I think Zed's post answers this, at least partially:
I'm afraid that losing words will simplify the way we think.
The first example which comes to mind is color, things used to be cerulean or teal or azure or periwinkle blue. Now they are light, dark or "sort of a medium bluey-greeny kind of colour". If we only have a generic word for it do we only see a generic colour.
Well, this here is an example of the old Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; i.e., language shapes thought. Eskimos have forty-eleven names for snow so this must mean they can distinguish as many. Some Polynesian groups have only two words for colors, meaning warm and cool, therefore they can only see two colors. Hogwash®, I say!! While this theory once pulled me by my little college-girl ears, I think it's for the most part a bunch of baloney.
We discussed this elsewhere, can anyone with time and talent do a YART search?
