Re: Future of the Highlands?


"Malcolm" <Malcolm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4P5oRWcXPzLHFwoV@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In article <5p89npFq47b2U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Jim Webster
<jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

"Malcolm" <Malcolm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:oy48OmQRTtLHFwJa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In article <fgmfkj$7mj$1$8302bc10@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, buddenbrooks
<buddenbrooks@xxxxxx> writes

"Malcolm" <Malcolm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:yaR6U8L3$jLHFwpn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The fact that you so clearly lack any understanding at all of why
these
minority languages are of great significance and importance, and very
far
from being either "hobby" or "affectation", and instead thoroughly
worthwhile supporting, is your loss. I suggest you indulge in some
self-education.


They are of no interest to 99. 9% of he world's population,

That is true of a very large number of languages - probably hundreds.
Should they all be allowed to die out, in your view?

if they die out it is because there aren't enough native speakers to keep
them going out of necessity. It means that these languages therefore can
be
kept going but only because people do so, effectively as a hobby.
How many languages do we keep?

I would repeat that people speaking Gaelic in Scotland are NOT doing it as
hobby. I'm surprised you have chosen to be as insulting as Buddenbrooks.

I'm not being insulting, just taking a long term historical perspective.
Languages die. English will pass away, just as Latin and Greek did before
hand.
If a language does die it is because people are using something else with
which to communicate, because it serves their purposes better.
If their language does everything they need, then they will stick with it.

If a language is dying you have to look at the situation and ask why. But as
far as I know it is only in the last generation that anyone regarded it as
an issue. Indeed we have throughout history had a situation where there was
one language for educated people, Greek, then Latin, then French, and the
oiks spoke something else and no one really bothered. The situation is
similar with English, people can speak whatever they like at home, be it
Hebrew, Aramaic, or celtic dialects, but if they want to get on in the world
they will have to speak Greek or Latin (depending on which half of the
Empire you were in). or now English.

Keeping alive an language might be interesting, but it is hardly vital.
Keeping alive a culture the same. We have lost so many, and will lose many
more, mainly because we create new ones, which in their turn die and are
lamented by the last practictioners.
I don't mind anyone keeping Welsh alive, but to be honest I cannot find it
in myself to regard it as a vital work any more than I can regard it as
important to resurrect Manx, Cornish, or that particular argot that was the
Norse of the Lakeland valleys


Jim Webster


.

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