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I studied Cantonese for a couple of years, and even used the language in my Hacker News username. What I find disturbing is how quickly a language as large as C
by laylomo2 6y ago
I studied Cantonese for a couple of years, and even used the language in my Hacker News username. What I find disturbing is how quickly a language as large as Cantonese can be eroded away in just a couple of generations.
I suppose this isn't a problem if you don't value language diversity; but it certainly saddens me to be witnessing probably the largest scale mass extinction of one of the defining features of human evolution, as the world trends towards easier communication for the masses. If I remember correctly, we are currently on track to lose the vast majority of the world's 7000 languages in the next 80 years.
At the same time, it brings me great joy that I can be alive at a time where large scale language diversity is still a thing, and I can witness it first-hand. (Sorry to those of you reading 1000 years from now :) )
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- silicon2401 6y ago> it certainly saddens me to be witnessing probably the largest scale mass extinction of one of the defining features of human evolution, as the world trends towards easier communication for the masses. It saddens you that more people can communicate? As a fellow language fan, I appreciate languages as much as anyone else, but I would definitely have the whole world speaking one language fluently and be on a level playing field than have people unable to participate in global society because they didn't happen to be raised speaking the language (or don't have resources/motivation to learn as an adult).
- laylomo2 6y ago> It saddens you that more people can communicate? I literally didn't say that or imply that at all :) In fact, I think that easier communication is actually a good thing. What saddens me is that realistically it will probably be too challenging to maintain the daily use of all those languages, and eventually they will all succumb to history.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- senorsmile 6y agoI love human (and programming) languages so much that it depresses me to even consider a world where everyone only spoke 1 language.