80% of African Languages are Oral Only

submitted by MagicMike from self.whatever

“ There are 2,000 languages spoken in Africa.

80% of African languages have no written form.”

https://langhotspots.swarthmore.edu/fastfacts.html

No wonder boons are semi literate savages…it’s normal for them.

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[–]Countach_3D 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (22 children)

lol 80% of human languages are oral only.

​

Quick, what's the standard orthography for Swiss German?

[–]Canbot 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (18 children)

Looks like you are being pedantic to obscure a valid observation. The lack of written language is absolutely not a normal part of all human groups. If there is some sub division of german that does not have a unique written expression those who speak it still know how to write in german. It is common for african americans to struggle with reading and writing. I would bet that the majority of the speakers of these african languages that have no written form are in fact illiterate. Your implication that this is no different than europeans is a blatant attempt at deception.

[–]ActuallyNot 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (11 children)

The lack of written language is absolutely not a normal part of all human groups.

Europeans existed for 50,000 years before any writing system showed up in the fertile crescent.

How do you figure those 50 millennia were "not normal" but the recent 500 years are "normal"?

Is this some new meaning of "normal"?

[–]Canbot 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

We are talking about modern African society being illiterate.

[–]ActuallyNot 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

Are we?

I thought we were talking about African Languages not having a written form.

What's the relationship between the African languages that don't have a written form and personal illiteracy?

You realise that speaking a language with no written form doesn't preclude you from being literate in another language.

[–]Questionable 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

I think I see what you are saying. It's not the individual that's broken, it's their entire culture and society. Which causes the individual to be broken.

Odd Flex.

[–]ActuallyNot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

What?

No I'm saying that to get from "80% of African Languages have no written form", to "Africans are illiterate", you have to assume that Africans only speak one language, and the unwritten languages are just as commonly spoken as the written ones.

One of my workmates is from Nigeria. He speaks five languages well enough to buy things in the shops and three fluently. I don't know if his local language or his tribal language have a written form, and looking at the numbers, I would guess not. But he's not illiterate. He reads and writes English with fluency, and can usually get the meaning reading French.

Having said that there is a lot of illiteracy in Africa, but nowhere near 80%. It's maybe a third, and it's driven by development, not availability of a suitable language that can be written.

[–]Questionable 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Oh, I guess it was me implying that. But whatever.

72% of the world's illiterates are in Africa Despite improvements

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/acp/dv/8-education_/8-education_en.pdf

9 in 10 Children in Africa Can't Read - Global Citizen

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/these-organisations-help-child-literacy-in-africa/

[–]ActuallyNot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

72% of the world's illiterates are in Africa Despite improvements

But that also says then have 72% literacy. Which is a lot more than the 20% you would think of you thought "80% of African Languages are Oral Only" was a relevant statistic.

9 in 10 Children in Africa Can't Read - Global Citizen

This is a problem with kids being unable to attend school. It's not a problem with the languages they speak.

[–]Questionable 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

This is a problem with kids being unable to attend school.

Just another excuse to send moneys to charities and launder it, while cherry picking and lying through statistics.

The C.I.A runs a lucrative business. Virtue signalling is key to the propaganda war.

[–]musky-the-nigger 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

did you ever preclude deez nuts and read a comment that you regretted afterward?

[–]Alienhunter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Most languages don't ever develop their own writing system anyway and just borrow and adapt the the writing system of whomever their more literate neighbors are. English is no different having adapted the latin alphabet which itself was derived from the Phonecian alphabet.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Why haven't these African languages done that?

[–]JYJHFHGEVBFDDSDWDCWG 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Why haven't these African languages done that?

Waarom het hierdie Afrikatale nie dit gedoen nie? Dit is 'n interessante vraag wat jy stel. Daar is verskillende faktore wat 'n rol kan speel in hoekom die Afrikatale nie so 'n groot impak gemaak het as sommige ander tale nie. Een moontlike rede is die geskiedenis van kolonialisering en die invloed van Europese tale op die kontinent. Baie Afrikatale het onderdrukking ervaar en is nie voldoende ontwikkel of bevorder nie. Daar is egter in die afgelope jare 'n beweging om Afrikatale te herwaardeer en te bevorder, en dit is 'n baie belangrike en noodsaaklike stap in die behoud van ons kulturele identiteit. Ons moet ons taal erken en ondersteun, en dit kan 'n groot verskil maak in die bevordering en ontwikkeling van ons Afrikatale.

[–]Countach_3D 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't know what you're talking about. Almost every African language is written with the Latin alphabet.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

What do you mean what I am talking about? That is the claim of the post.

Frankly I think that your claim that all of these African people are writing in Latin is absurd. That some outside entity who does not natively speak the language can phonetically wite it out in a different language is besides the point and is not a valid counter to the argument.

The claim is that entire cultures have no way to pass down knowledge outside of oral tradition.

I don't believe for a second they do it in Latin.

[–]Countach_3D 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The claim is that entire cultures have no way to pass down knowledge outside of oral tradition.

