22 replies to this topic

[Chooky88]

Seriously of all the things worth saving, languages are not it. Consider English. Even half a century ago English speakers spoke differently. Such as the word "gay". Do we realy care about preserving English from 1960? Do I really care what a Brazilian native calls a type of fish or an Aboriginal word for a small frog?  Nope.

[Mike D boy]

Chooky88, on 16 February 2013 - 03:41 PM, said:

Seriously of all the things worth saving, languages are not it. Consider English. Even half a century ago English speakers spoke differently. Such as the word "gay". Do we realy care about preserving English from 1960? Do I really care what a Brazilian native calls a type of fish or an Aboriginal word for a small frog?  Nope.

Let's face it: languages are an important part of cultural diversity of humanity, and some peoples in the world are interested in not having to forcefully learn another language in the name of conformity by a host country. The immense beauty and linguistic arts of each endangered language should be taken seriously, because some cultures will disappear if their original native languages have. What if English was forcibly replaced by another language and nothing left was preserved, then you would feel threatened and your culture will no longer exist.

The Cherokee Nation Anthem of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe of the western band of Cherokee.



Wish I knew more of the Cherokee Language, but I knew the self-name of the Cherokee is "Au-ni-wa-yv-i-na Tsa-La-Gie".

[Mikko-kun]

Communication in the world doesn't improve with less languages, but deteriorates. It's true that there's language barriers, but the less languages you have, the less ways you have to express things in words. Each language has it's own concept of things, you notice this in more than just different structures... it's the cultures they stem from that bring those concepts to languages, and if you lose the language, you lose the way to communicate that concept in it's original meaning. It may be hard to understand if you've spoken only one language your entire life, but it's all there.

[moonshadow60]

I know that not many people care, but I deeply regret the loss of the Swedish dialect my grandparents spoke.  I only know a few words.  While the prior generations lived, the language was alive.  Now that they are gone, even their dialect has passed as it is no longer spoken in Sweden.

[Bavarian Raven]

I wish I had learned Saxon from my grandparents when I had the chance
But ever since Communism ruined Transylvania, and my people were scattered, their dialect of 'Saxon' is quickly being lost. I know a few words but I wish i was fluent.

[highdesert50]

If you pardon the pun, there is much to said in defense of a common language. But, there is a tremendous amount of uniquely and wonderfully evolved terminology that embraces an entire culture in the context of a native language. That it is an art, it needs to be recognized and preserved.

[Frank Merton]

It's an insoluble problem.  We can and are saving vocabulary lists and grammatical rules and even where possible oral histories and literatures.  This is all great and future historians and anthropologists will be grateful.  Still, the language is lost, even with all that.

The point of a language is to be fluent in it -- so fluent that you do not need to translate what you want to say from another language, and that you have all the little subtleties and minute differences in meaning as you move from language to language.  These things cannot be preserved when the last native speakers are gone.

Is this a loss?  It is an immense loss -- the loss of a whole way of organizing a human brain; of thinking and of looking at the world.

[WhyDontYouBeliEveMe]

over a few hundreds years we all ll be speaking the same language , telepathic