Tell me more ×
Cognitive Sciences Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for practitioners, researchers, and students in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite
3

If you think in any language you're never misstaken on what word you mean even if there are many words that are spelled/pronounced the same. This causes a language with only one word meaning every possible word there is to work, in theory, if used only while thinking. I don't think I'd be able to think clearly in such a language, though. The fastest language seems, for me, to be no language. It is however hard to not think in a language.

What is the fastest language to think in?

share|improve this question
3  
speculation: chinese language uses tones (so the same word may have five different meanings depending on your tone). So if parallel processing tone and semantics doesn't cost any extra time, then I'd think that gives it a significant advantage in terms of efficiency. – Xurtio Jan 30 at 15:59
I don't think this is answerable. Even if you could hold everything else but the language that a person speaks as constant, there are too many considerations in terms of focus/attention, etc. to evaluate. – Chuck Sherrington Jan 30 at 23:11
1  
@ChuckSherrington I think I remember seeing studies that suggested that mental math is faster in Chinese because of what Xurtio describes (and other structural features of Chinese number names). So a variant of the question might be answerable, but I do think the OP should make fewer assumptions and show some initial research in the question. At least OP should demonstrate Wikipedia-level familiarity with the Whorf-hypothesis. – Artem Kaznatcheev Jan 31 at 1:41
@ArtemKaznatcheev I could definitely be swayed to "faster" with the proper evidence, but I'm uncomfortable with "fastest", I think. – Chuck Sherrington Jan 31 at 2:26
@ArtemKaznatcheev Mental math is faster among Chinese mainly because they associate arithmetic with doing an abacus in the head. I don't think it's a language thing. – Muz Jan 31 at 4:50
show 2 more comments

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I wonder if Hungarian is particularly good in this way. It's agglutinative, like German, so the words can be unbearably long, but the grammar of Hungarian is interesting, in that word order is much more flexible than other languages. Sentences can be said in multiple word orders and still be "correct", while the emphasis required by word order gives nuance and helps to shape the precise meaning of the sentence. The Wikipedia entry gives some examples. I'd think that having that kind of flexibility available in a native language would be a benefit... I've heard that the grand history of science and mathematics in Hungary is credited to the kind of mental flexibility that speaking Hungarian offers. In some sense, math's commutative and transitive properties are built-in to the language itself.

Full disclosure: my knowledge of Hungarian consists of a few common words and phrases, and lots of food words... I do love the food in Budapest.

There are also many constructed languages that are specifically designed to facilitate thinking, but, of course, they're not in wide use. Ithkuil and Loglan are well-known examples.

share|improve this answer
up vote -1 down vote

Sign language I would imagine would be a great language to think with since it is physical and involves body language. Considering too that we all think different I know sign language, Spanish, and English and find my thoughts bouncing from language to language. Also what could be considered fast? How do you rate the speed of thoughts and inner conversations in your mind?

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.