Journal #8

[Wonjun Kim]

Languages go extinct when a more dominant language entire a language group and start taking over little by little in a long process. When a language dies, no one in the entire planet grew up with the language as a first language. As popular languages such as Spanish and English grow more and more, we see the death or the process of death of a language. As people try to learn the dominant language to communicate with the rest of the world and for convenience, the original language is in the process of dying as people are speaking less and less. When a language dies, not only does the language die, but the culture within the language also dies. Things like proverbs, jokes, slangs, sayings, etc. They all disappear when a language dies. Languages can be preserved in many different ways. Couple ways is to make songs and dances to preserve the language and the culture. Other ways can be recordings or dictionaries made by the linguists to preserve the language. Dead languages can be brought back to life just like how Siletz clawed back to life. Through songs, dances, and other methods of preserving the language, languages can be brought back to life once it dies.