Should languages be protected?

[chadachada123]

They should be documented and recorded, so that we have them as a record to help with our understanding of how language evolves, so to an extent, yes.

However, using true Old English, essentially a different language from modern English, as an example, we shouldn't try to force languages to remain static since they constantly evolve. Same with letting languages slowly meld into other languages.

I have no problem with languages 'dying out' as long as we have a very good understanding of the language, like we do with Latin. We should start documenting the few obscure languages in third-world countries so that we don't lose our chance at understanding the language like we almost did with ancient Egyptian.

 

[eternal-chaplain]

I cannot think of a really good example, honestly.
There are a few reasons, but it really only applies to minorities.
Like, you may learn a language for religious reasons; Christians may learn Latin, I know a bit of Irish solely for religious purposes as well.
Then there are nations like Iceland who teach both Icelandic and Dutch in their schools because up until the 20th century, the island was under Dutch Rule and therefore a good portion of its people speak Dutch.
But something like the Welsh Language...I dunno?

 

[Scrustle]

Languages exist to allow humans to communicate with each other. To be a tool that both parties can understand and use to share ideas. If a language goes out of use it's because it's no longer necessary to share ideas between people. It has become obsolete. It's a natural process. If a language is no longer needed people will stop using it without a conscious decision to do so. People merely choose the best tool to communicate with others. If one tool does one job better than another then it will be discarded.

To force people to keep the old tool when they already have a more useful one is madness. There's no reason to "protect" obsolete languages except for keeping tradition. And as far as I'm concerned, tradition doesn't count for shit. Just because you have done something before for a long time is no reason to keep doing it. It doesn't matter how pleasing to the ear a language sounds, if it's no longer needed then it should, and inevitably will go away.

 

[Liam Riordan]

Losing the old languages would be losing a piece of culture, and without culture we are but machines. Or something or other.

Welsh is hit an miss here in Wales, some schools teach it as first, some as English first. All depends where the parents want their kids to learn.

I'm one of the few in my family that can't speak Welsh fluently, kind of a pain.

Some don't know, but the English a long time ago tried to repress the Welsh language and culture, by actually beating kids in the classrooms to get it out of them early and other harsh treatments.

See how that worked out? Not very well.

Indeed, the Welsh language experienced centuries of repression: Henry VIII banned Welsh from all official usage in Wales with the Act of Union in 1536. In subsequent centuries, the language was systematically stigmatised, most famously in the 1847 Report into the State of Education in Wales, which pronounced the language a ?great evil?, holding it responsible for the supposed economic and moral degeneracy of the Welsh people (Roberts, 1998). This report, also referred to as ?Brad y Llyfrau Gleision? or ?The Treachery of the Blue Books?, was prepared by three English barristers, none of whom could speak or understand Welsh. Possibly the most devastating action against the Welsh language was forbidding its use in schools, a prohibition that continued into the early twentieth century.

Source: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=402770§ion=6.1.2

 

[thewanderer41]

I'd just like to contribute a little bit of commentary in that you should take a look at China. Of the various provinces, all have individual regional dialects and it's so bad that there was a universal language instituted. The question remains then, why do the regions continue to use the local dialect? Interesting examples come in with say, Hong Kong which holds good economical and relative political strength and that keeps the language alive, but a good variety aren't used outside of the country. It's a matter of culture. Perhaps, someone has a deeper conclusion that can be drawn from this?

 

[Lusty]

Good video from David Mitchell on this:

 

[gunny1993]

Nope it's not logical to protect something that is effectively useless in a modern age, I would gladly move from English if something super seeded it.

Although of course we all know what happens when you remove all language barriers:
"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."

And that's fact

 

[JediMB]

People need to keep in mind that "dying" languages may have hundreds or thousands of years worth of literature or other scripture. For the sake of understanding and keeping our history recorded, we need to retain the languages as well. Translating won't do the texts and the cultures they emerged from justice.

 

[Hazy992]

(I'm a Lancastrian and feel pained when chippys don't get me asking them for a chip muffin)

What the hell is a chip muffin? You Lancastrians are weird!

[sub]Yorkshire born 'n' Yorkshire bred, strong in t'arm and thick in t'head! [/sub]

 

[gunny1993]

People like to cling to the past, even when the logical course is obvious people will resist change.

 

[Nadia Castle]

"What the hell is a chip muffin? You Lancastrians are weird!

Yorkshire born 'n' Yorkshire bred, strong in t'arm and thick in t'head! "

Bloody Yorkshire folk with your teacakes, now if you'll excuse me i'm off to feed the whippet and sit at the foot of the stairs.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Maybe its just because I'm English but I always find desperation to hold onto dying languages a bit pathetic. In Ireland tons of government meetings have to be read out twice, once in English that everyone understands, then in Gaelic even though less than 2 in 10 people there speak it fluently. Languages are never sacred, go back 100 years in any country and you'd be hard pressed to understand what people are saying. Keeping the odd word for nostalgia or cultural reasons is fine (I'm a Lancastrian and feel pained when chippys don't get me asking them for a chip muffin) but literally keeping a language on life support just to feel different in the globalized world is a massive waste of time and effort.

