Dying Languages

[SD_Film Artists]

This^

Multiple languages just makes things complicated with little to no advantage.

We'd lose so much great literature and so many interesting grammatical, semantic and phonological features if we had only one language.

No we won't, people are still free to learn Latin, Aztec and other anachronistic languages if they want to.

[Lucent Dawn]

We'd lose so much great literature and so many interesting grammatical, semantic and phonological features if we had only one language.

No we won't, people are still free to learn Latin, Aztec and other anachronistic languages if they want to.

There could be alot of folklore/oral tales we've lost from the death of languages.

[SD_Film Artists]

No we won't, people are still free to learn Latin, Aztec and other anachronistic languages if they want to.

There could be alot of folklore/oral tales we've lost from the death of languages.

Oral tales are prone to 'death' no matter which language they're in.

[Indeos]

No we won't, people are still free to learn Latin, Aztec and other anachronistic languages if they want to.

There could be alot of folklore/oral tales we've lost from the death of languages.

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

[Farnhamia]

There could be alot of folklore/oral tales we've lost from the death of languages.

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

One could, but then one could also argue that knowledge is valuable for its own sake. Languages die out for a variety of reasons, but they have things to teach us about the workings of the human mind. Folklore and mythology in extinct languages is valuable for that very reason.

[Lucent Dawn]

There could be alot of folklore/oral tales we've lost from the death of languages.

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

I don't think that's a valid argument seeing as they died because the language did.
Although, "valuable" needs to be defined.

[SD_Film Artists]

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

I don't think that's a valid argument seeing as they died because the language did.
Although, "valuable" needs to be defined.

They died because the last person who knows of it died. If it was valuable then it would have been written down long before the language died.

[Lucent Dawn]

I don't think that's a valid argument seeing as they died because the language did.
Although, "valuable" needs to be defined.

They died because the last person who knows of it died. If it was valuable then it would have been written down long before the language died.

Well, it's obviously not valuable now that we don't know anything about it and can't do anything with it.
It's value is theoretical, I suppose.

[SD_Film Artists]

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

Although, "valuable" needs to be defined.

It doesn't have to be a huge commercial success, just written down somewhere..

[Parhe]

There are reasons why these languages are dying out, and many times its because the people who "should" be learning the language just has no interest and doesn't want to. Now, if its dying because it is being suppressed in some way by society and/or the government, then yes, we should try to preserve it, but otherwise, leave it alone.

[Indeos]

One could argue that they aren't very valuable if they weren't kept alive.

One could, but then one could also argue that knowledge is valuable for its own sake. Languages die out for a variety of reasons, but they have things to teach us about the workings of the human mind. Folklore and mythology in extinct languages is valuable for that very reason.

True. I won't suggest nobody should try to preserve language, but I simply don't think it's worth it. It's unlikely that anything will be exclusive to any language.

Really, I doubt conscious actions are required for preserving and acquiring knowledge, as long as there are no conscious attempts to destroy it or prevent it from being acquired.

[Lucent Dawn]

Although, "valuable" needs to be defined.

It doesn't have to be a huge commercial success, just written down somewhere..

I wasn't assuming commercial in any way...
I was focusing more on historical and linguistic value.

[SD_Film Artists]

They died because the last person who knows of it died. If it was valuable then it would have been written down long before the language died.

Well, it's obviously not valuable now that we don't know anything about it and can't do anything with it.
It's value is theoretical, I suppose.

Who says that the theoretical story is unavailible and unable to be saved? People will still know the language, just not taught in schools (reserved for university/college). It's not as if everyone who knows Spanish/English/Korean etc will suddenly have their minds wiped.

[Manahakatouki]

I'd want languages to survive...But I don't think we need to intervene...People losing their culture is called history...If they lose their culture/language themselves, then that's their fault...

And if we have to have a universal language, please not have it being English...It's a god awful version of some better older languages, in which I'm not going to state because of tiredness and the logging off I'm to do as I press the "enter" key...

[Lucent Dawn]

Well, it's obviously not valuable now that we don't know anything about it and can't do anything with it.
It's value is theoretical, I suppose.

Who says that the theoretical story is unavailible and unable to be saved? People will still know the language, just not taught in schools (reserved for university/college). It's not as if everyone who knows Spanish/English/Korean etc will suddenly have their minds wiped.

I was intending to say if the story had never been recorded and never passed down, so the last person living who knew it had died. Sorry.

[Farnhamia]

One could, but then one could also argue that knowledge is valuable for its own sake. Languages die out for a variety of reasons, but they have things to teach us about the workings of the human mind. Folklore and mythology in extinct languages is valuable for that very reason.

