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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956 |
Heres a link to a NY Times Q & A session with French linguist Claude Hagège The Death of Languages
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
A pretty good set of answers to some interesting questions. Thanks. For reference, the French Wikipedia article on Claude Hagège).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 95
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 95 |
Facinating article; I spent portions of the last two summers in Alaska. I met with people who are involved with reviving Tlinget, one of the native languages spoken in Southeast Alaska. It is really endangered as there are about 150 native speakers left.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Wow; thanks, olly, for posting that great article. I hope Anu reads it--I know he'd be interested.
Someone posited this: Suppose everyone woke up tomorrow fluently speaking, writing, and reading the same one language, in addition to the one(s) they now speak. Prof. Hagège responds in part, It would be infelicitous, because the cultural, and hence linguistic, diversity of the world is the main factor of its richness. A one language world would be an unbearable world, in which people would be bored to death.
Does everyone here agree with that?
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
Does everyone here agree with that?
Not sure I agree with that, but I can tell you that a one-language world could never exist, unless, of course, there were only one or two people left.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
unless, of course, there were only one or two people left.  I particularly liked this part of the article: "I would tend to think that arts play a rather limited role in the survival of a language. This applies, in particular, to painting, sculpture and architecture, which are particular types of communication, able to deliver messages by using other means than words. However, historically, many traces of extinct languages are transmitted to us by linguistic messages which accompany works of art."Just yesterday visiting the really marvellous Cèzanne-Picasso-Mondriaan exhibition we agreed that one picture is a thousand words, ( one word is not a thousand pictures) while a guide was pulling the words out one to tell a bus-group of visitors what they were meant to see.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
The history and culture of any people forms its language. Language in turn subtly shapes our thoughts and therefore our culture.
I was told that in Turkish the word for tourist is the same as the word for a guest in your home. Certainly we were treated more as invited guests than as foreigners or potential customers. I wonder how different it would be if the synonym for tourist was invader.
If everyone spoke Earthian in addition to their own language I wonder if the other languages would be lost. Most Dine' (Navaho) I met speak English fluently but Dine' to each other, I don't know if that will continue as they disperse or not.
Not a definitive answer to your question but...
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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Don't think the world would be boring when we all would speak the same language because the world as it is, is infinitely not boring, whether put in words or not. It would not lead to better understanding of eachother either, when you consider all the misunderstandings that occur between people that in fact do speak the same language.
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