This is true (of most cultures) which has its pluses and minuses (see also Socrates)

You seem to have a poor grasp on the distinction between languages and scripts so I'm not sure how fruitful further discussion will be.

[–]Zipped 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Swiss German does not have a standardized orthography like standard German. Swiss German is a group of Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland, and there isn't a universally accepted written form for these dialects. Instead, speakers often use the standard German script for written communication. It's worth noting that the spoken and written forms of Swiss German can differ significantly.

[–]iamonlyoneman 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

ok but that doesn't make niggers look stupid, so how is OP supposed to dunk on them with this?

[–]SMCABwhatever 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

All I ever hear is muffled yelling and clicking noises, so this rings true.

[–]ID10T 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Why are y'all so racist? Get a life

[–]Iswearbymyfloralhat 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Social media flames the fire. Who controls it I wonder?

[–]GuyWhite 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nigras just aren’t smart enough.

[–]LarrySwinger2 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Literacy and intelligence are distinct. The problem with literacy is that people will just copy the ideas they read about and then mistake them for their own, never thinking for themselves. At least, that's what I read in a book by Friedrich Nietzsche.

[–]MagicMike[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Chinese people evolved to be smart because Mandarin has no alphabet. Every concept has a unique tag. Writing Mandarin requires thought. This is why Chinese people average 105+ IQ while boons are about 85 in the USA and that’s only because a lot of them have a white great grandpappy like LeVar Burton (who near shit his pants when he found out, on some tv show.)

[–]Canbot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I have met quite a few chineese people and they did not seem particularly bright. I think a lot of those test scores come from cheating. Same with India. The Japanese on the other hand are very intelligent and honest. With billions of people, if they truly had such a high average IQ, there would be tens of thousands of absolute geniuses. Yet their most advanced stuff is stolen tech.

Why don't they produce their own advanced computer chips? Why are they not advancing every scientific boundary? Why don't they have more advanced AI? It just does not add up.

[–]LarrySwinger2 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I don't think anecdotal evidence provides a sufficient sample size. I know one Chinese person who has trouble speaking English and doesn't really acknowledge whether or not he understands you, he just nods and you have to guess whether or not he even listened, but I know another person who's a 6th dan go player. The top go players have always been the Chinese.

Both Chinese and Indians come here en masse to study at our technical universities, because it's simply too competitive in the east, they can't all get in. Even though the state of universities is problematic and there are geniuses who drop out of university to do their own thing, I would still say that the ability to succeed in university is a sign of intelligence.

Also, a higher average IQ can come from most people just being a little more intelligent than the average person. It doesn't need to be carried up by a portion of the population having an exceptionally high IQ. And indeed, as you state, that'd require a lot of geniuses, which is why the former scenario is more likely.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Also, a higher average IQ can come from most people just being a little more intelligent

That is very much not how it works.

[–]LarrySwinger2 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Do you have more information about this? It's obvious that that's how statistics work but presumably you're talking about genetics. Are you saying a higher average IQ is always carried by a higher rate of geniuses? I can't find any sources that state that.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What is obvious is that the chineese IQ distribution would not wildly vary from every other IQ distribution in the world for no reason at all. I don't need sources for that. You should be providing sources for your absolutely absurd claim that it does.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Chinese have a billion plus people. Most are dirt dumb. Easily ruled by corrupt communist puppets who are bribed by western bankers. But the smartest Chinese go to college in USA, and move there. That's who you see so you assume all Chinese are smart. Only the ones who get out of that hellhole are smart.

[–]Alienhunter 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Chinese people evolved to be smart because Mandarin has no alphabet. Every concept has a unique tag.

Not really. Chinese has a way of writing phonetically either using romanization as they do in the mainland now or by an older phonetic bopomopho system.

There's also the way of just using characters based on sound, like 三明治 Sanminzhi, read literally, three bright govern, nonsense. It means Sandwich. It's purely phonetic.

Plenty of retards in China learn to read anyway because it's actually not that hard. Westerners just see a mess of lines and get scared.

Chinese is pretty much the same as how ancient Egyptian or Mayan worked which is that the language has a meaning and a phonetic element in most characters. I think Chinese never evolved past the ideographic stage because of the need to govern a large territory with multiple different languages. In that way it's really the eastern equivalent of Latin.

Most languages go from pictographs and early civilizations developed ideographic forms of writing before those evolved into phonetic systems as they are easier to teach, once a phonetic system exists it usually supplants whatever writing system exists and spreads as other societies use it instead of going through the more difficult process of developing their own writing system from scratch. East Asia seems to be the exception to the rule. As everyone used Chinese early and developed their own kind of phonetics based on that.

Also even though the characters have meaning they don't actually mean the same thing across borders. Good example is the Chinese 手紙, literally hand paper, in China means toilet paper. In Japan means a letter.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

And they haven't invented the wheel yet

[–]twolanterns 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

how many of those languages are used for public intreractions ?

interior africa was a remote place for longer than most of the world (south america may have a similar phenomenon)

give it another generation and it will be far less