As much as I disagree with the way Irish is taught in schools I don't think it should be allowed to die out. Not that it will for some time, given how attached many people are to it. I'm not a huge nationalist but our language is a significant part of our history and our heritage.

Besides, what's the harm in keeping it? It's not like it brings down the standard of English or anything. I disagree with anyone who sees language as merely a mechanical, communication tool. A universal language, to me, would end in an unnecessary and horrible loss of culture.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Languages go extinct just like everything else. We no longer speak ancient Babylonian because there is absolutely no need for anyone to speak it. A world of international trade and true internationalism needs to have truly international languages. I'm not saying that English or Chinese or whatever needs to encompass everything, but people need to learn more languages, and the languages which aren't spoken enough need to fall by the wayside.

 

[eye of the divine]

Huuurrrrrrrr...Hello Welsh person here *waves* I kind of find the arrogance in this thread bordering on amusing if I'm honest.

Just because you don't speak it doesn't mean other people don't and don't want to speak it. It's not about giving a dying language a stick to hobble along on. It's about letting people from Wales have a part of their culture and have the option to speak it if they wish to.

Most people from where I lived actually could speak Welsh before they could English and yet they still managed to get a GCSE in both languages; hell I know a good few who had a GCSE in three languages. It's also not like they don't have the option to take other languages.

Granted, most Welsh speakers tend to hail from the North whilst the South tends to be more English speaking. Not sure how much that has changed since I was last there though. It's still considered a good thing to be able to speak Welsh in Wales when applying for jobs since some people (especially older people) are more comfortable speaking in Welsh.

Run this through google translate and tell me it doesn't ring true:

popeth ar gyfer gwybodaeth ar gyfer gwybodaeth yw'r allwedd i rym a datgloi o freuddwydion

 

[Vanilla_Druid]

It is quite interesting how people love to treat tongues as animals fighting for survival when it hardly applies. Yes, tongues evolve and change, but applying Social Darwinism to things that mean quite a bit to people is needlessly cruel. Let me ask you all these questions:

1) Why defend hand-drawn animation when computer graphics are cheaper?
2) Why do we still make swords and the like when guns are more effective?
3) Why do first world people still use bows?
4) Why do first world people still hunt or fish?
5) Why do people still drive around in old cars?
6) Why do people still have old machines?
7) Why do many people operate steam engines when Diesel is more efficient?

Case in point, people are not Vulcans. People have attachments that cannot be rationalised. All tongues have a right to exist and should be preserved. Granted the methods of teaching them could be improved, but it does not mean we should stop trying. Besides, who would not find having a apecial form of communication that only your community (or country) knew awesome? It is kind of like being part of an exclusive club. It also could be used to exchange information without the Average Joe understanding.

 

[Wadders]

I went to Uni in Wales, and met a decent amount of Welsh people who spoke Welsh as their first language. From the ones I spoke to about it, it is as much a part of their culture as anything else, a lot of Welsh people are pretty damn patriotic and as such like to preserve as much of their culture as they can. And why the hell not?

why the Welsh language is being forcibly taught in schools.

It's not a matter of wanting to protect the language as it is forcing it down people's throats, especially since it's becoming a useless language in a sense.

Granted english is doing the same but it has far more practical uses, since it's becoming the universal language as it appears.

If one does not want to learn a language (at least, an outdated and useless one) they should not be forced to.

That's fair enough, but if it's your native language (as in the case of Welsh) I'd be surprised if people really resented being taught it.

You never really hear Welsh speakers say "I hate being Welsh and wish I had never learned our language" I mean there may be a few, but on the whole I'd venture so far as to say they're mostly pretty enthusiastic about being Welsh.

 

[Waffle_Man]

1) Why defend hand-drawn animation when computer graphics are cheaper?

To be fair, it's far easier to create an aesthetically pleasing arc of motion with frame by frame than by interpolation, which hand drawn animation is far better suited to than 3D animation.

 

[saruman31]

Yes. Some languages should be protected as a form of cultural heritage. No language should die out. However, we still have the need for a global, easy language and english fills that gap.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes they should. Just because they are taught badly by some school and by that as in not to a high enough standard early on does not mean it should die out. I was "forced" to do many things in school but I don't ***** and moan about having to English literature which will have 0 applications in my life. Aside, from "Oh that's what that is!" if I see it referenced. So are Economics and Accounting equally useless to me.

Culture, heritage and history are important and related you can't really understand one without the other as context is important. Watching one of Shakespeare's "Comedies" shows that in spades.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

I went to Uni in Wales, and met a decent amount of Welsh people who spoke Welsh as their first language. From the ones I spoke to about it, it is as much a part of their culture as anything else, a lot of Welsh people are pretty damn patriotic and as such like to preserve as much of their culture as they can. And why the hell not?

Anyway, Welsh isn't being taught at the expense of English. Merely as a first language. It's not like Welsh speakers emerge from full time education at the age of 16 without being able to speak a word of English. I think it's just about re-establishing the importance of the welsh language in their culture. But I dunno, I'm not Welsh.

As far as other languages go, Why shouldn't they be preserved? if they can be preserved whilst other more widely used languages are taught as secondary, then people can still communicate cant they?

QFT.

Also, if there was just only one language it would be a pretty boring world. There are so many beautiful languages out there, it would be sad to never hear them again (even if I couldn't understand a word of it).