DOES IT SADDEN YOU WHEN YOU HEAR THAT A LANGUAGE HAS GONE EXTINCT? [+] serious ballot by himself809 created Wed Jan 17, 07 "WASHINGTON (AP) — Every two weeks or so the last elderly man or woman with full command of a particular language dies. At that rate, as many as 2,500 native tongues will disappear forever by 2100. David W. Lightfoot is helping spearhead a government initiative to preserve some of these dying languages, believing each is a window into the human mind that can benefit the world at large. "If we are going to lose half the world's languages that endangers our capacity to understand the genetic basis of language," said Lightfoot, who heads the directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation. The foundation recently joined the National Endowment for the Humanities in the effort to preserve languages. The project has awarded $4.4 million to 26 institutions and 13 individual scholars to investigate the status of 70 languages that are believed to be endangered and to help preserve them. The project is now asking researchers to apply for additional grants, with the expectation that at least $2 million a year will be available. Some experts say there are up to 10,000 different languages left in the world; others put the estimate thousands lower depending on how many are characterized as dialects of another language. Languages aren't just words, linguists say, but a people's way of looking at the world. Lightfoot gives the example of Guguyimadjir, spoken by people in the Australian state of Queensland. They have no words for "left" or "right" but orient themselves and their world by the points of the compass — unlike most of us, who see things in relation to ourselves rather than to the world as a whole." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I realize that the death of languages and cultures is a natural occurance that humans can do little to stop. It is not within our means nor, IMO, is it necessarily our responsibility to fight this process. I do think, though, that the death of a language nearly always equates to the death of a significant part of a culture, and that's what saddens me about this. Anyway. Does it sadden any of you when a language dies? Yes. No. Ballot #111282 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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