From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Mar 24 2005 - 16:37:13 CST
>If a culture dies with [its] language, what [do] we loose if a language dies?
>
>For each language lost, a unique interpretation of the cosmos is lost.
>Each language has a unique way of carving up the universe, making sense of
>reality, relating to other humans and the environment, expressing a
>literature or a mythology. Monolinguals rarely have any idea what this
>means
Sometimes the simple fact is that the (sub-)culture is dying or stagnating,
and there is less for speakers to express.
If a language is bound to a rural or even nomadic culture, but modern life
finds the descendants in an urban environment, there may be little, except
for religion, of daily life that can be meaningfully communicated in it.
Add to that rapid technological change, and sooner or later even reasonably
sized communities have to work at maintaining a native vocabulary. And not
all of them are as aggressive about it as the Icelanders ;-)
A./
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