Death of a culture

[Tommy Tainant]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

 

[Kosh]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

Well if the kids were not so lazy, maybe they would learn and up hold their languages.

 

[Unkotare]

Languages, like animal species, develop and become extinct periodically over time.

 

[Unkotare]

Endangered Languages Project

 

[Unkotare]

Documenting Endangered Languages

 

[Ravi]

It isn't just a US thing. It's a world wide thing.

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

 

[yiostheoy]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

There are university professors who with their research grants are copying down everything they can about these Native American languages.

A lot of knowledge was lost in Meso and South America when the Spanish Conquistadors burned many manuscripts compiled by investigators in the name of the Church.

 

[yiostheoy]

It isn't just a US thing. It's a world wide thing.

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

Essentially there are only a handful of practical world languages left.

1 - English (thank you Queen Elizabeth 1st)
2 - Spanish (thank you Charles 5th)
3 - Mandarin (thank you Ming Dynasty)
4 - Hindu (thank you Veda's)
5 - Arabic (due to Muhammad -- I'm not going to thank him -- he has caused all kinds of other sh!t as well)
6 - Russian (thank you Katherine The Great)

All the other languages are useless and should be allowed to die, other than perhaps ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek and Latin for Biblical purposes.

 

[Vastator]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

No. It is not an issue .

 

[yiostheoy]

Throughout history languages and empires and their cultures have come and gone over and over.

The ancient Egyptians were conquered first by the Persians, then by the Greeks, then by the Romans, and finally by the Arabs. There is some Egyptian DNA left there now but it is mostly Arab.

Most of the ancient Hebrews are gone now and only the Jews are left, and they are also mostly in-breeds.

The ancient Babylonians are all gone except for the Jews.

The ancient Assyrians are all gone except for a few enclaves in Chicago and San Jose CA.

The Celtic language only survives in Ireland.

Basque is almost gone.

Occitan is almost completely gone in France.

Nothing new.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

Type that in the original language of your people

 

[Unkotare]

It isn't just a US thing. It's a world wide thing.

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

Essentially there are only a handful of practical world languages left.

1 - English (thank you Queen Elizabeth 1st)
2 - Spanish (thank you Charles 5th)
3 - Mandarin (thank you Ming Dynasty)
4 - Hindu (thank you Veda's)
5 - Arabic (due to Muhammad -- I'm not going to thank him -- he has caused all kinds of other sh!t as well)
6 - Russian (thank you Katherine The Great)

All the other languages are useless and should be allowed to die, other than perhaps ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek and Latin for Biblical purposes.

More noisy ignorance ^^^^^^^^

 

[Bob Blaylock]

It seems to me that Mankind is rapidly approaching the point where nearly everyone in the world will speak and understand a common language. English seems to be poised to become this common world language.

After the Tower of Babel, God broke up the world, scattered Mankind, and confounded our tongues.

Thousands of year later, it now seems to be his will that this finally be reversed.

We've progressed in technology to where it is now possible, albeit at some significant cost, for any person to get from almost anywhere in the world to almost anywhere else in the world in a matter of hours. Even without physically travelling, we can communicate instantly from any where in the world to anywhere else. Worldwide, instant communication is making it increasingly imperative for all the world to learn a common language.

As a matter of historical value, it seems desirable to preserve some record of old languages and cultures, even as they die out from actual use; but as a practical matter, what the world needs now is a common language to be learned, spoken, and understood by everyone. English seems to be poised to become this world language. And when you speak one language, that everyone else understands, what practical need would there be to know any other language?

 

[Unkotare]

It seems to me that Mankind is rapidly approaching the point where nearly everyone in the world will speak and understand a common language. English seems to be poised to become this common world language.

After the Tower of Babel, God broke up the world, scattered Mankind,and confounded our tongues.

Thousands of year later, it now seems to be his will that this finally be reversed.....

Just the opposite.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Throughout history languages and empires and their cultures have come and gone over and over.

The ancient Egyptians were conquered first by the Persians, then by the Greeks, then by the Romans, and finally by the Arabs. There is some Egyptian DNA left there now but it is mostly Arab.

Most of the ancient Hebrews are gone now and only the Jews are left, and they are also mostly in-breeds.

