Alexander Koryagin:   
      
   AS>> Language being the most important medium of culture, it   
   AS>> is also the first to suffer when its mother culture is   
   AS>> under attack.   
   AK> I don't agree that culture and a language are   
   AK> inseparable.  IMHO, language is nothing, it just an   
   AK> instrument.  Language just describes a PARTICULAR   
   AK> CULTURE.   
      
   How's about:   
      
     a.  Language is a/the product of culture, or   
     b.  Each language is a/the product of its particular   
         culture?   
      
   I shall appreciate a native speaker's opinion about the   
   article before "product."  The indefinite article is the   
   logical choice -- for there are many products of   
   culture, -- but the definite one somehow seems right as   
   well, so I am in a quandary.   
      
   One can judge a culture by its language as a tree by its   
   fruit, for:   
      
     Ye shall know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes   
     of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree   
     bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth   
     forth evil fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil   
     fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.   
      
   Language reflects the thinking and the worldview of the   
   speaker.  The poetry of the Russian people have led them to   
   denoting clouds with the word "oblako", which means clothing   
   (of the heavens), while the English "cloud" (or "clout")   
   means simply a heap.  As early as in 1836 Ralph Waldo   
   Emerson noted in his essay "Nature" that the words "right"   
   and "wrong" literally mean "straight" and "twisted," as do   
   in Russian by the way.  Linguistics in general and etymology   
   in particular offer deep insight into culture.   
      
   AK> We can use, for instance, English to describe the   
   AK> essence of a Russian soul.   
      
   Even in Russian, that would have been quite a feat!   
      
   >   We've translated into English our great literature.   
      
   I believe the majority of literary translations are made by   
   native speakers of the target language.   
      
   Translation is always imperfect, of which any bilingual   
   reader can make certain by comaring some great of work of   
   literature with its translation.  It is best, however, to do   
   it both ways: with the original in one's native tongue and   
   in a foreign tongue.  Literary translation is not the same   
   as rewriting a C program in Pascal: it is always a lossy   
   process, the amount of loss being in inverse dependece on   
   the skill of the translator, not to mention the matter of   
   fidelity vs. transparency:   
      
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Fidelity_and_transparency   
      
   For some typical gross distortions, see, for example, this   
   readworthy article about five translations of "The Lord of   
   the Rings" into Russian:   
      
     http://www.kulichki.com/tolkien/arhiv/ugolok/semenova.shtml   
      
   >   Culture is something that located inside of people.   
      
   Inside a people, but not inside each individual, because we   
   live in a society and communicate with others extensively.   
      
   >   Culture it is th way we treat injustice, a lie,   
   >   children, old people etc.   
      
   That is ethics, which is but a part of culture.   
      
   ---   
    * Origin: *** nntp://fidonews.mine.nu *** Finland *** (2:221/6.0)