Language as Survival Memory - How Stories Shape Words Across Scripture, Indigenous Traditions, and AI Revitalization
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper explores the idea that language functions as a system of survival memory. Words are not neutral signs but crystallizations of a people’s story—migrations, crises, rituals, and covenants. Using examples from biblical philology, indigenous languages, and modern artificial intelligence, the paper argues that to learn a language is to learn why its speakers endured. The study shows how: Biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) encode covenantal remembrance, with words like zakar (“remember”), anamnesis (“re-presence”), and glossa (“tongue/language”) functioning as survival archives across exile and renewal. Indigenous languages such as Cherokee preserve survival through forced migration (Trail of Tears) and cultural resilience, with revitalization projects acting as acts of memory resurrection. Artificial intelligence now emerges as a “new scribe,” capable of corpus-building, polysemy modeling, and language revitalization, provided it remains ethically guided by communities and covenantal memory. By drawing connections across Scripture, indigenous traditions, and AI linguistics, the paper proposes a universal principle: to speak rightly is to remember rightly. Language is not arbitrary but a vessel of survival memory, carrying the reasons a people still exists.
Author: MacLean, Ryan
Language: English
Topic: Language and Culture
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7079601217
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