今天我在Harper’s 里面读到一篇了文章，The Last Word，是讲即将消失的语言的文章，它的最后一段话非常感人，现摘抄如下：“

Every epithet implied a unique set of attributes， every sound described a unique Being. It is not merely a writer’s conceit to think that the human world is made of words and to remember that no two words in all the world’s languages are alike. Of all the arts and sciences made by man, none equals a language, for only a language in its living entirely can describe a unique and irreplaceable world. I saw this once, in the forest of southern Mexico, when a butterfly settled beside me. The color of it was a blue unlike any I had ever seen, hue and intensity beyond naming, a test for the possibilities of metaphor. In the distance lay the ruined Maya city of Palenque, where the glyphs that speak of the reign of the great lord Pacal are carved in stone. The glyphs can be deciphered now. Perhaps.Only perhaps, for no one knows what the words were spoken, what sounds were made when Pacal the Conqueror reigned. It may seem cryptic or even Socratic to say, but, in truth, only spoken words can be heard.

There are nine different words in Maya for the color blue in the comprehensive Porrua Spanish-Maya Dictionary but just three Spanish translations, leaving six butterflies that can be seen only by the Maya, proving beyond doubt that when a language dies six butterflies disappear from the consciousness of the earth.”

这篇文章又让我想起了曾经的一个梦想：读一个语言学博士。尽管现在已经不可能走这条路了，但是我对语言学的兴趣并没有减少，尤其是读到这么一篇充满了人文关怀的文章，更是发现了人类的语言之中最具有魅力的东西。当人类还没有语言的时候，它们和动物一样，是按照本能在生存，存在并不存在，然后它们开始变成了他们，他们有了自我意识，开始区别自我和自我之外的东西，于是语言便产生了，语言是一种存在的结构，甚至也是存在本身，如果没有语言，那意味着我们人类至今还和动物一样。很多人怀念那时的自然状态，甚至我也有这种倾向，大自然孕育了它，他成长，捕食，交配，被天敌吞噬，最终又回到了自然，没有任何不满。当语言把人类的思想变地越来越奇怪的时候（当然我们并不这么认为），他越发地要把自己和自然区别开来，当他还是生的时候便恐惧死亡，当他还不应该死的时候就刻意地结束了自己的生命，总之，他一直在对抗着命运。

这篇文章的中心和我以上的想法几乎不谋而合，这也是它让我激动的原因。尽管这篇文章表面上是记述一些保护濒危语言的行动，但是在深处它触及到了语言的哲学意义，或许我们每一个人都应该想一想，我们说一种语言，其实是在选择一种生存的状态，它并不是唯一的，甚至不同的状态之间有着天渊之别，你们知道吗？这是存在本身，也是我们人类的最根本的局限，或许这种局限注定了人类本身就是一种古希腊式的悲剧。