It is astonishing that 96% of the world's languages are spoken by just 4% of the people. Eventually there is going to be no diversity in the world and, frankly, that will just be boring. I'm not saying that if everyone spoke a single language that we would all be the same but there would be a general trend towards assimilation.
But wait, there is hope..languages can be saved!!!...but it would be expensive- about $100,000 a year be language. And if you take all of the 3,000 languages, it would be $900 million. Yes, that's a LOT of money but Crystal raised the point that the money needed, $1 billion, is equivalent to only one day's OPEC oil reserves. But I highly doubt that there will be any great strides towards saving languages. Now I'm depressed again.
The text also talked about how languages began and how language changes. It seems like common sense that languages started as a result of the need for trading. I found it very interesting that poetry is used to figure out what old languages sounded like. Again, it makes sense.
I feel like my language learning took a fall break this week too :( I reviewed most of the vocabulary I have learned so far but I don't think I really learned anything new. This week I am really going to focus on being able to make sentences. I can't just go around shouting the vocabulary I know. Hey...maybe I can make my own pidgin language.
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