It doesn't separate us from other species.
No animal on earth has the linguistic capabilities of human beings. It is truly the one thing that seperates us from lower animals. Animal communication is a reality, and we might even talk in terms of bird dialects, or whale pod accents, of turn-taking and telegraphing. There are monkey calls for bird's flying overhead, and other calls for snakes on the ground, so animals diplay discrete meaning their vocalisations - but put a snake in the air, or a bird on the ground, and there is no call for that because the essential human trait of creativity is lacking.
I'm not devaluing animals when I say that, just stating a linguistic and anthropological truth. Animal communication is a fascinating area, and one well worthy of study (which I have) but to compare the human ability with the animal is to misunderstand the gulf between the two.
To answer Fela, I agree with you that language, which in many ways is the only vehicle capable of rescuing us from the human dilemma, of delivering us from the confusion that is the world, also carries the potential to be used as a weapon against us. It is one of our only communicable definitions of the world around us, arguably the strongest in the sense that it lasts, it's sustained communication. But it can be subverted to represent to us someone else's truth masquerading as our own, and in that way undermines our individuality.
But as for the question, can truth lie outside language, I say no. Not least because the concept of a real truth doesn't work with my feelings about the universe, but also because in a practical sense, graphic or vocal communication is really the only way to convey the complex histories and arguments involved in discovering the truth. It can't be conveyed in a two-channel way, through dance or through pictorial art. So the philosophical negotation required to find a "truth" must occur in words.
Which have their flaws, as does the truth, I spose.
