Does language influence culture?

[wildatheart]

I'm sure you exchange people have lots of thoughts about this.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/43obRE...67868.html/r:t

[hurricane_chelsea]

Nothing in that article convinces me that it's the language influencing the culture. Who's to say that the language isn't simply *reflecting* cultural differences? I mean, language is a part of culture after all.

It seems to me like a language is just the simplest way to get a grasp on another culture and its values.

The article illustrates how language can influence some thoughts in an individual, but not on a wider scale... it seems like it doesn't really connect.

[Gary]

So...would the author have a different viewpoint if he wrote the article in Russian?

The answer is that language influences culture and thought. Culture influences language and thought. Thought influences culture and language.

[Concordia]

I think that our culture influences our language, which enhances things in our minds, which influences our culture.

Like, for example, if there are positive or negative meanings of a word in different languages but it still means the same thing - in one language it's a good thing, in another one it isn't, but you'r still trying to say the same thing, but it doesn't come out that way.