There was one quotation in particular that stood out to me when I read Ruiz Zafón's La Sombra Del Viento last summer: "There's no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds" ("No hay lenguas muertas, sino cerebros aletargados"). For those of you who may not know, my recent quarantine undertaking just so happens to be learning a fifth language: Latin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this very undertaking of mine was many-a-time faced with the age-old question: "Why Latin? It's a dead language." Granted, Latin may no longer be an official language or widely spoken, but is it really dead? What even constitutes a 'dead' language? Truth be told, I'm no expert in the matter - but there's no harm in doing a bit of research and sparking up a conversation as I do so. As usual, be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Any sources that I have used will be listed at the bottom of this post if you are interested in wider reading.
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Categorically, the death of a language is a defined concept. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a dead language is one that "is no longer spoken by anyone as their main language". There is a key difference to be determined between dead languages and extinct languages, for there are those who still choose to learn dead languages - and the same cannot be said for extinct languages. Key, current examples of extinct languages include those of indigenous groups in Latin America, whose languages slowly come to be replaced by Spanish or Portuguese. Interestingly, up to half of the world's estimated 7111 languages are expected to become extinct by 2100, with roughly 40% of said languages already endangered.
But what causes a language to die? The answer isn't so simple. As stated by UNESCO, languages can be threatened by both external and internal forces, with external forces including "military, economic, religious, cultural or educational subjugation" and internal forces "a community's negative attitude towards its own language." That being said, there is two factors which link many of these forces together: development and globalisation. Why is it that, in countries all around the world, children are now choosing to learn English as a second language instead of a regional language? To put the matter simply, our society has begun to move away from valuing tradition to valuing economic growth, meaning that children are now taught English at a young age to not only broaden their cultural horizons, but to improve their career prospects in an evermore globalised workplace.
Is language death necessarily negative, though? You tell me, because the linguists just cannot seem to agree! Some linguists assert that language is not as inherently linked to culture as some believe them to be, hence rendering language loss artistic more than anything. Others, however, would argue that language loss stamps out an entirely different mode of thought. Think, many of the world's greatest thinkers are those whose texts were written in Latin and/or Ancient Greek. If these languages had been lost over the course of the years, would we have ever had access to their ideas? In such a case, how many more such ideas go forgotten each year?
That being said, Latin and Ancient Greek appear to be among the 'special cases'. Why? They did not die as much as they did evolve. Vulgar Latin morphed into the Romance languages we know today, and Ancient Greek into Modern Greek. In spite of both this and the fact that neither of the two are spoken today, at least not commonly, people continue to learn Latin and Ancient Greek to this very day. While some continue to learn Latin so as to gain a better knowledge of another language's grammar systems and etymology, others learn it for religious purposes. The most fascinating for me, though, are those who learn Latin so as to better understand how our society evolved over the centuries. While Ancient Rome was undoubtedly among the most advanced civilizations of their time, what is there to say that other less talked about groups and their languages cannot hold the secrets to the answers we so desperately long for today?
The answer to the above lies in the matter of disponibility. One of the reasons why we are still able to learn Latin today is due to the sheer amount of material that the speakers of its time left behind, in addition to the materials that are continually being produced today. By way of example, Duolingo - arguably the most popular, free language learning app today - added Latin to its list of many language programmes just last year. Whilst we're on the topic, new Latin words continue to be added each and every year; you best not believe that the Ancient Romans created the word 'Tela Totius Terrae', otherwise known as the World Wide Web! Why is there such disparity in the amount of resources available, though? In the capitalist society that we live in today, it's all about supply and demand. At the end of the day, we cannot sustainably produce materials for lesser-known languages if people simply do not care to learn them.
That brings me to today's conclusion. Yes, dead languages do indeed exist - but to be a dead language is not to be in a state of perpetual doom, for there clearly continues to be an interest in resurrecting these very languages. As with many things, though, language survival is subject to a region's social, political and economic climate; so while there is something to be said for global projects launched to aid the teaching, and thus survival, of at-risk languages, I believe there is more to be done in the way of holding those at the top of power chain accountable. But those are just my thoughts, of course, and I would very much like to hear yours in the comments below.
