105: Journal #7

[Anela Halilovic]

We all have probably heard about “dead” languages - languages that used to exists, but are not spoken anymore. This usually happens due to the influence of other languages that are spoken by a wider range of people and due to the globalization of the world. Tribe languages seem to be on the edge of existence, because of the popularity of the primary language in a country. For example, English has pushed many languages to the brink. Although other countries and national languages have been resistant to the “English revolution”, languages spoken by a smaller group of people within an English speaking country have been vanishing. That happened to the Siletz language in the States. There were less and less people who spoke Siletz and it almost disappeared. Luckily, those that spoke the language found a way to maintain it. One tribe member worked on a dictionary for Siletz  in order to create a record of the language. That enabled other tribe members to practice it, but also enabled them to spread of the language to other countries and waken the interest in learning it. But what if they did not do it, if the language died. We would have not only lost the language, its vocabulary and grammar, but also a part of language history and history in general. For example, Latin is also a dead language that is not spoken, but has been maintained in script. Today it allows us to trace back the roots of modern European languages and find the connection between them.