/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9100837
I would say that it's a tradeoff between abstraction and situational ease of use. Some abstractions allow for better comprehension of some topics, but they also make the language more complex and difficult to learn.

Your example of the Aboriginals is one example. The most used spoken languages all use "left hand" or something similar, but then you add the complexity of "my left your right" and "why do mirrors flip left and right??"

Some of my language teachers have also noted similar cases regarding gender. My language does not differentiate pronouns for genders. Then comes along a foreigner kid, and they allegedly have to know the gender of every living person or animal in a text just to express it in their heads, even though the language they are learning does not need it.

Clearly in both examples one language is situationally better than another and in some situations worse, as the abstraction also conveys less information. However, generally there should be no large obstacles for comprehension, as spoken languages are all very extendable. Words for directions and gender-neutral pronouns can be defined if necessary. For raising superhumans, I guess you'd want to teach them various different languages.

>>6565197
10/10