From Rob Gerrand
Alan Larman asks who said, “Teach me a man's language, and I shall know how he thinks” (Letters, 30 January). A version of the idea might have been first expressed by Wilhelm von Humboldt in the 19th century, but it reminds me of Jack Vance's 1958 novel .
This tells of an experiment to devise customised languages to create warrior, technical and mercantile classes. Mastermind Lord Palafox says: “We must alter the mental framework of the Paonese people, which is most easily achieved by altering the language.” Later, his son says to a class of linguists, “every language impresses a certain world-view upon the mind.”
St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
