanimljiva.

But despite the fact,

Unatoč tome,

not even linguists are actually interested in what created languages can tell us

ni lingvisti nisu zainteresirani za ono što nam smišljeni jezici mogu reći

about the depth of the human spirit just as an artistic endeavor.

o dubini ljudskog duha samo kao o umjetničkom pothvatu.

I'll give you a nice little example here.

Dat ću vam jedan lijep primjer.

There was an article written about me

Napisali su članak o meni

in the California alumni magazine a while back.

u časopisu bivših studenata prije nešto vremena.

And when they wrote this article,

Kad su pisali taj članak,

they wanted to get somebody from the opposing side,

htjeli su razgovarati i s nekim sa suprotne strane,

što se, kad razmislite, čini čudno.

which, in hindsight, seems like a weird thing to do.

You're just talking about a person,

Samo pišete o nekoj osobi,

a želite nekoga sa suprotne strane te osobe.

and you want to get somebody from the opposing side of that person.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Essentially, this is just a puff piece, but whatever.

U biti, to je samo napuhana hvala.

So, they happened to get

Tako su uspjeli dobiti

one of the most brilliant linguists of our time,

jednog od najgenijalnijih lingvista našeg vremena,

George Lakoff, who's a linguist here at Berkeley.

Georgea Lakoffa, lingvista ovdje na fakultetu Berkeley.

And his work has basically forever changed the fields of linguistics

Njegov je rad zauvijek promijenio lingvistiku

and cognitive science.

i kognitivnu znanost.

And when asked about my work and about language creation in general,

Kad su ga pitali o mom radu i smišljanju jezika općenito,

he said, "But there's a lot of things to be done in the study of language.

rekao je: "Postoji puno toga što treba napraviti u proučavanju jezika.

You should spend the time on something real."

Trebali biste trošiti vrijeme na nešto stvarno."

Yeah.

Da.

"Nešto stvarno." Podsjeća li vas to na nešto?

"Something real." Does this remind you of anything?

To use the very framework that he himself invented,

Da iskoristim okvir koji je on sam smislio,

let me refer back to this conceptual metaphor:

dopustite mi da se vratim na našu konceptualnu metaforu:

language is a tool.

jezik je alat.

And he appears to be laboring under this conceptual metaphor;

Čini se da on djeluje pod tom metaforom

that is, language is useful when it can be used for communication.

koja kaže da je jezik koristan kad se može koristiti za komunikaciju.

Language is useless when it can't be used for communication.

Jezik je beskoristan kad se ne može koristiti za komunikaciju.

It might make you wonder: What do we do with dead languages?

Mogli biste se upitati što radimo s mrtvim jezicima?

But anyway.

No, bilo kako bilo.

So, because of this idea,

Zbog te se ideje

it might seem like the very height of absurdity

može činiti kao vrhunski apsurd

to have a Duolingo course on the High Valyrian language

imati na Duolingu tečaj visokog valirijskog,

that I created for HBO's "Game of Thrones."

jezika koji sam smislio za HBO-ovu Igru prijestolja.

You might wonder what, exactly, are 740,000 people learning?

Mogli biste se upitati što točno 740 000 ljudi uči?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Well, let's take a look at it.

Promotrimo to.

What are they learning?

Što to oni uče?

What could they possibly be learning?

Što bi to mogli učiti?

Well, bearing in mind that the other language for this --

S obzirom na to da je drugi jezik -

it's for people that speak English --

da je tečaj za ljude koji govore engleski -

English speakers are learning quite a bit.

govornici engleskog poprilično uče.

Here's a sentence that they will probably never use for communication

Evo rečenice koju vjerojatno nikad neće koristiti u komunikaciji

in their entire lives:

u cijelom svom životu:

"Vala ābre urnes."

"Vala ābre urnes."

"The man sees the woman."

"Muškarac vidi ženu."

The little middle line is the gloss,

Mala crtica na "a" označava duljinu,

so it's word for word, that's what it says.

a prijevod doslovno znači to.

And they're actually learning some very fascinating things,

Zapravo uče vrlo fascinantne stvari,

pogotovo ako su govornici engleskog.

especially if they're English speakers.

