Really interesting comment.

I've heard it said that when a language dies, one way of looking at the world dies too. If you consider how much languages influence our perceptions of the world around us, it's easy to see the truth in that statement.

I find it interesting that most people take this notion for granted. That said, I'm not convinced by it. The reason I'm not convinced by it is because I'm not entirely certain what people mean when they say it.

I accept that a person's perception of colour, for example, can depend to a considerable extent on whether there are nouns within that language that are capable of distinguishing between (for example) blue and green. But I'm not convinced that the person who uses the French word "vert" instead of the English word "green" has a different conceptual idea of green things by doing so.

I'm not entirely sure how my comments apply to Fanny Cochrane Smith's song. I guess my point is just that, while we can't understand what it is she's singing about, whatever it is she is singing about, I don't think it could really be that alien a concept to us.