How would nuclear war affect the development of language
- Thread starter helher
- Start date
Assuming that the most likely places to be nuked ARE nuked, we could see a drastic decline in English, Russian, French, and other languages spoken by a few countries only
Chinese languages in other parts of China that aren't strategically important would probably flourish, and Tibetan would definitely be one of those. Maybe a revival of the near-extinct Macanese?
If Japan is nuked, Japanese would essentially see a decline, mainly due to the fact that nearly 100% of Japanese speakers are in Japan
In Europe, languages such as Gaelic, Catalan, Nordic languages, would probably see more usage as the speakers of those countries/regions aren't usually important to be nuked en masse
...more later...
Chinese languages in other parts of China that aren't strategically important would probably flourish, and Tibetan would definitely be one of those. Maybe a revival of the near-extinct Macanese?
If Japan is nuked, Japanese would essentially see a decline, mainly due to the fact that nearly 100% of Japanese speakers are in Japan
In Europe, languages such as Gaelic, Catalan, Nordic languages, would probably see more usage as the speakers of those countries/regions aren't usually important to be nuked en masse
...more later...
I don't see nuclear war leading to linguistic fractionalization - communications would be reestablished too quickly.
What could happen is a shift in the prestige dialect. Let's say there's a nuclear war and Britain gets nuked. Possibly the North will associate RP with the establishment that dragged the country into nuclear war, and between that and the higher proportion of deaths in London than in the North, the prestige dialect will shift and incorporate some Northern and Midland features.
What could happen is a shift in the prestige dialect. Let's say there's a nuclear war and Britain gets nuked. Possibly the North will associate RP with the establishment that dragged the country into nuclear war, and between that and the higher proportion of deaths in London than in the North, the prestige dialect will shift and incorporate some Northern and Midland features.
Written languages would survive best, albeit with new vocabulary and continuing shifts in dialect. Accents would evolve along regional lines. Collapse of long-range radio would accelerate evolution of regional dialects.
Minority languages would survive best in isolated valleys and isolated islands that can feed themselves.
Minority languages would survive best in isolated valleys and isolated islands that can feed themselves.
The British film Threads portrayed ten years after a full-scale exchange that language had basically collapsed to brief phrases and broken grammar for those born after the war. A couple sentences I remember:
"Ruth. Work."
"Gives it."
"Babby coming."
"Education" was a faded BBC program played on a loop, which I think would be the real determinant for language. Without the resources, effort or expertise to be expended on education, I think things would collapse somewhat quickly as the postwar generation matured.
"Ruth. Work."
"Gives it."
"Babby coming."
"Education" was a faded BBC program played on a loop, which I think would be the real determinant for language. Without the resources, effort or expertise to be expended on education, I think things would collapse somewhat quickly as the postwar generation matured.
Threads is not a reliable simulation of what would happen post nuclear war. Its full of errors and omissions.
Basic education would be back a few years after an attack. Why? Because it would give the kids something to do! Children cant do reconstruction work.
Either that or Multicultural London English and Standard Scottish English become the main prestige dialects throughout the UK, or a mix of those two with some helpings from Irish English.
I doubt it'd be Scottish - Scottish identity is marked within the UK, and in the rural parts of England, a lot of people specifically identify as English rather than British. The North is marked too... but the call is English Votes on English Laws, and not Southeastern Votes on Southeastern Laws.
It depends on the size, scale, and outcome of said nuclear war. A throwdown between Pakistan and India is going to have a different impact then a free-for-all, every-warhead-must-go exchange between all the major nuclear players. In that latter case the idea that there will be much of a centralized reconstruction effort within the affected areas is... optimistic at best.
I grant you that it's a bit dodgy to base it off of a movie, but the idea of basic education being back in a few years strikes me as wildly optimistic. There's other things kids can do besides build.
RodentRevolution
Banned
Not sure how much society would collapse actually. Economies would take a knock but nation states are remarkably resilient animals.
That said I imagine there would be a whole new set of words to describe flash, various burns and all sorts of other unpleasant things added to languages across at least the northern hemisphere.
