Chapter 201: [Interlude]

Chapter 201: [Interlude]

<<Soooo tired.>>

I collapsed onto the sofa at home with a thud.

Angu Ogu sat beside me, patting my head.

<<Iroha, you must be tired.>>

<<Really. In the end, it took about 6 hours, huh?>>

The first day of the Guinness World Record evaluation concluded safely. The proceedings were very smooth, and there were no particular issues...

And yet, I felt like this.

<<But seriously, you're amazing. How many languages did you speak today?>>

<<About 30 languages. Honestly, some languages felt a bit like cheating to count.>>

<<Cheating?>>

<<For example, Indonesian and Malay. These two are almost the same.>>

<<Oh, I see.>>

If an Indonesian speaks, it becomes Indonesian, and if a Malaysian speaks, it becomes Malay—they're that similar.

They can communicate seamlessly without any problem.

<<Honestly, it's almost like dialects. Well, if you start talking about that, there's no clear distinction between languages and dialects in the first place.>>

<<Oh, really?>>

<<Yeah. Generally, if mutual intelligibility is over 50%, it's a language; otherwise, it's a dialect. But there's no clear standard for that. It's a gradient.>>

By this logic, Indonesian and Malay would get treated as dialects. However, that's not the reality.

On the other hand, the Tsugaru dialect in Japanese is not understood by most Japanese people.

It's often mistaken for speaking French. Still, it's considered a dialect, not a separate language.

Maybe that's why UNESCO doesn't distinguish between languages and dialects.

There are various theories like if a language has many speakers, it's a language; if few, it's a dialect.

<<But lately, dialects are decreasing worldwide.>>

Even Japanese dialects are listed in various dictionaries.

<<Ugh, it's hard to argue when you put it that way. Well, it seems like it was necessary in the past.>>

There was an urgent need to cultivate talents in engineering and law.

So, they divided academic disciplines into two, discarding one to speed up the process.

Thinking about it that way, the division makes sense.

Well, it's mostly become obsolete in modern times, though.

<<This kind of categorization wasn't good.>>

Saying you're bad at something because you're a science major or a humanities major is meaningless.

Originally, there was no distinction, just unfounded beliefs.

Well, there are theorists and empiricists, though.

You can also call it bottom-up thinking and top-down thinking.

In any case, all disciplines are a kind of science, and language is no exception.

In other words...

The first science that humanity learns when born into this world is language.

<<Hmm, I honestly didn't quite understand Iroha's talk; it was too complicated.>>

<<Hey.>>

<<But, you know, a world where you can communicate with anyone, it sounds like heaven.>>

<<...Huh?>>

<<Is something wrong?>>

<<Ah, no. That's quite an interesting perspective.>>

As I said that, memories of that time came to mind.

The view from the Tower of Babel, the appearance of angels, the voice of God.

Whether I actually saw it in reality or if it was an illusion shown by my brain in an extreme state, I don't know.

I have no idea.

***

And the 2nd day of judging begins!