The other half of language

Grafism for xxx//

Language is the product of a selection process. Beyond the forms we recognize are so many others that we exclude from perception. Language, that one we accept to read and understand, is only half the story. Traversing the forms we know are unnumbered variations that we exclude as insignificant, meaningless, or unnecessary. However, as we have known for a long time now, the excluded elements are constitutive of the positive value of the elements that we can recognize.

What we consider as bona fide linguistic material is only the half of a whole spectrum of metaplasmic differences. This half is made possible by the selective exclusion of insignificant forms. Yet, it is by virtue of these insignificant forms that we have a language in the first place. Secondly, the familiarity or significance we attribute to the forms we have selected is not the inherent property of these valued forms. They all have the same mutational status, except that at one time or another we have assigned signifying values to one half, and denied it to the other.

Every form we consider signifying could have had a different fate in history. Among all the possible permutations of the alphabet, we have valorized only a sacred set. This is an ongoing process, with new items battling their way into the canon, and others getting dropped or disappearing after becoming obsolete. Others have not yet been given this chance, and may remain indefinitely in the shadows.