But what causes a language to die? The answer isn't so simple. As stated by UNESCO, languages can be threatened by both external and internal forces, with external forces including "military, economic, religious, cultural or educational subjugation" and internal forces "a community's negative attitude towards its own language." That being said, there is two factors which link many of these forces together: development and globalisation. Why is it that, in countries all around the world, children are now choosing to learn English as a second language instead of a regional language? To put the matter simply, our society has begun to move away from valuing tradition to valuing economic growth, meaning that children are now taught English at a young age to not only broaden their cultural horizons, but to improve their career prospects in an evermore globalised workplace.
Is language death necessarily negative, though? You tell me, because the linguists just cannot seem to agree! Some linguists assert that language is not as inherently linked to culture as some believe them to be, hence rendering language loss artistic more than anything. Others, however, would argue that language loss stamps out an entirely different mode of thought. Think, many of the world's greatest thinkers are those whose texts were written in Latin and/or Ancient Greek. If these languages had been lost over the course of the years, would we have ever had access to their ideas? In such a case, how many more such ideas go forgotten each year?
That being said, Latin and Ancient Greek appear to be among the 'special cases'. Why? They did not die as much as they did evolve. Vulgar Latin morphed into the Romance languages we know today, and Ancient Greek into Modern Greek. In spite of both this and the fact that neither of the two are spoken today, at least not commonly, people continue to learn Latin and Ancient Greek to this very day. While some continue to learn Latin so as to gain a better knowledge of another language's grammar systems and etymology, others learn it for religious purposes. The most fascinating for me, though, are those who learn Latin so as to better understand how our society evolved over the centuries. While Ancient Rome was undoubtedly among the most advanced civilizations of their time, what is there to say that other less talked about groups and their languages cannot hold the secrets to the answers we so desperately long for today?
The answer to the above lies in the matter of disponibility. One of the reasons why we are still able to learn Latin today is due to the sheer amount of material that the speakers of its time left behind, in addition to the materials that are continually being produced today. By way of example, Duolingo - arguably the most popular, free language learning app today - added Latin to its list of many language programmes just last year. Whilst we're on the topic, new Latin words continue to be added each and every year; you best not believe that the Ancient Romans created the word 'Tela Totius Terrae', otherwise known as the World Wide Web! Why is there such disparity in the amount of resources available, though? In the capitalist society that we live in today, it's all about supply and demand. At the end of the day, we cannot sustainably produce materials for lesser-known languages if people simply do not care to learn them.
That brings me to today's conclusion. Yes, dead languages do indeed exist - but to be a dead language is not to be in a state of perpetual doom, for there clearly continues to be an interest in resurrecting these very languages. As with many things, though, language survival is subject to a region's social, political and economic climate; so while there is something to be said for global projects launched to aid the teaching, and thus survival, of at-risk languages, I believe there is more to be done in the way of holding those at the top of power chain accountable. But those are just my thoughts, of course, and I would very much like to hear yours in the comments below.
SOURCES
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dead-language
https://www.globallanguageservices.co.uk/difference-extinct-language-dead-language/
https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/04/15/dying_languages_scientists_fret_as_one_disappears_every_14_days.html
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/languages-are-being-wiped-out-economic-growth
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/linguistic-diversity-online
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/039219219103915302?journalCode=dioa
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/11/whats-lost-when-a-language-dies/29886/
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Latin-considered-a-dead-language
https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/latin-modern-words/
https://www.globallanguageservices.co.uk/difference-extinct-language-dead-language/
https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/04/15/dying_languages_scientists_fret_as_one_disappears_every_14_days.html
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/languages-are-being-wiped-out-economic-growth
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/linguistic-diversity-online
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/039219219103915302?journalCode=dioa
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/11/whats-lost-when-a-language-dies/29886/
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Latin-considered-a-dead-language
https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/latin-modern-words/