World's rarest language on verge of extinction - Polidicks

[QUOTE=farmatyr;29436791]Why do we need it? [editline]value[/editline] Anyone rating me dumb, write me a good answer to my question.[/QUOTE] Who says we need it? How are we not enriched by knowing more things? Like, seriously, lets just forget shit that happened because some dork on the internet thought it was no longer relevant I gave you a good answer, how about you try and give me a good reason knowledge is worthless [editline]25th April 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Xain777;29438059]Latin has no native speakers. Why would this language be better then Latin?[/QUOTE] It's a different situation entirely. Latin has a huge written portion that we can find in tons of places and many people understand latin. 3 people understand and know this language. What's to be gained by losing it? Why not keep it for the point of intellectual pursuit?

[QUOTE=Xain777;29438059]Latin has no native speakers. Why would this language be better then Latin?[/QUOTE] :sigh: Where are most Western languages derived from? Thank you Abyss.

It's worth preserving history just for history's sake. Besides, aren't all languages interesting, anyway?

[QUOTE=Xain777;29438059]Latin has no native speakers. Why would this language be better then Latin?[/QUOTE] no one is fluent yeah, but people still use it all the time

[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29438401]It's worth preserving history just for history's sake. Besides, aren't all languages interesting, anyway?[/QUOTE] We want to know how we learned to speak languages, the more languages we have knowledge of means the more understanding and theories can come from the collection.

[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29438401]It's worth preserving history just for history's sake. Besides, aren't all languages interesting, anyway?[/QUOTE] HEY! we agree on something! high five!

[QUOTE=DireAvenger;29437472]Don't care me want space me want space now[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://gyazo.com/8a31f55ff36b0f1f784f4942ac72a83a.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=milkandcooki;29437077]Yes, because history is only history if it's written down :downs:[/QUOTE] It is. It's called prehistory if you have no records.

[QUOTE=ThePuska;29438651]It is. It's called prehistory if you have no records.[/QUOTE] you're thinking in terms of what they call it, it's still history.

Every email and letter I get is a piece of history, yet I permanently destroy those every day. They're a thousand times more accurate than oral history, which hardly remains unchanged through one lifetime, let alone multiple generations. There's a lot of worthless data in this world. I think, if there are only three people who know a language and didn't even bother teaching it to their children, that's worthless data.

[QUOTE=ThePuska;29438971]Every email and letter I get is a piece of history, yet I permanently destroy those every day. They're a thousand times more accurate than oral history, which hardly remains unchanged through one lifetime, let alone multiple generations. There's a lot of worthless data in this world. I think, if there are only three people who know a language and didn't even bother teaching it to their children, that's worthless data.[/QUOTE] cool, good thing what you consider worthless is in and of itself, worthless information and yeah, you're not destroying those emails in any sense of permanence. And yes, oral history changes, that means we shouldn't know it? I don't get the anti-intellectual bullshit going on in this thread

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;29439031]and yeah, you're not destroying those emails in any sense of permanence.[/QUOTE] No? Do you think someone's going to find them without my assistance later? You could argue that I'm not destroying letters either, I'm just ripping them apart and throwing in the bin. Heck, I'm not even separating the ink from the paper! [QUOTE=HumanAbyss;29439031]cool, good thing what you consider worthless is in and of itself, worthless information And yes, oral history changes, that means we shouldn't know it? I don't get the anti-intellectual bullshit going on in this thread[/QUOTE] I don't really care if someone likes recording dying languages or studying them. They can do it all they want. I just don't see why it's such a big deal when they die. They most likely don't know anything important: their history only extends a few generations back and is extremely unreliable as they don't have anything written down. Being such a small population it's also unlikely that they would know of any important events that wouldn't already be familiar to other people. Basically, they can only talk about their personal lives. Big whoop, they've got just as much to say as every other person on the planet. Are you a fan of the yellow press?

[QUOTE=ThePuska;29439125]No? Do you think someone's going to find them without my assistance later? You could argue that I'm not destroying letters either, I'm just ripping them apart and throwing in the bin. Heck, I'm not even separating the ink from the paper! I don't really care if someone likes recording dying languages or studying them. They can do it all they want. I just don't see why it's such a big deal when they die. They most likely don't know anything important: their history only extends a few generations back and is extremely unreliable as they don't have anything written down. Being such a small population it's also unlikely that they would know of any important events that wouldn't already be familiar to other people. Basically, they can only talk about their personal lives. Big whoop, they've got just as much to say as every other person on the planet. Are you a fan of the yellow press?[/QUOTE] Are you so ignorant to think that you can delete something from the internet in its entirety? haahahhahahahahhahahhahahhahahhahahhahhhahhahahahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhaha ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah okay, i got my breath back. So the history of a dying civilization should be forgotten because "it's just another dying civilization"? fuck sakes, you can't be serious. No, but do I think it should die because it's a load of horse shit? No, it should be recorded and documented so we can know our history in the future You can't be so short sighted or stupid to think "oh just forget what doesn't seem important now cause who the fuck cares lol" [editline]26th April 2011[/editline] and either way, you're being anti-intellectual for what purpose?

