4 ms·

Language is pretty foundational to culture. When you lose a language you lose more than a way of speaking, but also the subtleties and emotions behind the "sha

Language is pretty foundational to culture. When you lose a language you lose more than a way of speaking, but also the subtleties and emotions behind the "shape" of certain words, not to mention those words that reflect something so unique to that culture that you can't really translate them. The death of a language is the death of a world. Saying there should be fewer spoken languages is frankly a very unempathetic thing to say.

chaostheory 4y ago
Saying there should be more different languages shows an ignorance to both history and psychology. Having less major cultures has the same effect on potential conflict
- pg_1234 4y ago
  And there's the cost of keeping a dying language alive. You're basically asking people to sacrifice their lives to a less useful language, a mere social utility, so you can maintain a sort of "cultural linguistic zoo" ... and yes you are by this analogy relegating them to the role of animals in a theme park. Think of what that entails: "No, you can't be taught in the language that will get you into university and get you the best jobs. You must dedicate a significant portion portion of your life to something we already know is a dead end for you personally, because we have decided that it is more important that a legacy tool be kept alive than that you prosper as a person."
scoofy 4y ago
>not to mention those words that reflect something so unique to that culture that you can't really translate them You've inverted the role of language. Language is what we use to communicate the things we feel, we gain essentially nothing from the words themselves. Even when you think you're communicating something very specific with the words you are using, there's little reason to believe that the person on the other end of the conversation really gets what you're trying to communicate. In a practical sense, you can easily communicate, but these deep, almost mystical, meanings you're implying... it's just not really something that can be known. The is the point of the indeterminacy of translation illustrated by W.V. Quine.
midoridensha 4y ago
How many dying languages/dialects have you personally learned and worked to keep alive?

chaostheory 4y ago

Saying there should be more different languages shows an ignorance to both history and psychology. Having less major cultures has the same effect on potential conflict

pg_1234 4y ago
And there's the cost of keeping a dying language alive. You're basically asking people to sacrifice their lives to a less useful language, a mere social utility, so you can maintain a sort of "cultural linguistic zoo" ... and yes you are by this analogy relegating them to the role of animals in a theme park. Think of what that entails: "No, you can't be taught in the language that will get you into university and get you the best jobs. You must dedicate a significant portion portion of your life to something we already know is a dead end for you personally, because we have decided that it is more important that a legacy tool be kept alive than that you prosper as a person."

scoofy 4y ago

>not to mention those words that reflect something so unique to that culture that you can't really translate them You've inverted the role of language. Language is what we use to communicate the things we feel, we gain essentially nothing from the words themselves. Even when you think you're communicating something very specific with the words you are using, there's little reason to believe that the person on the other end of the conversation really gets what you're trying to communicate. In a practical sense, you can easily communicate, but these deep, almost mystical, meanings you're implying... it's just not really something that can be known. The is the point of the indeterminacy of translation illustrated by W.V. Quine.

midoridensha 4y ago

How many dying languages/dialects have you personally learned and worked to keep alive?