Have you ever heard about dead languages? What language can we call dead? Keep on reading this blog post to know all of that!
WHAT IS A DEAD LANGUAGE
Who can harm a language, so that it'll be dead? In fact, there's no crime because every language is a live creature and it has its beginning and its end. It is said that dead languages are those languages that are no longer the native languages of any country. That means that if any certain language isn't official one in any country, but is still used on some fields of life, then we can call it a dead language.
Don't confuse "dead languages" with "extinct languages" which no longer have no speakers at all (e.g. Yana language was spoken by the Yana people in north-central California. The last speaker of Yana died in 1916. Another example is the Tillamook language which was spoken by the Tillamook people in Oregon, US. The last speaker of this language died in 1972).
WHY DO LANGUAGES DIE?
Actually, there are quite a lot of factors that can lead to the death of a language. In general, it dies when it is simply replaced by another one or because of some changes in a particular country (e.g. Latin died out after the Roman Empire's fall in 476 AD).
TOP 3 DEAD LANGUAGES
LATIN
As it's been already said Latin was spoken during the Roman Empire and until its fall in 476 AD. Nowadays, it's really hard to call Latin a DEAD language, because there are many thousands of people who are studying Latin. Moreover, this language is important in medicine, law, politics and Christian church.
SANSCRIT
An ancient Indian language. Many sacred and religious books were written in Sanskrit: Vedas, Mohavharat, Ramayan, etc. At the present it is said that nobody speaks Sanskrit as their native language, but it is still playing an important part in Indian culture.
During that time when British occupied India and began ruling the country, they replaced Sanskrit with English which was one of the main reasons why this language became dead.
ANCIENT GREEK
Sure you've heard something about this language of Socrates, Plato, Homer and some other great philosophers. Lots of words used now in English in scientific fields came from Ancient Greek. It is believed it had become a dead language by the VI century AD, but then it was replaced with Modern Greek.
Why would someone like to learn a dead language? Have you ever met or heard of someone who's learning Latin or Ancient Greek? If you're a university student, then you're probably one of them! Latin and some of other dead languages are still taught at universities. There are in fact many people who are trying to learn them. They may be interested in ancient cultures, or else they want to know the roots of some languages we use nowadays. What other ideas do you have? Why can it be useful to learn some of the dead languages?
At the present, learning languages, even if they're dead, is really easy and fun because there are so many online recourses and e-books that can help you in learning!
Know some other dead language? Would you like learn any of them? Share in the comments!
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