SDLC 105: Learning Journal #7

[Jinhoo Bong]

Previous to the reading, I had never really imagined that a language could die. I had never expanded my thoughts outside of the big languages of the world, and was shocked at the fact that a language even had the potential to die off. Reading the article has definitely helped me understand what is lost when a language dies. Not only is the language itself, the characters used, the sound of the language, lost but more than that, the culture of the language speakers. The article focuses on the Siletz language which has about 5 speakers in the entire world, and that fact alone was more than shocking enough for me. It feels like to me when the language dies, the person dies along with it. The culture that the language represented dies along with the language. It is forgotten and lost in the memories of the past never to be brought back, and the idea of that is extremely saddening. That feeling is magnified because of the fact that I had never thought of such languages dying off, and was blind to the countless languages out there on the brink of extinction. The methods which they used to bring it back was interesting for the least to say. The idea that young kids found it fascinating to be able to spit using the language was funny, but it's the simple things that keep the language alive, and I think that speaks to deeper levels.