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> At the same time, each language is a barrier between people, one that prevents ideas to be shared and stories to be told. The fewer such barriers we have, the
by ACS_Solver 9y ago
> At the same time, each language is a barrier between people, one that prevents ideas to be shared and stories to be told. The fewer such barriers we have, the easier it becomes to understand others. Literally.
That is a strong case for having some language, like English, that everyone knows worldwide, in addition to their own languages.
Languages aren't a barrier between people. Not having at least one language in common is. The difference is subtle but enormously significant given that people can and do speak more than one language, and that full fluency in 2 or 3 languages is the norm in parts of the world.
There is a large amount of culture in every language. My own native language is quite small with no more than 2 million speakers, and for that language to disappear would also mean the loss of a lot of culture, and I do not just mean books and songs but also "everyday history" such as people's diaries, etc. And the loss of stuff we sometimes call untranslateable - not because it's impossible to translate per se perhaps but because there are often words or phrases that carry a particular cultural meaning.
- skummetmaelk 9y agoThis would be lost anyway as language evolves over time. You really have to study in order to understand old english as an english speaker, or latin as an italian.
- schoen 9y agoStill, (1) Having easy access to the last several generations' literature is very nice! (2) Knowing the modern form of the language is often a huge help to learning the ancient form, so losing native proficiency in modern languages would still be a hindrance to understanding older texts. (3) People can try to slow down language change in order to at least slightly reduce the magnitude of this effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_planning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_planning
- ACS_Solver 9y agoOld English is a fairly poor example because it was basically replaced by another language through conquest. While languages do evolve, it's a gradual process and they remain understandable for centuries. Shakespeare, Dante and Goethe are quite understandable to speakers of modern English, Italian and German. A speaker of Spanish or Italian can learn to read Latin texts even now with relatively little study. When the language of Julius Caesar is separated from modern Italian by 2000 years, the change process was so gradual that culture of the Roman Empire is still very visible in modern societies. That is not comparable to, for example, Mesoamerian cultures that were wiped out in a shorter period of time.