How Do You Learn a Dead Language?

Slate ^ | Jan. 28, 2008 | Christine Cyr

[puroresu]

English will be a dead language in the USA if Juan McCain is elected president.

We have a winner for best post of the day!

[goldstategop]

Hebrew was never a dead language - it was a written language and also used for prayer. Eliezer Ben Yehuda revived it as a spoken language by having his wife speak to their first child only in Hebrew. His efforts updated the language to handle scientific content and casual every day expressions. The result of his efforts fell upon fertile ground and by the second decade of the 20th century it was well on the way to become the dominant language of the Jews Of Eretz Israel. Extinct languages on the other hand can't be revived because no speaks them and they would need massive updating for use in the modern world. Ben Eliezer's work took a lifetime and that would take longer for languages no understands anymore.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[ReignOfError]

Dead languages are worth learning if they have a literature--such as Latin or ancient Greek.

Or Hebrew -- which was nearly extinct in daily use, but taught for religious rituals, much like Latin. It was revived as the official language of the present-day State of Israel.

Cornish is a Celtic language formerly spoken in Cornwall, in SW England.

Popular with game hens.

Manx was spoken on the Isle of Man until a few decades ago when the last speaker died. It was related to Irish Gaelic. I suppose it would be useful if you had a Manx cat which refused to respond to commands in English.

Because otherwise, those poor cats would just be chasing their tails. Oh, wait.

A Romance language called Dalmatian

Are you Dr. Doolittle? What's with the need to talk to Manx cats and Dalmatians?

[Does so]

"...English, which has an insane number of linguistic exceptions, phonetic variations per given symbol, hominyms, etc. being a cobbling-together of multiple languages..."

But no English-speaking countries have been at war with one another—for centuries.

[Bender2]

Well, to begin with, you have to be... stung by a dead bee.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

I thought this would be an article on the Dim’s graveyard voters!

[redheadtoo]

It is a spoken language. Or was.

Only when she was speaking to herself.

[wintertime]

ping

[Verginius Rufus]

Of course Hebrew began to be revived as a language of daily life decades before the establishment of the State of Israel.

Another example of a language preserved because of its use for religious purposes, after dying out as a spoken language, is Coptic, a late form of the Egyptian language still used by the Coptic Church. It has an alphabet using Greek letters with some additional letters for sounds not found in Greek.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 1/31/2008. Thanks forkinsocket.