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In reply to the discussion: The tragedy of dying languages [View all]zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)4. What's really lost
The passing of a tounge that virtually no one uses anymore isn't all that significant. However, what is really lost is knowledge:
They tell how their ancestors calculated accurately the passing of seasons without clocks or calendars. How humans adapted to hostile environments, from the Arctic to Amazonia.
It is true that at almost every level we constantly have to learn, and relearn, old lessons because the knowledge is "lost". There's a concept known as "indigeous ways of knowing" which is basically culturally based knowledge. We won't lose the theory of relativity so to speak, but we might lose clues to the nature of certain cancers, or of climate patterns, because the knowledge is only currently known in "folk" terms, or this culturally based knowledge. Probably alot of anthropology and sociology Masters Thesis could be based on collecting this kind of folk information, and documenting its use.
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I'd disagree with "The passing of a tounge that virtually no one uses anymore isn't all that
MichaelMcGuire
Feb 2012
#10
You probably would understand a few words of Aeld Englisc as compared to Irish Gaelic
geardaddy
Feb 2012
#41
During World War I there was a lot of pressure on immigrant communities to use English
FarCenter
Feb 2012
#68
Several years ago, I saw a documentary on PBS about the treatment of the Cajuns in Lousiana
aint_no_life_nowhere
Feb 2012
#30
I have never met a left-winger who was offended when immigrants spoke their native language
Lydia Leftcoast
Feb 2012
#67
My middle daughter took four years of latin in high school. Teacher retired and it's gone.
HopeHoops
Feb 2012
#75