When a language dies, people could lose their mother tongue and cultural identities. Throughout history, languages have risen and fallen, and today there are several dead languages. The results of the dead language is like the result of an extinction of an animal. We lose memory of histories and cultures. We lose resources. For example, indigenous languages are very important resources to research and culture of a country, people, animals, and even plants.
I think that people do underestimate the importance of an endangered language. Because it isn’t commonly spoken or used, people think that it’s okay to let the language die, but they don’t understand the consequences. Language is a key component to unlocking a country’s history and culture, it could possibly even be related to a deeper history that we might not even now about. Once a language is dead, it is very difficult, maybe even impossible, to revive. I think it is very important to compile all the languages that are close to dying and create a language bank to preserve these languages.
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