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kdnxdr · Sep 18, 2007

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editori...atid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne

ColoradoGuy · Sep 19, 2007

The issue to me is the extent to which we should mourn this inevitable language loss or simply note it. I can see a good argument for maintaining genetic diversity in biological systems because it is the substrate for adaptive change, for evolution. I'm not sure one can say the same thing about language. I suppose if we ride the language-determines-thought hobby horse a little we could argue language loss correlates with loss of ways of thinking, but I'd want to see real data before I accepted that metaphor as a real thing. If we see language as simply a tool, although a beautiful one, then humans are always devising new tools. And, since it's a communication tool, the more we intermingle the more likely we are to discard old versions of it.

robeiae · Sep 19, 2007

If you ride that hobby horse too much--as many do--you start believing it's a real horse.

Languages die. Things change. People die. People change. Interest rates fluctuate. Eh, life.

kdnxdr · Sep 23, 2007

I'm in no way educated about language/linguistics but I enjoy working with words and wish now that I had studied this subject when I was younger. One thing that I've always been intriqued with is how words don't just evaporate but that they go through a deconstruction and morph into other words that hold traces of the previous.

If a culture was facing extinction, I could understand why language preservation would be critical. If a culture serves no one, then maybe, extinction is the only way to go.

Thought ya'll might be interested in this article:

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

robeiae

Touch and go

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world