When languages die out there are significant losses to culture in two ways, one general and one specific. In a more general sense, language is often understood as one of the major aspects of culture. The flow, intonations, use of words, etc.all can reflect aspects important and emblematic to a culture. When a language is lost those emblematic aspects of the culture are no longer reflected, and the reflection in language can often be more than just a reflection of cultural aspects, but actually help sustain those very aspects they reflect.
In a more specific way, the loss of language means that the words and their meanings have been lost. Each culture places significance on different things, and we can find throughout cultures that there are words with meanings that do not exist in other languages. The fact that such words exist for every language is an indication of the emphasis that each culture places on whatever those words refer to. So when a language is lost, we lose another insight into the culture; the very fact that there are words for unique and nuanced cultural understandings/interpretations of life and the world.
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