True. I won't suggest nobody should try to preserve language, but I simply don't think it's worth it. It's unlikely that anything will be exclusive to any language.

Really, I doubt conscious actions are required for preserving and acquiring knowledge, as long as there are no conscious attempts to destroy it or prevent it from being acquired.

No conscious actions? If no one records these endangered languages before the last native speaker dies, they won't record themselves. That the problem with them, they are often the languages of marginalized peoples, without technology and sometimes without a written language. So yeah, conscious effort must be made to record and preserve the languages.

[SD_Film Artists]

Who says that the theoretical story is unavailible and unable to be saved? People will still know the language, just not taught in schools (reserved for university/college). It's not as if everyone who knows Spanish/English/Korean etc will suddenly have their minds wiped.

I was intending to say if the story had never been recorded and never passed down, so the last person living who knew it had died. Sorry.

Ah k.

As I said, it's prone to death nomatter which language its in or what language their son/daughter speaks. They could tell it to their children- "we had this saying- X and in Y language it means A".

[Parhe]

IF there must be a universal language, then it should be Mandarin Chinese since it has the most speakers, and its pretty easy to learn to write, read and talk, it only took my cousin(9yrs old) two years to "master" it, as in talk to native speakers and sound also like a native.

[SD_Film Artists]

IF there must be a universal language, then it should be Mandarin Chinese since it has the most speakers, and its pretty easy to learn to write, read and talk, it only took my cousin(9yrs old) two years to "master" it, as in talk to native speakers and sound also like a native.

And in how many countries? 1

Perhaps Taiwan too, but that's politics...

[Indeos]

True. I won't suggest nobody should try to preserve language, but I simply don't think it's worth it. It's unlikely that anything will be exclusive to any language.

Really, I doubt conscious actions are required for preserving and acquiring knowledge, as long as there are no conscious attempts to destroy it or prevent it from being acquired.

No conscious actions? If no one records these endangered languages before the last native speaker dies, they won't record themselves. That the problem with them, they are often the languages of marginalized peoples, without technology and sometimes without a written language. So yeah, conscious effort must be made to record and preserve the languages.

Hmm. I was too broad. No conscious action needs to be taken to preserve the spoken language. We don't need to educate people in speaking the language beyond their ability to preserve and translate any important bits. After that, the language can go the way of Latin and a million others.

Again, though, I doubt anything is exclusive to a language. Some marginalized people aren't going to figure something out that nobody else will ever be able to figure out.

[Parhe]

IF there must be a universal language, then it should be Mandarin Chinese since it has the most speakers, and its pretty easy to learn to write, read and talk, it only took my cousin(9yrs old) two years to "master" it, as in talk to native speakers and sound also like a native.

And in how many countries? 1

I believe two, but a universal language must be known by a majority of the population, so it would be easiest to start with the language with already the most speakers. I would have said Spanish, but the language varies too much from Spain to Latin America, and I've heard also within Latin America.

[Indeos]

And in how many countries? 1

I believe two, but a universal language must be known by a majority of the population, so it would be easiest to start with the language with already the most speakers. I would have said Spanish, but the language varies too much from Spain to Latin America, and I've heard also within Latin America.

I vote French or English. Mostly because those are the ones I'm learning. (Native English speaker, but you never stop learning a language. Especially not English.)

[SD_Film Artists]

And in how many countries? 1

I believe two, but a universal language must be known by a majority of the population, so it would be easiest to start with the language with already the most speakers. I would have said Spanish, but the language varies too much from Spain to Latin America, and I've heard also within Latin America.

The problem is that Chinese may have a large or even largest number of speakers, but it's concentrated into one country (two if you count Taiwan). English is all over the world.

[SD_Film Artists]

I believe two, but a universal language must be known by a majority of the population, so it would be easiest to start with the language with already the most speakers. I would have said Spanish, but the language varies too much from Spain to Latin America, and I've heard also within Latin America.

I vote French or English. Mostly because those are the ones I'm learning. (Native English speaker, but you never stop learning a language. Especially not English.)

Nice, same here

[Manahakatouki]

I believe two, but a universal language must be known by a majority of the population, so it would be easiest to start with the language with already the most speakers. I would have said Spanish, but the language varies too much from Spain to Latin America, and I've heard also within Latin America.

I vote French or English. Mostly because those are the ones I'm learning. (Native English speaker, but you never stop learning a language. Especially not English.)

No way man. Latin is the way to go...