Your arguments rely on exaggeration and ad hominems. Could you address this problem? [QUOTE=HumanAbyss;29439148]Are you so ignorant to think that you can delete something from the internet in its entirety? haahahhahahahahhahahhahahhahahhahahhahhhahhahahahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhaha ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah okay, i got my breath back.[/QUOTE] Stop being an ass. To answer the question: no, I don't think information can be destroyed in its entirety. Not by human means. It can be made inaccessible, which is what I do when I destroy files or tear apart my letters. Someone with enough dedication might be able to piece together that information, or find copies of it, but it's extremely impractical. Do you think you could find my deleted emails? Could someone else? [QUOTE=HumanAbyss;29439148]So the history of a dying civilization should be forgotten because "it's just another dying civilization"? fuck sakes, you can't be serious. No, but do I think it should die because it's a load of horse shit? No, it should be recorded and documented so we can know our history in the future You can't be so short sighted or stupid to think "oh just forget what doesn't seem important now cause who the fuck cares lol" [editline]26th April 2011[/editline] and either way, you're being anti-intellectual for what purpose?[/QUOTE] They're hardly a dying civilisation. They have a language, but if they're so much a part of another civilisation that they're teaching their kids to speak another language and not their own, they're part of that civilisation. I repeat the analogy because you don't seem to want to address it: are personal letters worth saving? Should you save copies of old newspapers and tabloids? While newspapers are unlikely to disappear in a few months (some libraries probably keep archives of them for years), personal letters are gone the instant you shred them. And [i]they are, as historical accounts, more valuable than oral tradition[/i]. I would call you a hypocrite if you destroyed letters while advocating the preservation of history.

Me myself being Finnish, I wouldn't mind if some world-leaders were to enforce an English-language only type of deal. I like this language, and it's universal, meaning it's the last language that's gonna be forgotten.

This is like the argument about burning books all over again.

[QUOTE=ThePuska;29439323]Your arguments rely on exaggeration and ad hominems. Could you address this problem? Stop being an ass. To answer the question: no, I don't think information can be destroyed in its entirety. Not by human means. It can be made inaccessible, which is what I do when I destroy files or tear apart my letters. Someone with enough dedication might be able to piece together that information, or find copies of it, but it's extremely impractical. Do you think you could find my deleted emails? Could someone else? They're hardly a dying civilisation. They have a language, but if they're so much a part of another civilisation that they're teaching their kids to speak another language and not their own, they're part of that civilisation. I repeat the analogy because you don't seem to want to address it: are personal letters worth saving? Should you save copies of old newspapers and tabloids? While newspapers are unlikely to disappear in a few months (some libraries probably keep archives of them for years), personal letters are gone the instant you shred them. And [i]they are, as historical accounts, more valuable than oral tradition[/i]. I would call you a hypocrite if you destroyed letters while advocating the preservation of history.[/QUOTE] How? Is a personal letter to me a historical article? Maybe, but it isn't of the same importance as a whole other language. And you do realize most newspapers are chronicled back a long time, right? No? Do you not think the news paper company keeps a copy? the printers? Almost every newspaper is scanned into library archives and chronicles for the specific reason of keeping history, not all are no, but many. How is an oral history not important? It's not oral if you write it the fuck down, which is what WOULD happen if we keep this language around, do you think we would just let it stay an oral history? Why should we let it go? 3 people =/= a civilization.

Everyone should speak English and/or Mandarin.

What is the point of a language if everybody who actually needs to speak it is dead?

People should only speak Russian,English,Arabic and Spanish.

[QUOTE=yaik9a;29440488]People should only speak Russian,English,Arabic and Spanish.[/QUOTE] Why Russian? [editline]26th April 2011[/editline] [img]http://www.facepunch.com/image.php?u=403883&dateline=1302642557[/img] Oh.

[QUOTE=farmatyr;29436791]Why do we need it? [editline]value[/editline] Anyone rating me dumb, write me a good answer to my question.[/QUOTE] Allowing cultures to drown generally sucks, plus why not save it?

[QUOTE=gamefreek76;29440371]What is the point of a language if everybody who actually needs to speak it is dead?[/QUOTE] for the sake of remembering it and preserving a piece of history seriously, what the fuck is with all you anti intellectuals? for a group of nerdy internet people, you sure all gung ho to lose knowledge.

It's a good thing to try to preserve but if for some reason we can't then my entire life is going to be over :frown: In all seriousness it is a good thing to try to preserve but it's really not too big of a deal if it was lost, relatively speaking.

Americans and language? They can barely speak English.

Google should step in and add it to the Google Translator.

If one piece of knowledge is useless, all knowledge is useless. I never figured Facepunchers to be so anti-intellectual.

[QUOTE=milkandcooki;29437077]Yes, because history is only history if it's written down :downs:[/QUOTE] It's not history by defintion if it's not documented.

This is how humans get dumber. When we stop caring about the past, no matter who's it is, and we let it go, we lose that knowledge. Sure, only three people speak it, but what about the others before it? What about the history of that ethnic group? We try so hard to keep different animal species alive, so why should we just history of a group fade away into nothing? The apathy nowadays is ridiculous.

I guess this language is now in the past