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Language carries deep significance in the way people perceive the world around them, and changes the way people understand knowledge. A difference in language can completely alter the ways in which a word, event, or concept can be interpreted. A clear example of this can be found in English translations of the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam. The Qur'an was originally written in Arabic well over a thousand years ago, but since then has been translated numerous times into English. According to experts, most, if not all, English translations of the Qur’an are filled with mistranslations. Some of them may be seen as small and insignificant, but can heavily impact the ways in which the religious text is interpreted. The Qur’an contains instructions, writings, and stories that are both literal and can also be interpreted as figurative language, which creates a clear, sizable obstacle in attempts to accurately represent the teachings of the religious text in English. This is a clear example of linguistic relativism, where the type of language that the Qur’an is read in is a key factor in shaping an interpretation of the teachings. When knowledge is presented in one language, it can only be accurately and holistically understood by a limited group of people. Thus, some knowledge within the Qur’an can only belong to particular communities of knowers: accurate, original tests can only be accessed by those who can fully read and understand Arabic.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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The example of how knowledge belongs to particular communities that I would be using is a TikTok mimicing the Yoruba film industry. Even though the video is translated to English, the interpretations of it is subjective as Yoruba speakers will find it relatively more funny than those who don't. Since Yoruba is a language which is relatively funny to people who understand and speak it, it has shaped the way we view this video, enhancing our amusement. This relates heavily to the idea of linguistic relativism. In terms of language, no matter how hard one tries to understand a language, there are some phrases that require real-life experience and knowledge to understand the gravity and context of the language fully. With Nigerian comedy, Yoruba is spoken a lot, however, even if it was possible for you to translate the language, without fully experiencing the culture, the things Nigerian-raised people would find funny would not be as humorous to other people outside this culture.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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For my object, I chose a 'standpipe' which is an object integrated into Barbadian culture. Although this is a common item located throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, the name 'standpipe' is one that is particular to the Barbadian community of knowers only. In the world, there are over 7,000 languages and these languages also have a lot of different dialects and interpretations based on particular communities and cultures.  Due to these different interpretations and dialects, there are specific language reflections that are specific to particular communities of knowers. In Barbados, the official language is English but the majority of Barbadians speak ’Bajan’ which is Barbadian slang and words that are particular to Barbadians only. In Bajan, this is called a ‘standpipe’ which refers to a pipe located outside of a house or building. Traditionally, in Barbadian history and culture, these pipes were used as the main water source for Chattel houses on the island. Today, they are still used for water collection when cleaning and cooking in many Bajan households. When you google ‘standpipe’ on the internet, the results will show fancy PVC pipes outside of buildings that look like fire hydrants. However when you look up ‘standpipe in Barbados’ you will see something I described previously. Although other dialects in the region such as Jamaican Patois or Belizean Creole may know these words and objects and in some cases understand the translations, individuals in this culture do not use them. Therefore, this object is evidence demonstrating the way knowledge symbols can belong to one particular community of knowers.
- Sanaa

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Through out 5000 years history of china, language was merged with our culture deeply,and tousands of Idiom was inventied with the communication of people. "Idiom" is a traditional Chinese proverb, mainly composed of four (or more) Chinese characters. Idioms are common in the daily use of communictaion between mandarian speaking people,it usaully has a story or meanningful things behind four Chinese characters. For example "liang chen mei jing良辰美景” means beautiful time and wonderfu views. another example is "Yan er dao ling掩耳盗铃"A thief trying to break into a house but he saw a ring on the door, so he covered his ear to avoid himself to hear the ring, this word usually use to discribe when people just cheated themself. A four characters word simply pass the idea of whole story that people can easyly interpretate.
When people use these Idiom during the conmmunication,they leaned the story and meanningful things behind the word, it forms the concept of linguistic relativism,where the speak of language shapes what we know.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Yes. There are many different ways people with different languages interpret information. Take the shades blue, for example. Because I am an English native speaker, my interpretation of the different shades of blue would be limited because all the shades of blue are referred to as blue in English. However, in Russian, there are two terms for the different shades of blue, siniy and goluboy. Because of this distinct difference and the specific terms allocated by the Russian language, native Russian speakers are able to easily distinguish the different shades of blue. This, therefore, adds to the knowledge they have and the way they interpret information which in this case is the color blue, linguistic relativism. Because I am not able to easily distinguish the colors due to the fact that there is no particular word for the different shades of blue, I am not able to easily distinguish, limiting my knowledge. This is a great example of how knowledge can belong to particular communities.

