Are Old Languages Worth Saving?

[Starlyte]

Right now, someplace on Earth, the last speaker of an ancient language is breathing his or her last breaths. When this person passes away, another language will be gone.

Ever heard of Jiwarli? No? I'm not surprised: The last native speaker died in Australia in 1976.

Chinook used to function as the language of trade in the Pacific Northwest, because so many of the region's Native American tribes spoke it as a second language. Now, not even the Chinook speak Chinook.

In California, at least 50 Native American languages are "endangered." The estimated number of Shasta speakers, for example, is down to zero.

Languages are blinking out at a breakneck pace these days. Roughly 6,000 languages are spoken in the world today; half of them will vanish in this century, and 90 percent will be gone by the next. The Great Extinction, some linguists call it.

Whoa! Sounds bad, huh?

Not to everyone. John Miller, writing in the Wall Street Journal, asserts that every time a language dies, it's time to celebrate because it means another "primitive" tribe has joined the modern world.

Although Miller fails to mention what's so great about the modern world, he does have a point. Terms like "extinction" and "endangered" put the disappearance of languages on the same footing as the disappearance of species. But there is a huge difference.

Full Article LINK

[antares]

John Miller, writing in the Wall Street Journal, asserts that every time a language dies, it's time to celebrate because it means another "primitive" tribe has joined the modern world.

I can easily see that John Miller did not go further in his arguments than conquistadors did in 15th century. His logic is that if the tribe is not technically developed as the rest of the world, it must go. I strongly believe that the technology is not the defining factor whether or not people are primitive. American Indians did not have firearms and practically lived in a stone age but they were spiritual people and understood the Nature and the life better than we do.

It’s too bad that the languages are lost, but if people who speak them are lost the only point of trying to keep the language is for the purposes of the linguistics.

[espdracomth]

I think that's horrible. We should save their languages.The reasons are too many to list, but what if your a descendant who is brought up in the modern world,all your culture is gone.Also if we ever wanted to study their culture we would already know it if we preserved it, we wouldn't have to go piecemeal the entire language from scraps of documents other artifacts.I don't think being rid of their own language for good is a reason to celebrate.

[GhostShark]

A language must live on if the culture is to live on.......

Globalism has killed too much already........

Besides ancient and primitive languages are better than todays modern languages since they are more economic.

In Latin e.g. there are declensions and conjugations which are simple to understand and utilize.

[Nintendork]

I've read somehwere that the human race will evolve to speak english.

[Althalus]

I also think that languages should be kept, even if the opnly bit that is kept is how to read and speak them, even if they are not used every day.

Take as an example Egyptian Heiroglyphs, before the finding of the Rosetta Stone, no-one could read the symbols that were scattered all over Egypt.

Look at all the knowledge we have since gained from their deciferment.

[peachykeane]

languages are a bit like aural archeology, they tell us a lot about the culture, history and movement of the people that used it, so yes I think for that reason they should be saved. I don't agree that language should be set in stone though, languages like English that have survived and prospered did so because it was a constantly changing, evolving thing.

Don't know if I've managed to do this right but have a listen to this, it's in Old English and is still well known today, see if you can guess what it is. Takes about a minute to download. This is an example of how the way we talk changes enormously over time.

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/LP-all.wav

[Starlyte]

Don't know if I've managed to do this right but have a listen to this, it's in Old English and is still well known today, see if you can guess what it is.

Is it:

The Lord's Prayer

Our father who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily Bread

and Forgive us our trepasses, as we Forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation, but deliever us from evil

for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory

Forever and ever,

Amen.

Am I right?

[peachykeane]

Ten out of ten!

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum; [59k] Father our thou that art in heavens

Si þin nama gehalgod [44k] be thy name hallowed

to becume þin rice [37k] come thy kingdom

gewurþe ðin willa [43k] be-done thy will

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. [53k] on earth as in heavens

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg [68k] our daily bread give us today

and forgyf us ure gyltas [55k] and forgive us our sins

swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum [65k] as we forgive those-who-have-sinned-against-us

and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge [57k] and not lead thou us into temptation

ac alys us of yfele soþlice [69k] but deliver us from evil. truly.

[man_in_mudboots]

John Miller, writing in the Wall Street Journal, asserts that every time a language dies, it's time to celebrate because it means another "primitive" tribe has joined the modern world.

i resent that , even though it is true.......my own language, cajun french is alll but dead because none but cajuns speak it......a european french man wouldnt be able to understand it.......it became very blurred because of mixes with the choctaw indinas, slang, and with the hordes of new creatures the acadians found, they had to invent new names to call them by.