Cuisine and Language 6. Death, Change, Birth
Rolling right along with the series on what culinary historians might learn from linguists, see the background at the end of this post.
Languages die out. The world is littered with dead languages, most of which are unknown to us. Cuisines die out. We no longer have the cuisine of Shang China, nor of the Celts, nor of the British Raj, nor of the Britain I grew up in. (Hence my cynicism about the possibility of preserving cuisines).
Why? All sorts of reasons in the case of language. Sometimes languages or driven underground by conquerors; sometimes, as is happening now and doubtless happened in the past, the speakers of smaller languages decline in numbers until the language is no longer viable; sometimes the social circumstances that supported them change; and sometimes over time they change so much that there is no alternative but to speak of a new language.
The general reckoning among linguists seems to be that in about a thousand years a given language changes so much that its earlier manifestation is incomprehensible to modern speakers, the history of English being an example familiar to most of us here. Most of us get the general drift of Shakespeare without translation, can make a stab at Chaucer, and are at a complete loss with Beowulf.
Do cuisines change so much as to be unrecognizable in the same way? It would appear so. The Greek and Roman cuisines of the ancient world had successors but these are so different that they warrant being called different languages.
Some words appear to be more resistant to change than others, such as words for the more striking parts of the body (finger), the lower numerals, close relatives (mother, father), basic natural features (sun, moon), and basic necessities (bread).[i]
Are there elements in cuisine that are similarly resistant? Does bread in the cuisines of Europe play this role or rice in the cuisines of much of Asia. Can we go beyond the basic staple? Is the flavor profile, for example, very stable?
How are new languages created? Sometimes by fission from their parent languages (the Romance languages from Latin, for example). Sometimes by fusion with different languages (perhaps Hinglish in India today). Rarely do conscious attempts to create a new language succeed (Esperanto).
What are examples of cuisines created by fission? Perhaps Spanish cuisine of the sixteenth century was created by splitting off from earlier Roman Cuisine (though it’s not quite so simple because there was also fusion with Celtic and Germanic cuisines). Certainly American Cuisine was created by fission from British (again with fusion with German, Dutch, Italian, etc).
What are example of cuisines created by fusion? Perhaps Mexican, though I tend to think of Mexico as having two tiers of cuisine rather than a fusion cuisine.
Can totally new cuisines be created and gain currency? I think perhaps the new European cuisine of the sixteenth century, particularly as it developed in France, fits this category. Perhaps also Buddhist Cuisines though I’d put Christian and Islamic more firmly in the fusion category.
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[i] David W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 40.
This draws on a paper that I gave at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in 2009 and subsequently published in the Proceedings, Food and Language. You can find the earlier entries on inventorying cuisines, on mutual unintelligibility, on families and sub-families of cuisine, on being bi-cuisinal, and on the geographic expansion and contraction of cuisines.
Rachel, your posts always get me thinking.
Nyonya (in its various incarnations, as there are several Nyonya styles corresponding to geography) is a classic “fusion” cuisine. Hokkien Chinese/Malay/bit of Thai is the one I know best, in Penang. And interestingly there was a corresponding “fusion” of languages there as well. Not to create a new language called “Nyonya” but Penang Hokkienese incorporates Malay words/variations on Malay words.
On cuisines changing so much as to be unrecognizable — I have been and continue to be interested in the way Chinese regional cuisines have morphed with the settlement of various dialect groups around SE Asia. Eg. Indonesian Hokkienese is not Malaysian Hokkienese is not Fujian’s Hokkienese. Perhaps not ‘unrecognizable’ bec there are common elements. But interesting to note what elements of the cuisine are influenced by the cuisine of the new homes of the immigrants — and what elements remain somewhat impermeable to those influences.
At any rate, thanks for another great post to chew over.
Fascinating examples. I had not realized that Nyonya came in many variants. And the Hokkienese example is interesting. Compare with British Cuisine in US, Australia, NZ, Canada? I have the feeling that Southeast Asia, like the Middle East, is home to so many iterated and reiterating influences that it’s almost impossible to sort out. Wish I knew it as well as you do.
