dying languages
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=1251231
At some emotional level, I consider this quite sad; but I also consider it inevitable. It wouldn't surprise me to see only 10-12 languages commonly spoken by the end of this century.
At some emotional level, I consider this quite sad; but I also consider it inevitable. It wouldn't surprise me to see only 10-12 languages commonly spoken by the end of this century.
posted by mendip at
4:03 PM
1 Comments:
It's the tail end of a very long process. During the millennia of our hunter-gatherer existence, probably every separate social group of 100-200 people had its own language -- tens of thousands of languages, most of which vanished over time and were utterly forgotten.
The big imperial languages spread because they are more useful and have educational systems backing them up. That doesn't affect only tiny tribal groups. What language would you mostly hear in Dublin -- Gaelic or English? I'm posting this comment from the capital city of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire (in various incarnations) for centuries -- and everyone around me speaks Russian, not Ukrainian.
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Anonymous, at 2:04 AM
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