TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY, and RELIGION as essential ingredients in the history and future of SPEECH and LANGUAGE

Part I

I was discussing the status of the US automobile industry with a first generation German-American when he startled me with this question - Do you know why Germany is far ahead of the United States in automobile and electronics technology? When I said no, he curtly replied, Because German is a complete language.

I have not heard of this theory before, that language has such a direct effect on technology, and left me without much to say on that topic of conversation - aside from suggesting that American English vocabulary has something like 20,000 words. Yet I can't help but think if the Philippines' non-existing automobile (or even bicycle) manufacturing industry was a direct representation of its palpably limited vocabulary, more particularly in the fields of engineering, science, and technology.

But if language advances technology, technology does not seem to turn the favor. To know what I mean, all you have to do is look at your last text message (yours or your frend's) and find that syntax is dead, spelling even deader. You can also pick up your phone and call your bank, and instead of honing your communication skills, all you are being told to do by the prompt is to press 1 for yes and 2 for no. (Ever wonder why some people, despite the convenience afforded by the phone or computer, take the effort of falling in line in a bank if only to talk to a live, charming teller?)

Here then is my reverse theory. As technology advances, language diminishes. Which bring us to the context of the first theory. If language ultimately dies, guess which is going to follow next?