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81 Comments
- MikeonTV, on 11/21/2007, -4/+54Sounds like there wasn't much hope for this archaic language anyways!
- WordsnCollision, on 11/21/2007, -1/+45"What we have here, is a fail-ure to communicate!"... (sorry)
- duddles, on 11/21/2007, -0/+39In 500 years we will all speak English but curse in Mandarin.
- discoloda, on 11/21/2007, -11/+37I don't see how losing a language is that big of a deal, it is like natural selection for languages, it is going to happen to most languages. The human race will be better off as less and less languages are used in my uneducated opinion.
- dracostimpy, on 11/21/2007, -5/+29As long as they don't have any great wisdom to impart upon all of humanity, I don't give a crap.
- hbeierg, on 11/21/2007, -2/+16The delicious ones
- oreonblade, on 11/21/2007, -2/+15Isn't it bound to happen sooner or later? These days, new languages aren't appearing. Some dominate, some merge, but in the end there will only be a few left.
- suxmonkey, on 11/21/2007, -1/+13Well, even if the loss isn't a big deal in some peoples' minds, the story of why is still fairly hilarious :)
- thailand1972, on 11/21/2007, -1/+11"...The two elderly men in the village of Ayapan, Tabasco, have drifted apart..."
I blame the floods. - inactive, on 11/21/2007, -2/+10I'm not worried.
- daizaru, on 11/21/2007, -0/+8Shouldn't they be talking to other people and teaching other people in order for it to survive? I mean if they are both elderly and only speak it to each other... it was still bound to die with them. I don't understand how them speaking or not speaking only too each other makes any difference at all.
- fugazied, on 11/21/2007, -0/+8Lock them in a room together... At least we'll learn the swear words in the language!
- lukas88, on 11/21/2007, -0/+6Time for babel 2.0
- wbbb617, on 11/21/2007, -1/+6someone call me when Pig Latin is in danger of extinction and i'll care
- Schneckehaus, on 11/21/2007, -0/+4Primary thought in the pre-frontal cortex is typically "encapsulated" in the spoken language of a person.
To put it simply: the barriers of language creates barriers for complex thoughts.
When language dies, an entire type of cognitive thought process also dies with it.
While unification is good, and having a worldwide language would be very functional, it stifles innovation and diversity of thought processes.
Which is both good and bad in its own ways. - digggggggggg, on 11/21/2007, -0/+4"According to the UN, one language disappears across the world every two weeks. "
I'm interesting in knowing how they define a 'language'. In some instances, there are different languages that are extremely similar, and in others, there are dialects of the same language that hardly have anything in common. Take for example the Mandarin and Cantonese dialects of Chinese. They don't sound anything alike, but they're supposed to be the same language. - Dantetheinferno, on 11/21/2007, -7/+11Can anyone explain why we need these absurdly archaic and arbitrary languages?
- Schneckehaus, on 11/21/2007, -0/+4yes, there are.
I'll copy and paste my response to someone else's similar question:
Primary thought in the pre-frontal cortex is typically "encapsulated" in the spoken language of a person.
To put it simply: the barriers of language creates barriers for complex thoughts.
When language dies, an entire type of cognitive thought process also dies with it.
While unification is good, and having a worldwide language would be very functional, it stifles innovation and diversity of thought processes.
Which is both good and bad in its own ways, but its similar to when a species goes extinct, the long reaching loss and gain are both immeasurable.
In this particular case its symbolic of the dying of a culture, but that being said, this language is already dead for all intensive purposes, so this does not matter too much. - MJDub, on 11/21/2007, -0/+4I blame the sauce.
- ChromaVita, on 11/21/2007, -1/+4If you're gonna hate, you might as well keep your rumors strait about Fernando Nava the great.
- inactive, on 11/21/2007, -0/+3whoops just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
- inactive, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2Wow, 350+ indigenous languages and they're bitching that one is going to die, one that has been truly dead for years now.... ill wake you when i care. Oh and zeth... run on sentence much?
- insllvn, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2Fry: "Prepare to eat the most delicious extinct animal you have ever tasted!"
Amy: "I don't know, I've had cow." - insllvn, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2I don't have a problem w/ Mexicans speaking Spanish in America, but I think catering to it (Spanish signs, Spanish gov documents, etc.) allows them to avoid a necessary level of integration. Assimilating, while maintaining a sense of heritage and culture, is, and always has been, a facet of the American experience. How else will the Mexicans arriving now judge and persecute those who follow them? I realize that may seem sarcastic, but I mean it seriously. It is what forces a level of integration into American society that over time allows access to the American dream. It is a melting pot, not a tossed salad. I suspect many of the people you refer to as "having problems" with Spanish being spoken by immigrants in America would agree. We can't have two or three or more languages, communication breaks down. Look at how decisive an issue it has begun in Canada.
