At least as important (and actually more important in my opinion) is that we are losing languages at a rapid clip due to urbanization and mass media just as we

At least as important (and actually more important in my opinion) is that we are losing languages at a rapid clip due to urbanization and mass media just as we are beginning to explore what language is at a fundamental level. The idea that a language could possibly have an OVS (object-verb-subject) order was almost laughable among linguists until very recently. There are elements of grammar that have only really been explored in a relative handful of major languages, and many nuanced things are still hiding in highly idiomatic expressions that are holdovers from earlier stages of existing languages. Trying to find out what makes language tick — what just may be what makes humanity human — with an ever-diminishing sample size is like trying to do astrophysics after everything but the local galactic cluster has receded beyond view.