"When Languages Die" author/linguist K. David Harrison

pixelminx Says:

Apr 11, 2009 - Repeating yourself without moving forward in the conversation is not going to elicit a different response. Cry moar.

awesome220 Says:

Apr 11, 2009 - It's a damn metaphor. What is so hard to understand about that?

betokkikke Says:

May 20, 2009 - As a living organism, languages born, develope and die butbeyond the poor job done by goverments to preserve the native communities of speakers (as in Mexico where there are more than 50 alive) the real decay arrives when their speakers loose interest on spealing their mother's language. See how hispanic migrants have influenced English linguistic habits today while small languages as raramuri or tarahumara on Chihuahua montains dissapeare, and then a whole culture is gone forever.

furaha72 Says:

Jun 10, 2009 - This is probably the only instance where Africans seem to have persevered compared to most cultures: we've managed to retain the majority of our local languages: Zulu, Hausa, Yoruba, Kirwanda, etc. I'd love to know the comparisons between continents and cultures.

albionmoonlight1 Says:

Jul 29, 2009 - my syntax professor studied irish, it pretty much defies and challenges the chomskian structure of underlying language, that paradigm, interesting language, one of the few european people who weren't done away with by modern europ's ancestors: gaelic & basque

midnightblue80 Says:

Aug 25, 2009 - Icelandic isn't so rare or endangered. You should learn and revive an extinct language like Siuslaw or Esselen

astr0tugi Says:

Aug 30, 2009 - haha saving language will help us to survive on this planet??? wtf??? saving language is saving your ass, to have a useless job to steal money from tax payers. Linguistics is bullshit, its NOT a science.

geekyviking Says:

Sep 6, 2009 - "Linguistics is bullshit, its NOT a science."And what are the grounds for this bullshit statement?

railadvocate Says:

Dec 5, 2009 - Wow! I thought this was an absolutely excellent interview. -From subject matter to the way it was delivered. So now to the book.

Gaeilgeoir Says:

Dec 6, 2009 - Maybe you're thinking of Scottish Gaelic vs. Irish Gaelic, which the Irish never spoke. Irish has been on the rebound for some time, is fully modernized and no longer in danger of dying. (Scottish) Gaelic isn't in as good shape but it's hanging on and being encouraged and protected by law.

Gaeilgeoir Says:

Dec 6, 2009 - :-(

casperado666 Says:

Dec 9, 2009 - Ukrainian is dying out because of Russian fascist language politics during the soviet times. Fucken barbarians

JohnAdamCulligan Says:

Jan 28, 2010 - Alas, imperial domination is likely the cause of the popularity of all major languages.

lyoizisi Says:

Jan 30, 2010 - Ukrainian is a dialect of the Russian just liek Azerbaijani of Turkish.After the Stalinisation of Soviets both of them borned as a language

lyoizisi Says:

Jan 30, 2010 - Laz and Mingrelian languages are dying Georgia and Turkey.Young people dont speak Laz in towns, in villages parents dont wanna teach the tongue and Turkish afraid roughly 60 years later there will be not Laz

casperado666 Says:

Jan 30, 2010 - It's actually vice versa, if you concider that the Russian ethnicity is a mixture of Rusyns (population of Kievan Rus) and finno-ugric tribes who are autochtonous on the territory of contemporary Russia.Just because Russian culture was politically dominant in the region in the last centuries doesn't mean it's the source of the slavic culture.

dmarker21 Says:

Feb 5, 2010 - I get depressed when I visit my relatives in Sicily and none of the young people want to speak Sicilian. They want to be American, meanwhile their beautiful culture is rapidly dying.

speedproductions797 Says:

Apr 7, 2010 - Wow, that's incredible, I didn't know that happens to linguistics; super intelligence!

scarlettbond Says:

Apr 8, 2010 - David Harrison is not only smart, but also hot as hell. Really... brains are what is most arousing in a man imho.

pocketmarrow Says:

May 20, 2010 - Recruit me!

femmefatale1990 Says:

May 30, 2010 - @speedproductions797 Yes, I learned this while learning French and Italian. Even the Italian language is going to die. The board of education got rid of the Italian AP test. Why would students want to learn Italian now if they can't take the AP test? and Italian is the closest language to Latin....

slimithy13 Says:

Jun 24, 2010 - @femmefatale1990 how can the italian language die? as long as there is an itialian nation where millions of people speak it, there will be an itialain language, right? or am i missing somthing?

femmefatale1990 Says:

Jun 24, 2010 - @slimithy13 It can die within a few years. That's not hard to believe, and very few millions speak it and it's mostly in Italy, itself. Less and less people speak it. It's not really required and more Italians are learning other languages as well.

slimithy13 Says:

Jun 24, 2010 - @femmefatale1990 sorry, i dont mean to argue with you but italy has a population of around 60 million people, all of which speak itialian. so it's in no more danger of dying then dutch, german, japanese, tukish or greek. all of those languages are hardly spoken by other people and they all have simular populations too. i think the italian language isnt going anywhere for now, so i think you can rest easy.

NorseRonin Says:

Jul 18, 2010 - i'm thinking about becoming a linguist, is there jobs and things that are readily available after training that pay enough for me to live "comfortably"? i don't want to become a homeless linguist is what i'm saying :P