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Language Revival | ||
Tags: Dead Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| demie Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3829 days ago 12 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Japanese, Slovenian | Message 1 of 17 28 December 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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I was just daydreaming about the possible revival of Cumbric, but unfortunately it wasn't
very well recorded and there's no way it could be brought back :( But for Cumbric and languages like it, what would be the ~point~ of revival? I think it would definitely build some sense of community and belonging among its speakers and perhaps create some unity between the Northern English and the Southern Scottish (it was spoken in those areas). But really, who would want that? I think people and governments would rather have British unity as a whole rather than individual groups? I'm not sure Anyway, do you think there will ever be a successful revival of a language just "for the sake of it"? Or would there need to be a set reason? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3888 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 17 28 December 2013 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
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I don't think anyone could revive a language just for the sake of it any more than people reach a native level fluency in a language just for the sake of it. You don't choose to live a large part, or most of, your life in a language for no reason, and that's what I think is necessary for a revival. Even when people live their daily lives in a minority language it's hard to keep it alive, much less revive it.
As for Cumbric, as interesting as it would've been to have that language alive and well I can't think of a single good reason to bring about a revival (as opposed to studying it as a dead language). It's been dead for 900 years. 'Hen Ogledd'/Alclud has a new linguistic and cultural identity shaped by, amongst other things, Gaelic and Old Norse. It would be artificial to impose a Brythonic identity and language on top of that. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4617 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3 of 17 30 December 2013 at 3:37am | IP Logged |
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One of the reasons I decided to learn Welsh is that Cumbric (the possible, probable,
language of my ancestors) was supposed to be close to Welsh. No one really knows. But Welsh is living (or on life support....), and Cumbric is not. It seems we will never have much, if any, evidence of Cumbric. But there is plenty of evidence of Welsh going back a long way, and there are still some first language Welsh speakers, so there is hope. Cornish, on the other hand...... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4567 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 4 of 17 30 December 2013 at 4:39am | IP Logged |
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I confess to daydreaming about dead languages, too, but I guess the revival of Hebrew is probably the template of how to bring back a language from near-extinction to viability. And also, but for the existence of the nation of Israel Hebrew might well be relegated to the status that Coptic has today in Egypt.
Another case is the revival of the Blackfoot language in western Montana, which has been successful on a small scale, but there will never be a Blackfoot multi-media empire to combat the influence of English, so it will always be endangered. Maybe if the Blackfoot were as isolated as the Hopi of Arizona, to say nothing of the nationalities of the North Caucasus, there would be no need for a revival in the first place. But even with a full revival, the question of sustainability arises. Is there a support system in place for the survival of the language? In today's world a TL needs silly commercials, stand-up comics, terrible rappers, etc. just to stay in the marketplace. But all that and massive infusions of cash cannot move indifferent people to study a language that a few ivory-tower intellectuals think is important historically. I live in the US, where millions can't or won't learn basic English, forfeiting the benefits it may offer them. If that mentality prevails with English, how you gonna make them want to study Sanskrit? Edited by tanya b on 30 December 2013 at 4:42am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4798 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 17 30 December 2013 at 10:20pm | IP Logged |
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Resuscitation of a language at the edge of death is possible, with lots of efforts, will and resources. It has been done several times. But in some cases, it would be rather an attempt on necromancy. Either impossible to do or you could get some weak, zombielike results which wouldn't last long.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4042 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 17 30 December 2013 at 10:29pm | IP Logged |
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Because reviving a language is about heritage speakers; people who want to reconnect with their roots and maybe even have (had) grandparents who were native speakers, but didn't teach it to their children and thus the language died for a while. Language revival has absolutely nothing to do with trying to get people who reside in the USA who do not speak English to learn Sanskrit.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6492 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 17 05 January 2014 at 2:02am | IP Logged |
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I would consider learning to read things like Sumerian, Homeric Greek and Cumbrian (insofar there is something to read there), but I wouldn't waste time on learning to speak them unless there was at least a small group of enthousiasts on the internet or real life to establish each of them as a living language. However once I knew there was such a community I might not even be particularly eager to join it, because it would take ahellofalotof time to learn to speak it well enough, and I don't have that time. I might be content with letting them rumble around in my head, like I do with for instance Latin and Low German. Edited by Iversen on 05 January 2014 at 9:22am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4079 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 8 of 17 05 January 2014 at 2:40am | IP Logged |
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The Romance language that interests me the most is Latin, but one cannot use it like
other live languages, which is a pity. I also like Old English instead of Modern English--the five cases, three genders, dual form, all three word orders: SOV/SVO/OVS and six verb conjugations for each tense interests me more. If those two were still used, I would definitely want to be fluent in Latin and Old English and have conversations therein. But since they are not, I do not have the initiative to learn them. It would be interesting were Modern English used internationally, but England continued to use Old English as a national language. Strange may it sound, but it could be plausible given that Icelandic is supposedly very related to Old English and apparently is extremely conversative linguistically as it barely changed since the 900s, but it still used currently, with most Icelanders knowing not only Icelandic, but Modern English as well. So it could be interesting if England had Old English as the first native language, with Modern English as a second, but obligatory foreign language learnt in primary school onwards like in Scandinavia. Gōdne ǣfen, ic cume fram Mameceaster, Geānede Cynerīce Edited by 1e4e6 on 05 January 2014 at 4:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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