Morse Code as a Language ?

 

At its very basic, morse is a way of representing alphabets containing letters, numbers and some punctuation by dots & dashes which can be read or understood by visual or audio methods.  Its a way of representing letters by sound.  Learning to write the alphabet is not learning a new language - it simply represents the letters in a language you already know.

People will some times claim that a message sent in morse such as:-

"GM OM, TKS FOR RPRT FB UR RST 559  OP IS FRED FRED ES QTH IS LONDON HW CPY?"   is universally understood and thus is a distinct language of its own.  However all these abbreviated words are based on English words which have been  abbreviated.  The order in which they have been sent is also based on the English language.   Yes, most hams around the world will understand what is being sent in the above language for the simple reason they have learned what words they represent and the what they mean.

The grammar used to convey meaning is in the depends on the language being used - not the method of communicating it. Send morse in Arabic and you are using Arabic words & grammar. Send morse in English and you're using words & English Grammar. Likewise  a Swedish & English operator communicating in morse would need to use one common language otherwise they cannot communicate anything beyond basic information.

The structure of all morse QSOs is largely based on the language of one of the operators. If you don’t know that language you won’t be able to understand it. 

If morse was a universal language you would be able to understand what two operators were saying when they were discussing something in their own language.  An English operator for example might be able to write down a discussion between two German operators but unless they understood German they'd likely have no understanding of what was said.  If you listen to non English operators communicating between themselves you mostly will hear them using their own common language, such as French, German etc., and unless you know those languages you simply won't understand what is being communicated.

 Learning morse can be difficult for many reasons but learning morse is simply learning to represent the 26 letters (in English), numerals, & punctuation by combinations of short and/or longer sounds, commonly known as dots and dashes. In this it is no different than learning the written alphabet we use in many languages to represent the sounds which make up any particular word or thought.