/rant - ChromaVita, on 11/21/2007, -3/+5N LYK3 WE MAKE THEEZ NU WURDS N STUF.
- Poweroft, on 11/21/2007, -1/+3It's not like it was going very well anyways.
- Elranzer, on 11/21/2007, -1/+3LOLcatz ??
- TheSabre, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2Actually, you used quite a few vowels.
- saisumimen, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2(facepalm)
I'm assuming you mean "Ay, dios mio!" as in "Oh my god", and not "Adios meo" which means something like "goodbye, piss". - stevedclarke, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2I've been thinking, (and cringing about), this for a while now.
- xJudahx, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2And somehow your use of stereotypes isn't idiotic?
- clink0914, on 11/21/2007, -0/+2Came a long way since the days I had to speak to my brother to resurrect an ancient language?
sorry DOOM :( - scotchtape4, on 11/21/2007, -1/+2They would get away with almost any crime in the US due to the courts not being able to provide an interpreter.
- kuzotz, on 11/24/2007, -0/+1unless they pass it down to a pupil, and that pupil passes it down until there is atleast a small population of 20,000 can speak it.. It has a chance to survive as an indigenous language in that case.
But yea. That's ***** crazy. Two bros fighting will destroy an entire language XD - kuzotz, on 11/24/2007, -0/+1IT depends. Some dialects is a language emerging into a more popular language, or a language apart of the popular language that is being separated from the pop language due to many factors.
You should take a linguistic class at your community college(its cheaper and you still learn stuff especially if you always have your Masters its still a good thing to keep doing take a weekend night class it won't hurt). - xJudahx, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1*****
- kuzotz, on 11/22/2007, -0/+1It'll just get assimilated into a more widely spoken language... Or die out completely 1 or the other...
- xJudahx, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Thanks for the rational response, not sure if I agree, but I will always listen to reason. Iit seems I've been dugg down for asking a question?? That shows a bit about digg.
- MiDri, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Bout goram time!
- inactive, on 02/25/2009, -3/+4why is this on the front page? don't the 99 percent of diggers have problems with mexicans speaking in Spanish in the USA? who are digging this article? where are the conservative republicans who claim that mexicans' kids are causing americans to pay more tax because they don't speak in english in class rooms? and where is that female senator who passed a legislation that would mandate that workers in workplaces learn and speak in english or get fired? everybody please come out and make English the official language of the world.
- Iandefor, on 11/22/2007, -0/+1Dialects are a dime a dozen. What makes this one special, beyond the fact that it has two speakers on Earth?
- nepawoods, on 11/21/2007, -9/+10I agree. I also feel the same way about endangered species of plants or animals (with some exceptions - where they could serve some purpose to mankind - me particularly).
But some people feel we should preserve cultures (and living species), and protect them from dying out. - TheSabre, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Your comment was dugg down because no one gives a ***** if you have a "who gives a *****" folder.
- MessiahCakes, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1You mean......beyond knowing an endangered dialect, that YOU don't know, and probably never will?
How about enlightening linguists with one more elaborate system of representation which uses complex grammatical and semantic patterns that could illustrate general cognitive function? What? - ogore, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Both may sound completely different but they are written exactly the same.
- SimonGray, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1"This is taking place w/ Europe. Tons of Europeans I know speak English as fluently as I do despite the fact that English may not be their native language."
Many Europeans know English (and French, German, Russian,...), but this is not why some of the native languages are dissappearing. Speakers of languages such as Romansch are in decline because of low birthrates and because the speakers of the languages have to move to other parts of Europe (or in this case probably mostly other parts of Switzerland) to find work, not because they're learning English. People in continental Europe are not speaking English with each other unless they're speaking to foreigners... what exactly would we gain from speaking in a foreign language with our compatriots?
In fact, in Ireland and Wales (and a few other places) the native languages are on the rise because of a nationalist surge. - zip000, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Losing a language is horrible, but pretty much inevitable. When we lose a language, we pretty much lose the entire history, culture, and literature of a culture as well as losing their unique way of looking at the world around us. We can (and should) work to save languages or at least to record them.
- relaxeder, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1These guys probably know a natural cure for cancer and the secret to agricultural sustainability, too. lol
- TheSabre, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Sad, but true. Like that rapist in Maryland that was acquitted because he claimed to speak a rare African dialect.
- sumrandommember, on 11/21/2007, -0/+1Wow. There really are people who comment without reading the article.
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Show 51 - 82 of 82 discussions
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