Dying Languages -- Virtue or Vice?

Dying Languages
by John McWhorter

Interesting. I remember when a white buffalo visited our zoo.

So, what's your say, Shapeless?

Myself, I have a hard time swallowing a lot of this.

I do as well, Flushd. Most of what I've read of McWhorter's has to do with his (equally) controversial claims about race rather than language, so I may be misconstruing his argument here, but he seems to be painting a rather black-and-white picture about linguistic diversity--apparently we can't have "easier communication," as he puts it, until we all speak one language. I'm not sure how bilingual people fit into his model, for example. Isn't it just as easy to suppose that linguistic diversity would facilitate rather than hinder "easier communication"?

I think anyone living in Canada can understand the language/culture support system (Québec, anyone?). And there's no doubt that mass media is undermining many non-English languages, especially those that don't have a critical mass of speakers. However we're also seeing the possible rise of new languages -- ebonics, for example, may be an infant language.

On the other hand, English has absorbed so much from other languages that it may well qualify as a bona fide international tongue.

It's utterly impossible.

Diversity is not a state to be achieved or resisted; it's intrinsic. And although English has pervaded much of the world, it can't make people give up their languages. English, I suppose, may currently be the most influential in the evolution of most languages worldwide but not so much as to be considered a replacement. It would be amusing, to say the least, to hear what the French would have to say to this. Language is associated with culture, and thus with identity. People can not forget the language in which their books are written, which give meaning to their very names, and which are generally associated with individuality, independence and freedom. New words for unknown things may be coined in the prevalent tongue, but that is all.

Language develops according to the needs of the people, and there aren't words in English for items in other places. Even if a lingua franca close to English is developed, it will differ from region to region, so the different types of English will be deemed as different languages.