I was in my friend Deborah's office the other day. We're both linguists.

One of my interests in lesser-known languages is the impression these languages left on outside observers, especially the sound systems. As many of you know, human languages have a surprising collection of what I endearingly call "weird (but wonderful) sounds." I call them that because I myself like to challenge myself to try to imitate these sounds. Some sounds require you to really get a hold of your vocal tract, tongue, lips and everything else to make the sounds. I also call them "weird" sounds, because they're very attractive to my ear. They are sounds very different from those in American English. The sounds of American English are very uninspired, and flat. The only "challenging" sounds in American English I have observed with speakers of other languages is the interdental "th" sound (voiceless "think" and voiced "the") Some pronounce the sounds with a 't,' and 'd,' others with a 'z'- " I tink, derefore I am"  or "I zink, zerefore I am." 

Usually, Western observations of 'native' languages are condescending and negative. But once in a while, a surprisingly positive account comes across my desk. Below are two contrasting observations from missionaries on Tlingit (Deborah turned me on to these, by the way - both are from a New Yorker article about 10-15 years ago). The first one is a delight. I love reading the metaphorical descriptions of language sounds.

The second observation is all too familiar.

From a Russian Orthodox missionary describing the Tlingit language:

“Their speech is flowery and rich in imagery, and they are generally good orators...The language itself is rich with words but even richer in grammatical forms. Nouns and adjectives have articles, as in Greek; persons, tenses and moods of nouns and adjectives are modified by means of prefixes...Listening carefully to the speech of  a Tlingit, you might hear the croaking of a frog, the bubbling of  water, the cackling of a hen, the crackle of breaking dry wood, or some guttural and rather pleasant, melodious sounds.”

And here is the Presbyterian's view: “The sooner...the natives drop their stinted and dwarfed language for the liberal English, the better, No encouragement to hold on to their language should be given by missionaries and teachers learning it with the view of addressing  them in it. The best way of elevating them is to make them climb up to us.”