The ancient Babylonians are all gone except for the Jews.

The ancient Assyrians are all gone except for a few enclaves in Chicago and San Jose CA.

The Celtic language only survives in Ireland.

Basque is almost gone.

Occitan is almost completely gone in France.

Nothing new.

Thats a wildly inaccurate list. Occitan is spoken by 1.5m people in France, Basque is spoken by 27% of the population and Welsh is spoken by 20% of the population. In Wales the welsh language schools are over subscribed.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

Well if the kids were not so lazy, maybe they would learn and up hold their languages.

In many instances the languages have been crushed by the prevailing culture. This holds true across the world. My Taid was brought up speaking Welsh at home but english in school. His parents told him he had to speak english if he wanted to get on in life. And that was in Wales.
I believe this was the case with some Native American languages.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

It isn't just a US thing. It's a world wide thing.

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

Essentially there are only a handful of practical world languages left.

1 - English (thank you Queen Elizabeth 1st)
2 - Spanish (thank you Charles 5th)
3 - Mandarin (thank you Ming Dynasty)
4 - Hindu (thank you Veda's)
5 - Arabic (due to Muhammad -- I'm not going to thank him -- he has caused all kinds of other sh!t as well)
6 - Russian (thank you Katherine The Great)

All the other languages are useless and should be allowed to die, other than perhaps ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek and Latin for Biblical purposes.

Wow.

 

[guno]

Some Languages are making a comeback


Yiddish Is Making a Comeback and for Good Reason
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/the-jewish-thinker/.premium-1.702533

Yiddish on the rise

According to the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University fewer than one million people worldwide still speak Yiddish, compared with over 11m in 1939. Five of the six million Jewish Holocaust victims spoke Yiddish. A “nearly murdered language”, is how Michael Alpert, an American klezmer musician, describes it. But the decision made by the organisers of the Krakow festival to focus not on Hebrew or Holocaust studies but on Yiddish was unsurprising: the language appears to be recovering. Mr Alpert says the number of Yiddish speakers has increased in recent years, citing both the high birthrate of Hasidic communities worldwide, who still use the language, and also its appeal as “hip and cool, part of the new face of Jewish Poland”.http://forward.com/articles/10212/mamaloshn-why-the-gay-connection/

So it was that among a week of events related to Jewish culture in Krakow were Yiddish singing, dancing, concerts, lectures on Yiddish culture and literature, and—of course—Yiddish schmoozing. Schmooze, like kvetch, schlep and schmutz, arrived in the English language with the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi immigrants who came to America at the turn of the last century. A Germanic language with a Hebrew-based alphabet, Yiddish originated in Central Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries as a fusion of German with Aramaic and Hebrew. It became a separate language, and duly became the dominant spoken tongue of Ashkenazi Jews, and ultimately a word connoting their culture.

“It’s a dying language on the rise,” says Jeff Warschauer, a New Yorker who has led Yiddish singing workshops at the festival since the 1990s

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/07/jewish-culture

 

[Iceweasel]

Native American Languages

Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.


This seems to me to be an American tragedy.

6 Last Living Speakers of Dying Languages

Imagine being the last one standing. Is this a big issue in the States ?

How many people speak Latin these days?

 

[JakeStarkey]

It seems to me that Mankind is rapidly approaching the point where nearly everyone in the world will speak and understand a common language. English seems to be poised to become this common world language.

After the Tower of Babel, God broke up the world, scattered Mankind, and confounded our tongues.

Thousands of year later, it now seems to be his will that this finally be reversed.

We've progressed in technology to where it is now possible, albeit at some significant cost, for any person to get from almost anywhere in the world to almost anywhere else in the world in a matter of hours. Even without physically travelling, we can communicate instantly from any where in the world to anywhere else. Worldwide, instant communication is making it increasingly imperative for all the world to learn a common language.

As a matter of historical value, it seems desirable to preserve some record of old languages and cultures, even as they die out from actual use; but as a practical matter, what the world needs now is a common language to be learned, spoken, and understood by everyone. English seems to be poised to become this world language. And when you speak one language, that everyone else understands, what practical need would there be to know any other language?

Some very good points. English may become that common language, as it is certainly the most important language in business. Other contenders would believe, I think, Mandarin, Spanish, and Arabic.