105 Learning Journal #7

[Noelle Garcia]

When languages die, I think a culture loses one of the most fundamental pieces that gives that culture its unique identity. It may not seem pragmatic to keep a language alive if most of its speakers are dead, but losing the language is a step towards the culture's disappearance as a whole. Ultimately, what drives a culture to survival are written/oral records that are passed down as time goes by, because language acts as this record-keeping device. If a language disappears, then at some point the whole culture itself I think loses its identity and importance, eradicating it from existence. Language keeps a culture active and alive, and a loss of its language is an extremely unfortunate circumstance. In the article, it talks about technology being used as a tool to revive and maintain a language's survival which is a wonderful feat. If a language is dying every two weeks, our current technological advancements can probably stop that from happening, or at least slow the process down.