That said I imagine there would be a whole new set of words to describe flash, various burns and all sorts of other unpleasant things added to languages across at least the northern hemisphere.
You bet me to it with the "Threads" answer.
Correct. Ruth grows up in a society wheres there's no education system. Worth a punt to watch on YouTube.
Regards filer.
I don't think it would break down that much as in threads. People would still speak in full sentences simply because the survivors will still be having conversations and speaking.
There will probably be a huge decline in literacy though or at the very least many people have bad grammar, spelling and prose because of the lack of a standardized education system.
There will probably be a huge decline in literacy though or at the very least many people have bad grammar, spelling and prose because of the lack of a standardized education system.
Last edited:
Except that as usual in nuclear war threads, people vastly over-estimate the amount of ressources needed to run a basic education system or even a basic industrial society.
We're so comfortable typing these lines on our ipads from a climate controlled bedroom. That we've forgotten that there was a word before us where people lived and where society thrived and moved forward.
Let me ask you, what do you need to run a basic education system?
It's actually very little. We had education for everyone back in the late 1880s without computers, smartboards or fancy education programs. We just had teachers, pen & paper, chalk and blackboards. It seems primitive to us today but it worked and it delivered the goods.
To run a basic education system you need the following:
-Teachers - There'll be enough surviving teachers post-strike to do this. New ones could be crash-trained if needed by conscripting elderly people etc. Of course there'll be 1 teacher for 40 kids. But this has been done before!
-Schools - There'll be plenty of schools in surviving areas. Basic schools could be build from prefabricated buildings etc. Will they be nice and cosy for the kids? Hell sure no! But they'll be roofs over heads while the lessons take place. This is all that'll matter!
-Materials - Paper is easy to make, so are pencils. You don't need anything else to run a basic system. Textbooks could be scrounged from older stocks and shared as needed. Printing basic stuff is not exactly complicated too. In the grand scheme of things, these will be given priority in the inevitable rationning system. Magazines shelves will be bare but who cares?
The curriculum will likely stop at 12 for everyone and things will be far more basic. But trust me, education will remain in some form. It'll become simpler and rougher just like the rest of post strike society. Until eventually things go back to where they were over a period of years/few decades.
What a lot of people intervening in nuclear war threads don't understand, is that there aren't enough nuclear weapons around to utterly destroy the economic potential of NATO and Warsaw Pact. There are just too many things to target and not enough weapons around, its as simple as that.
Sure a lot of destruction and disruption will result. But its survivable with a bit of planning and a bit of organisation. The huge help here is that demand for a lot of stuff will become non-existent. Your 100m car trip to have a nice steak in this café. Well forget all of them post strike as there'll be other priorities. Cut out the slack and inefficiencies in modern society, go back in effect 70 years in time and you have a nice base from which to rebound and rebuild.
Nuclear war is a rational study subject and should be studied rationally. Sure talking about megadeaths is not fun. But mankind's worse ennemy is ignorance!
And how is all of this being organized and coordinated when all of the centers of transportation and communication have been nuked?
What nonsense. You would only need ~110 successful detonations to destroy every oil refinery in the United States. A similar number for every steel mill. And so-on. In arsenals which consist of tens of thousands of warheads, the annihilation of NATO and WARPACs economic potential is almost certainly. The setback here is more like 150 years rather then 70. And that is assuming all of the relevant organizations survive the demolition of the bulk of the urban centers, upon which they rely for communication, organization, and many, many other things necessary to bureaucratic functioning.
Maybe so, but the idea that we'd be reduced to hulk speak within 10 years is ludicrous.
Plus the nuclear fallout in the atmosphere and the subsequent massive drop in temperatures will cause a massive worldwide famine. Hard to send kids to school when neither they nor the teachers have anything to eat.
It is important to remember that Languages would change even without the fall of civilisation as we know it. Thus Languages would change at an even faster pace than normally due to the collapse of Governments and an increase of violent societies.
The closest thing to Nuclear war that we know about is the Black Death where the collapse of society created New Languages.
The closest thing to Nuclear war that we know about is the Black Death where the collapse of society created New Languages.