Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by erehweb on Sunday July 03, 2016 @06:44PM
(#12027973)
We actually do want to invent new languages now - consider Game of Thrones, Star Trek, LOTR etc. In a monolingual world, would any of these have real adherents? Maybe. Even within English, various groups have invented sublanguages - Cockney rhyming slang or Polari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari
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Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by eropple on Sunday July 03, 2016 @06:57PM
(#12028007)
The idea of "foreignness" implicitly carries with it the notion of approaching ideas and the universe in which we live in a way that isn't the same as ours. So we invent new languages to represent that.
Almost as if that's the point, yeah?
Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by coldtea on Sunday July 03, 2016 @07:29PM
(#12028103)
Same as the idea of personal or group identity.
People like to be different -- either themselves to others, or their groups to other groups (because they also like to belong. Belonging and being different at the same times translates to groups and subgroups).
And they show that in many ways, language is but one. From clothing to consumption, tons of other things are used to that effect.