
How to Save a Dying Language (2013) - Tomte
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-to-save-a-dying-language-4143017/?all
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ohduran
Languages don't die; people do. Languages are tools for communication, but
communication always happen between two people.

There's a great book called Language in Thought and Action, by S. I. Hayakawa,
where he discuss topics like this. I've put together some notes on that book
if you happen to be interested: [http://alvaroduran.com/language-in-though-
and-action](http://alvaroduran.com/language-in-though-and-action)

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tuukkah
A language needs to develop hand in hand with and by the community that uses
it. If the community withers, the language withers.

I suppose you can try to bring a dead language back to life in a new
community, but that's academic, artificial and distinct from natural
languages. [Edit: I don't want to say it's black or white but that the
discontinuity probably leaves at least a scar in the language and in the
community depending on how carefully the revival operation is performed.]

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dragonwriter
> I suppose you can try to bring a dead language back to life in a new
> community, but that's academic, artificial and distinct from natural
> languages.

How? If the evolution of language in continuous use with s community is
natural, so is it's revival by one (e.g., spoken Hebrew.) Dividing human
behavior into “natural” and “artificial” is arbitrary.

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tuukkah
Hebrew seems to be an interesting example as it's claimed to be the only
succesful revival. I don't know much about it but it sounds like the community
dispersed to later re-unite and also that the revived language exhibits some
discontinuities (which have or will fade with time).

The difference between natural and artificial (or constructed) languages is
well-defined in linguistics although there may be borderline cases.

Again, I don't want to claim that e.g. Hebrew would be somehow tainted as a
language now, just that it has endured something very atypical.

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leke
In this day and age, documenting does help, but I would say it's all about
linguistic identity to a community. If the community disappears, or another
language is adopted by that community, then the language will die. Like a lot
of things, children are the key.

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mikorym
I was suprised to learn about the Google project [1] for endangered languages.
There are languages in Southern Africa that have less than 10 speakers, some
eerily distinct from each other.

I don't really know how to manage a normal job and hobbies but somehow be
involved in this vanishing part of our history.

[1] [http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/](http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/)

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velcrovan
I was disappointed that the article didn’t actually explain how to save a
dying language.

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jimbob45
Fun fact: the opening scene of The Passion of the Christ had dialogue in
Aramaic.

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stevekemp
And the prostitutes in Bladerunner 2049 were speaking Finnish, which was a
surprise to hear!

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tuukkah
I hope Finnish is not a dying language though. Luckily, it has a flag and an
army as support.

