1067: Why Preserve Language? Nov 10, 2017

Some people believe that the language one speaks natively determines—or at least heavily influences—the way that he or she thinks. This has been discussed here on multiple occasions from 'Eskimo's' (so to speak) having more words for snow than in English, to Sapir's idea that the 'Eskimo' would have an easier time understanding Kant than a German-speaker and how these, and other non-Eskimo relating ideas, tend to be illogical or even racist. On the other hand then, if a language does not relate to cognition, it might not seem like it would matter should a language die off; this is not to say that all languages are the same (which some people believe), but just that nothing would be lost really if people move onto other languages. Nevertheless, there are a variety of reasons why preserving a language is important. Linguistically, much of what is known about languages—particularly historical languages and linguistics—is done not by textual records necessarily but by comparison to other related languages; this is why relatively little is known about Basque as opposed to other languages of Europe. Also, languages (and dialects) allow for people to identify themselves as a group, and are often quite crucial for one's identity. More on the latter topic will be explored later on in other posts.