It’s hardly surprising that modern languages and their respective words change over time. History and literature have demonstrated this repeatedly.
Something that is less clear, however, is the degree to which a given language changes and shapes its human speakers. (It’s an important question, considering there are roughly 7,000 languages currently active on Earth.)
To put it more specifically: Might native French speakers, for example, tend to think a particular way because of the language they know, while speakers of Mandarin, English, Māori and other languages each see themselves and the world in ways that correlate with their first language?
Researchers have tried testing versions of this idea, propelling forward the neuroscience behind language and human communication. Meanwhile, plenty of anthropologists and second-language speakers have witnessed unique patterns.
Neuroscientists in recent years have identified what they call the universal language network in the human brain.
Essentially, this refers to a ...
