SDLC 105 Learning Journal #7

[Enzo Vargas]

The biggest thing that is lost when a language dies is cultural identity and diversity. A culture can exist and function without a language, however, this is not entirely feasible as language greatly helps cement a concept of identity and wholesomeness. Language is so central to the identity and unity of a culture that the extinction of a language almost certainly means the extinction of the culture itself. For example, Korean existed without an official written language for quite some time and was mainly just expressed through Chinese characters. The spoken language was unique, but it didn’t entirely mesh well with writing. Sejong the Great helped develop the Korean alphabet, hangul, and it greatly helped unify the country under a common writing system. I can imagine that if Korean suddenly died out, all of that culture would slowly dissipate with it.