When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
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When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#2I've witnessed the death of a language with my own eyes. My father still speaks the local dialect but I don't and nobody of my age does. I just know a few words of it. It's really sad to see the death of a language, when a language dies, everything dies with it, the spirit of a culture dies. And most of these languages are not even recorded anywhere, there is just no trace of it. (that's also the case of the dialect I'm talking about).
However, a language rarely dies completely. Even if the next generations are not speaking it anymore, some words remains when the concept the word is describing does not exist in the new language, some traces are still there.
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#3I've witnessed the death of a language with my own eyes. My father still speaks the local dialect but I don't and nobody of my age does. I just know a few words of it. It's really sad to see the death of a language, when a language dies, everything dies with it, the spirit of a culture dies. And most of these languages are not even recorded anywhere, there is just no trace of it. (that's also the case of the dialect…
I don't want you to see this as a personal attack, but isn't it your father's fault not having taught you to speak this "dialect" (which, I guess, is a language called despectively a dialect)?
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#4I am a person who, as a polyglot, feels a lot of passion for languages, and can get really upset when I hear about languages that are dying. Guess you could compare the feeling with those of animal species getting extinct.
I often ask myself if I, as a programmer, could contribute to helping preserve at least some information about that of dying languages, or even prevent them getting extinct at all? Any ideas?
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#5I've witnessed the death of a language with my own eyes. My father still speaks the local dialect but I don't and nobody of my age does. I just know a few words of it. It's really sad to see the death of a language, when a language dies, everything dies with it, the spirit of a culture dies. And most of these languages are not even recorded anywhere, there is just no trace of it. (that's also the case of the dialect…
I don't want you to see this as a personal attack, but isn't it your father's fault not having taught you to speak this "dialect" (which, I guess, is a language called despectively a dialect)?
Blaming people contributes to this discussion how?
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#6I've witnessed the death of a language with my own eyes. My father still speaks the local dialect but I don't and nobody of my age does. I just know a few words of it. It's really sad to see the death of a language, when a language dies, everything dies with it, the spirit of a culture dies. And most of these languages are not even recorded anywhere, there is just no trace of it. (that's also the case of the dialect…
I don't want you to see this as a personal attack, but isn't it your father's fault not having taught you to speak this "dialect" (which, I guess, is a language called despectively a dialect)?
It's indeed part of the problem. It's clearly a chicken and egg problem, because it was already engendered at the time, he did not think it would be useful (and it was already a bit out of fashion). But yes I agree. I call it a dialect myself because it relies at least 20% on french (I'm french myself). But after all, I'm not a linguist, they might disagree with the appellation. Maybe it would be a good think to document it I guess, for future purpose.
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#7Languages were invented as means of communication, so if all languages disappear except one it'll be tremendous boost to humanity.
But once you link disappearance of language with words like endangered, dying, extinct, all of sudden it sounds terrible.
Power of the words.
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#8Languages were invented as means of communication, so if all languages disappear except one it'll be tremendous boost to humanity. But once you link disappearance of language with words like endangered, dying, extinct, all of sudden it sounds terrible. Power of the words.
Replace "language" with "race" in that sentiment and you'll understand how dangerous your sentiment is. Languages are not mere vessels for communication. They also hold within them cultural histories and ways of thinking. To want all of them eradicated but one is to proclaim one language "superior" to all.
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#9Languages were invented as means of communication, so if all languages disappear except one it'll be tremendous boost to humanity. But once you link disappearance of language with words like endangered, dying, extinct, all of sudden it sounds terrible. Power of the words.
There is so much more than communication inside a language, it carries a whole culture. If you only know English, I would advise you to learn another language, you will understand.
Re: When there's no one left to talk to: a guide to endangered languages
#10I've witnessed the death of a language with my own eyes. My father still speaks the local dialect but I don't and nobody of my age does. I just know a few words of it. It's really sad to see the death of a language, when a language dies, everything dies with it, the spirit of a culture dies. And most of these languages are not even recorded anywhere, there is just no trace of it. (that's also the case of the dialect…
I don't want you to see this as a personal attack, but isn't it your father's fault not having taught you to speak this "dialect" (which, I guess, is a language called despectively a dialect)?
My father tried quite hard to teach me and my brother Turkish when we were young. It's lucky Turkish isn't in any sense an endangered language, because today between us we know exactly zero words of Turkish. It's not exactly a foolproof process.