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Baidu is the biggest search engine in China specialized in offering information in the Chinese language. It popularized in China when its more effective equivalent, Google, was blocked by the Chinese government’s firewall. The government censorship has largely circumscribed the information Baidu is able to provide. On the screenshot, the headline endorses the Russian propaganda of “eliminating Nazi threat.” The trending list on the left provides a very limited overview of the current political events for many controversial issues are considered inadequate to be widely discussed. Since Baidu only offers government-approved search results, it is acknowledged as one of the most inefficient search engines. In China, students and researchers opt for VPNs to “cross the wall” and access English resources on Google, but people with less access to the global internet organized in the English language could only consume filtered information. Moreover, a censored information world in China have had spillover effects to the whole Chinese speaking community. As China homes the largest Chinese-speaking population and thus the largest producers of knowledge in the Chinese language, the Chinese search results on Google are frequently contaminated, sometimes dominated by Chinese propaganda, hindering how non-Chinese Chinese speakers fetch useful information in their language. It is an example of how the political censorship of one government can limit the knowledge pursuit in one language. It can also serve as an example for the idea of language determinism--the extent of access Chinese speakers have to their language determine the extent of their knowledge.

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Yes, because language decides, if someone does have access to this knowlegde. While i don't believe, that gatekeeping knowledge from other communities is effective due to the lack of understanding created, it's a fact, that not everyone can access the same information.  Since there is a lot of knowledge passed on through language, groups that don't speak the language will interprete the information differently. A real world example are family recepies. My grandmother speaks a heavy dialect of swiss german, while some of my cousins only speak french and a broken german. Therefore, they are not able to read her notes within the cook books and therefore are excluded from the rest of the family who are able to learn how to cook like her. While they can translate parts of the notes, some words are not translateable, which then results in a loss of knowledge.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers ?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers ?

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Karl Ambrecht stated "Change your language and you change your thoughts." implying that using a different language gives you a different perspective on concepts. Cultures center their beliefs and thoughts on different things and so do the languages ensuing from them. Communities will create words for different objects, actions and concepts that are important to them and judged worth their own word. Certain communities may have a word for a really precise idea, while others might not consider that same idea at all. For instance, the Spanish word “reselage” defines the light produced on clouds during sunset. Many people simply consider it as a part of a sunset and never have considered this phenomenon as a separate idea while Spanish speakers have it as a part of their knowledge. Therefore a Spanish speaker and someone that speaks a different language won’t have the same perception of this phenomenon. Showing that the set of words that you dispose of definitely shapes the way you think and consider different elements of the world. In that case, the mentioned phenomenon and the idea of it only belongs to particular communities of knowers, the ones speaking a language that grants a word to this element, because even though other people can see it they don’t see it as a specific thing but rather as a minor element of a greater idea/phenomenon. This exemple perfectly illustrates linguistic relativism, the idea that the type of language that we speak shapes what we know; but also linguistic determinism which is the idea that the extent of our language shapes what we know.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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To some extent, certain communities will have different knowledge belonging to their worldview based on their understanding and perception of said knowledge. This perception is informed by cultural background and values, often linguistically encoded, which influence their view of knowledge.

One example of this is the case of understanding kinship, which can be shaped by the amount of words which you can use to describe certain relationships based on biology or social relations. One instance of this is when we were discussing the topic of 'mother's brother' as part of consanguineal kinship in my HL Anthropology course, which our teacher illustrated using the above diagram. This idea talks about how family has different connotations in some cultures based on if they are in your matrilineal or patrilineal background. While for a lot of people, this was very foreign or difficult to understand, I actually found it fairly easy to understand because I could relate it to the kinship concepts which I learned when learning Mandarin as a child. In this language, different words exist for kin that is inversely matrilineal or patrilineal where, for instance, yeye and nainai refer to patrilineal grandparents, whereas waigong and waipo would refer to matrilineal grandparents. This is an instance of linguistic relativism, where the languages that someone can speak influence their perception of reality or the way they immediately absorb information. However, this example is also a rejection of linguistic determinism, as all members of our class could come to understand the topic regardless of the languages they spoke.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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I think that language does determine the extent to which we can know what we know. Each language has different vocabulary that limits our ability to perceive and think about a certain person or event. I personally experienced how language can determine the limits of our knowledge. When I started learning English, I realized that the information that I can access is totally different from the information that I can access with my knowledge about French or Arabic. Each language allowed me to discover different information and websites. A great example is how words have different genders in some languages. Arabic speaking people might relate the sun to feminine adjectives while frensh speakers might relate it to masculine adjectives. This influences the perspective of each side about the sun making their knowledge different.

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?

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Some knowledge belongs only to particular communities of knowers because they have certain words that other languages do not have. When the language that you speak has a word another language does not have then you have some more knowledge because you think about this word/concept more and you pay more attention to this. For example in Dutch there is a word "gezellig" which cannot be translated in English. It means the feeling of love and being cosy with people you love. Because there is no word for this in English it gives Dutch speakers a broader view on that knowledge. Dutch speakers will pay more attention to this feeling and have more knowledge about this feeling because they can express it. A reason for this Dutch word not existing in English language could be because Dutch people have different values and perspectives on the world. In some cases this could also be because of culture, this is how some knowledge only belongs to a certain group of people.