Surely the Spanish cuisine was a fusion resultof various kinds of locals with Arab and Jewish traditions…and how can we separate “cuisine” and its evolution from evolutions in farming techniques or the arrival of new plants and animals. Of course the New WOrld fruits and veg and grains are the big example, but earlier movements of plants and ideas about agriculture and animal husbandry are surely the iniatiaing events sometimes in change and evolution of cuisines…
As are the social conditions of people (the industrial revolution and the sugar and tea connection comes obviously to mind.
Sorry for disconnectedness of these first thoughts, written in the soft air of Chiang Mai two days before I fly to chilly Toronto for the holidays!
xo
n
Yes, of course your right about Islamic influence, Naomi. I want to say that in general movements of plants and animals follow from people’s attempts to create, clone, spread, their preferred cuisine. Much more to say about this. But for now just have a good flight back to chilly Toronto. Chilly here too and no heating.
languages die out, but the development of printing press for the masses helped standardise them – some languages like english look as though they wont die out that quickly, nor will they change radically from one generation to the other, now that communication in both a standardised form of writing and speaking is more common
in similar ways, a cuisine (or a standardised version of it, including individual recipes) will linger because we have them in print
as different concepts are created or develop in our world, we need to talk about them using specific vocabulary – the new words that are coined for their usage can be compared to the new culinary techniques and ingredients that people become influenced to use in their everyday cooking, things which inevitably will enter a ‘traditional’ kitchen (in any culture) compulsorily, eg simplifying one’s cooking regime to save time (or buying a ready ingredient rather than one that needs a lot of processing), in the same way that spelling is simplified in text messages (in both fields, these are regarded in similar negative ways by purists too)
language and cuisine can also be used for the purpose of elitism – eg cuisine: the Sultan’s kitchen as opposed to the peasant’s; language: the written elite form of Greek used in the past – Katharevousa – as opposed to the spoken form – Dimotiki; again, with the simplification of relationships in the global society, this has broken down, but some still demand such distinctions (eg the Greek orthodox church still uses katharevousa)
both language and cuisine are used for the purposes of artistical expression – we read non-fiction for information (we eat food to survive), but we read fiction/poetry for pleasure (we enjoy creating culinary artwork, eg canapes, which are eaten for pleasure); the similarities in language and cuisine are endless
there is a need to concentrate on the differences between language and cuisine to understand: for example (one I have mentioned before in this discussion), we call people illiterate if they do not know how to read and write (hopefully that’s dying out too in the modern computer-based world), but can we talk about illiteracy in the food world? are there people who are culinarily illiterate? and who are they – are they the ones that claim that they dont know how to cook? is this possible given that we all need to eat in order to survive? and do we learn to cook in the same way that we learn to read?
My goodness Maria, so much to reply to. Yes, print changes so much. Not only preserving recipes but as a vehicle for nationalism. And if print slows down culinary change, perhaps other forces (fashion, culinary tourism) speed it up.
Elitism, you bet.
Artistic expression, clearly.
Culinary illiteracy. I think the modern idea that at least one person in every family needs to be culinarily literate is too much. In the past there was a huge amount of institutional cooking, at least as much or more than now, and family cooking was much, much simpler.
I want to respond to all of this in detail right now but perhaps I will touch many of these points in coming posts.
is there a parallel to taste in language? our preferences, what we like to eat, what we dont like to eat?
i can only think of this one off the cuff – i never read the sports or finance pages of a paper, and since i dont read paper papers (only online ones), could it be that i am allowed to select my modern-day reading in a similar way that i select what i eat?
Neat idea. I bet you are.
i’m not quite sure about how simpler family cooking might have been in the past in terms of the greek households of our recent past (since the 1800s) – i think it has simplified in more modern times
culinary illiteracy – i think i know plenty of people in that category, and its a phenomenon that is becoming more widepsread, but in the modern world we probably cant ever be linguistically illiterate (so this may be a significant difference between cuisine and language); more to think about in future posts
I think family cooking has become less time consuming and in that sense simpler. I also think it has become more ambitious and diverse and in that sense more complicated.
I agree there’s lots of culinary illiteracy. Probably good thing too. Just like most of us are incapable of spinning, weaving and dressmaking.