105: Learning Journal #7

[Daniel Kwon]

When languages die, a significant portion of the culture dies along with it. Many languages have expressions or words that are only available to be characterized by that certain language, and the death of a language results in the death of that expression or word. In addition, languages are often rooted to the identity of certain ethnic groups. To be considered part of a certain ethnicity, for example, one must be able to speak that language in the eyes of some ethnic groups. The death of a language seems to be inevitable for certain languages. Globalization has increased homogenization, allowing for a few languages to dominate most of the world. Although individual languages, especially those from native tribes, still maintain some relevance and attempt to save their language through the creation of dictionaries and online resources, these might remain to be the last of the languages. Actual verbal communication would be difficult to recreate, and would only be applied for scholarly text.