Uče da predikat može doći na samom kraju rečenice.

They're learning that a verb can come at the very end of a sentence.

To inače u engleskom nije moguće kad imate subjekt i predikat.

Doesn't really do that in English when you have two arguments.

They're learning that sometimes

Uče da ponekad

a language doesn't have an equivalent for the word "the" -- it's totally absent.

jezik nema ekvivalent za riječ "the" - on uopće ne postoji.

That's something language can do.

To je nešto što jezici rade.

Uče da dugi samoglasnik može duže trajati,

They're learning that a long vowel can actually be longer in duration,

as opposed to different in quality,

a ne promijeniti kvalitetu,

which is what our long vowels do; they're actually the same length.

što se događa s našim dugim otvornicima koji zapravo isto traju.

They're learning that there are these little inflections.

Uče da postoje male sklonidbe.

Hmm? Hmm?

Ha?

There are inflections called "cases" on the end of nouns --

Postoje sklonidbe po tzv. padežima na kraju imenica -

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

that tell you who does what to whom in a sentence.

koje vam kažu tko radi što kome u određenoj rečenici.

Even if you leave the order of the words the same

Čak i ako ostavite isti red riječi,

and switch the endings,

ali promijenite nastavke,

it changes who does what to whom.

oni mijenjaju tko radi što kome.

What they're learning is that languages do things, the same things, differently.

Uče da jezici izražavaju iste stvari na drukčiji način

And that learning languages can be fun.

i da jezici mogu biti zabavni.

What they're learning is respect for Language: capital "L" Language.

Uče poštovati jezik s velikim J.

And given the fact that 88 percent of Americans only speak English at home,

Budući da 88 % Amerikanaca govori samo engleski kod kuće,

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

ne mislim da je to nužno loše.

You know why languages die on our planet?

Znate li zašto jezici na našem planetu izumiru?

It's not because government imposes one language on a smaller group,

Ne zato što vlada nameće jedan jezik manjoj skupini

or because an entire group of speakers is wiped out.

ili zato što je cijela skupina govornika nestala.

That certainly has happened in the past, and it's happening now,

To se događalo u prošlosti, a događa se i sada,

but it's not the main reason.

ali to nije glavni razlog.

The main reason is that a child is born to a family

Glavni je razlog to što se dijete rađa u obitelji

that speaks a language that is not widely spoken in their community,

koja govori jezik koji nije raširen u njezinoj zajednici

and that child doesn't learn it.

te ga dijete ne nauči.

Why?

Zašto?

Because that language is not valued in their community.

Zato što se taj jezik ne cijeni u njezinoj zajednici.

Because the language isn't useful.

Jer taj jezik nije koristan.

Because the child can't go and get a job if they speak that language.

Jer se dijete ne može zaposliti ako govori taj jezik.

Because if language is just a tool,

Jer ako je jezik samo alat,

then learning their native language

tada je učenje njegovog materinskog jezika

is about as useful as learning High Valyrian,

jednako korisno kao učenje visokog valirijskog

so why bother?

pa zašto bi se trudilo?

Now ...

Sad...

Maybe language study isn't going to lead to a lot more linguistic fluency.

Možda učenje jezika neće pridonijeti većoj jezičnoj tečnosti.

But maybe that's not such a big deal.

No možda to nije tako strašno.

Maybe if more people are studying more languages,

Možda će, ako više ljudi uči više jezika,

it will lead to more linguistic tolerance

to voditi većoj jezičnoj toleranciji,

and less linguistic imperialism.

a manje jezičnom imperijalizmu.

Maybe if we actually respect language for what it is --

Možda ćemo, ako stvarno poštujemo jezik jer je to što je -

literally, the greatest invention in the history of humankind --

doslovno najvažniji izum u povijesti čovječanstva -

then in the future,

tada u budućnosti

we can celebrate endangered languages as living languages,

moći slaviti što su ugroženi jezici ostali živi,

as opposed to museum pieces.

a nisu postali muzejski primjerci.

(High Valyrian) Kirimvose. Thank you.

(Visoki valirijski) Kirimvose. Hvala.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)