the language discussion (from ED section) - 05/03/09 06:54 AM
Originally Posted by swordscythe
Originally Posted by Foetsy
Learning one common language (say Esperanto) doesn't mean you'll lose the motherlanguage. Welsh nearly died out 30 years ago, because everyone began to speak English. Now Welsh is back as the motherlanguage (and they still speak English too).
At this point, I think we're not doing enough to preserve our cultural diversity, and while I applaud those who would simplify communication, I must also insist that we not forget who we are and where we come from. Perhaps there is a middle ground, where the mother tongue could be combined with a universal language, but that would probably mean an autonomy of lingual entities instead of the current nations, which is rather impossible at this time. It's so strange that there are three languages in Belgium. adding a universal tongue which everyone is required to know, on top of that, is just silly talk. So you would first have to divide those lingual subnations - which is proving to be far more difficult than suspected.
I forgot the word 'necessarily' (on purpose, because I didn't know how to spell it, I had to look it up now). I basically know nothing about the Welsh example, to be honest. Some Welsh guy just told me once the story that 30 years ago nearly nobody spoke the language anymore, and because of that, the government said 'from now one the schools will teach in Welsh!' (instead of English). I agree that if no one took any action, languages will die out (of you start using one common language). But, as a Dutch expression goes, you are always there (or present) when it happens. The Welsh were, they took action, and now they all speak 2 languages, basically. You can always take action when it happens.
But why would lingual entities need an form of autonomy to preserve their language? Here in the Netherlands we have Frisian, which is still spoken. Probably the number of people how speak it is less every decade, but don't think (after all these centuries of Dutch being the official language) that it will die out soon.
I think there are quite a number of ways to have one common language all over Europe (used for international communication only for example) without needing to sacrifice the 120 other languages that are spoken today (in Europe).
In Japan there was a language that was spoken by only 5 people or so at some point. Thanks to a certain programme a few hundred speak it again now. Latin is a dead language, but even for that there are certain 'groups' that try to speak it fluently (don't ask me why).
