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Language is culture, and if the sapir-whorf hypothesis holds, different languages are literally different methods of thinking. there are also other potential b
by dontupvoteme 3y ago
Language is culture, and if the sapir-whorf hypothesis holds, different languages are literally different methods of thinking.
there are also other potential benefits, e.g. "the" in english gives little information about what noun may follow. "die/das/der" in general cut the probability space to a third.
- kmlx 3y ago> "the" in english gives little information about what noun may follow for us non-native english speakers, this is an understated blessing.
- Brusco_RF 3y agoWhen speakers of a dying language learn a dominant one they don't lose their way of thinking, rather they adapt the dominant language to their needs. In this way the dominant language evolves. It's why there are ~180k english words but only 1200 Sindarian words. While I agree that cultural loss is tragic, consider that it is inevitable. Homo Sapiens have existed for ~200,000 years. We only have SOME traces of SOME cultures for say 10k of those years. So from that lens, the vast majority of human culture has already been lost.