Talk:Extinct language
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Can Ancient Greek really be called extinct? Greek has never ceased to be spoken over time and there have always been speakers of the language since antiquity. It has simply evolved into its modern form. Also, many people in Greece are able to read and comprehend the ancient writings. For instance something English speakers can relate to, would someone call Old English extinct or merely changed into its modern form. The reason the issue is important to me is because, there is always a conscious or unconscious attempt to make Greeks seems to be some extinct group of people with no relation to modern Greeks, the language issue ties with this. I won't edit the article but leave this note here for someone less biased than me to examine in detail and edit.
The existance of extinct language families should sound alarms for philosophers and linguists. A language allows us to frame our knowledge and experience so that it may be practically reconstructed by other language users. However, the symbols will only elicit the intended thoughts if they are understood in a similar way between the reader and writer.
Presently, cultural traditions and large linguistic community bases ensure that languages grow and refine over time, however, once a language ceases to be understood by any being, it loses its capacity to transfer the knowledge, experience, and wisdom that may be concealed within its markings.
This should be a sign to linguists to begin a project to ground our language into non-lingistic forms that may serve as a starting point for reconstructing our collective linguistic efforts once they loose significance.
time for some peer review?
This whole article looks like a mess of original research. Anyone got any materials that support the assertions made herein for the definition of "extinct language"? Tomer TALK 01:21, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)