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Language is not knowledge or culture. It is merely a tool for communication. I deliberately chose not to teach my children my or my wife's fairly obscure and m

• has2k1 9y ago
  > Language is not knowledge or culture. It is merely a tool for communication A lot of culture co-evolves with language. In a language are myths and legends, some of which contribute to the words in the language, which then give birth to other proverbs and stories, and so on. All of which and fragments of which become available for communication. The more knowledge and culture a language loses, the more bland communication in that language becomes and the information density of the language decreases. This in turn affects communication because to maintain the same amount of information it has to become longer, so the attitude towards communication changes. And so does the message. The tool of communication is part of the message itself.
• toyg 9y ago
  For most intents and purposes, Italian is already a “fairly obscure and unintelligible language”. Unless you are a historian, you don’t need it. The influence it used to wield in music and cuisine has long been codified in a few specific words and nobody needs to understand anything of the surrounding structures. Outside of Italy, it’s kept around as a fashionable preserve of certain upper classes because it helps while on holiday, but anywhere else it’s completely irrelevant.