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> political currents don’t have to move in one direction. It’s not inevitable that endangered languages become extinct. There really isn't any good incentive t
by gregdaniels421 2mo ago
> political currents don’t have to move in one direction. It’s not inevitable that endangered languages become extinct.
There really isn't any good incentive to learn a language with very few speakers, since unless you already know a speaker, you really can't practice the real language. People were a few years ago at least hoping llms could help preserve the languages, but more most of them, there just aren't enough samples for any real preservation. I knew some dudes in college that were linguists that worked on recording native speakers of endangered languages, and while I hoped they would succeed, I never really had much hope of it working.
- mohamedkoubaa 2mo agoEmpirically, the best way to keep a language alive is for a user of that language to write a Great Work in it.
- gregdaniels421 2mo agoIf there are 80 speaker/readers, how could a language get popular again? By interested readers of a translation?
- cineticdaffodil 2mo agoUnless the language lacks concepts and like scientific recombinateability and the cultural Nexus of youth just moves.
- niemandhier 2mo agoPeople learn Klingon or Esperanto. You could probably convince me to join a hypothetical “Worshipful society of Gentlemen speaking Sumerian”.
- wl 2mo agoThere's a lot of disagreement about Sumerian grammar. If you like to argue, that might be a bonus.
- mdp2021 2mo ago> learn a language with very few speakers Learn Sanskrit. You were writing in a descendant language just now. If you learnt the roots, you would understand the descendants better. And they are your tools, and knowing your tools is important. Other more obscure languages? Well, as implied, languages are related... So studying the network clarifies the whole.
- jrkfjdifc 2mo ago[flagged]
- mxjxjxjd 2mo agoyeah, I wasted several years of valuable education time on a dead language instead of a foreign living one and it is NOT worth it unless you're a very specific kind of person. it is not going to help you understand English. I learned Latin. It's not helpful for anything. It's totally useless, and it's closer to English than Sanskrit. It was a total waste of time
- NonHyloMorph 2mo agoLearning latin in school as a kid/teenager vastly improved my ability to learn english. Also helped alot with latinisms and academic lingo, which feels just natural, having internalised its semantic roots. So imho your statement it's not a universal truth. Still wouldn't learn a dead language as a grown up though.
- mtalantikite 2mo agoI have the Assimil Sanskrit course sitting on my shelf that I’ve been meaning to spend time with. Would love to be able to read old sutras one of these days.
- wbl 2mo agoSanskrit is not an ancestor of English. Sanskrit is a satem language English centum. Proto Indo Iranian diverged long ago.
- forgotmyusernam 2mo agoBut what good can come from preserving languages that already do not have enough samples? Do languages have value in themselves?