I definitely think saving dying languages is worth the effort! If anything, I believe language to be a huge part of a culture and to lose a language is to lose a culture. I wish more public schools in the US had better support in having students learn a language/culture.
I am a little curious about the linguist's POV where "we should instead consider what makes languages special... and integrate those elements into our speech as a way of making the language “live on” in a sense." Does he mean certain phrases that we have adopted from other languages (ie deja vu) and therefore in a sense making a frankenstein language?
Great question! To make sense of this idea, we can point to the revitalization of the Hebrew language (which by the way, is probably one of the most successful language revitalization movements to date). There are now millions of people that speak Hebrew as a native language, but in addition, there are many Jewish people who speak English natively (and are not necessarily native speakers of Hebrew) who will frequently borrow Hebrew and Yiddish terms in their everyday speech. For example, saying that someone has "chutzpah" (they have guts/boldness), calling someone "meshuggeneh" (crazy), or they might "kvetch" about something (complain). These words aren't necessarily common in the speech of non-Jewish English speakers (although some Yiddish & Hebrew terms have entered the vernacular, like to "schmooze" at a party), and can serve as a cultural identity marker while simultaneously keeping that language "alive."
I definitely think saving dying languages is worth the effort! If anything, I believe language to be a huge part of a culture and to lose a language is to lose a culture. I wish more public schools in the US had better support in having students learn a language/culture.
I am a little curious about the linguist's POV where "we should instead consider what makes languages special... and integrate those elements into our speech as a way of making the language “live on” in a sense." Does he mean certain phrases that we have adopted from other languages (ie deja vu) and therefore in a sense making a frankenstein language?
Great question! To make sense of this idea, we can point to the revitalization of the Hebrew language (which by the way, is probably one of the most successful language revitalization movements to date). There are now millions of people that speak Hebrew as a native language, but in addition, there are many Jewish people who speak English natively (and are not necessarily native speakers of Hebrew) who will frequently borrow Hebrew and Yiddish terms in their everyday speech. For example, saying that someone has "chutzpah" (they have guts/boldness), calling someone "meshuggeneh" (crazy), or they might "kvetch" about something (complain). These words aren't necessarily common in the speech of non-Jewish English speakers (although some Yiddish & Hebrew terms have entered the vernacular, like to "schmooze" at a party), and can serve as a cultural identity marker while simultaneously keeping that language "alive."
Oh wow! That's so cool. Also, did not know that schmooze was Yiddish/Hebrew. Tyty for answering!