Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 21st Jun 2012 11:17 UTC
While I sometimes see Dutch as an endangered language, reality is that with nearly 30 million speakers worldwide, we're actually doing pretty well. Sadly, this can't be said for the 3000 truly endangered languages of the world - nearly half of the world's total number of languages is on the verge of extinction, and with it, large amounts of human culture are in danger of disappearing forever. In collaboration with several universities and language institutions, Google has launched the Endangered Languages Project to document these languages - textually, visually, and
auditorially.
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Member since:2008-10-23
I beg to differ. The Sentinelese people highly value cultural identity, while Americans do not ("melting pot", a nation of immigrants, etc.). I suspect there's a linear correlation along that line if you throw in other cultures. That's not to say Sentinelese are less happy than Americans, just less developed.
Americans value their cultural identity much more than you think. You don't see it because it's not endangered but they do. To say americans do not have any cultral identity is ignorant. Baseball, western, hollywood, patrotism, freedom, the founding fathers, risk taking, poker, individualism, national pride, thanksgiving, independance day, quarter pounder with cheese are a few things that are part of american culture.
Edited 2012-06-22 13:47 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2006-07-26
I don't mean Americans don't have any, I mean that it's a culture of assimilation as opposed to conforming to tradition. English is a mesh of numerous languages. States have more cultural identity than the nation, but that generally has minimal influence on decisions (e.g. most people would take a higher paying job in another state if they can uproot easily). This may, in part, be due to having 400 years of tradition rather than 1,000+, so it's less ingrained.
Member since:
2006-07-26
I beg to differ. The Sentinelese people highly value cultural identity, while Americans do not ("melting pot", a nation of immigrants, etc.). I suspect there's a linear correlation along that line if you throw in other cultures. That's not to say Sentinelese are less happy than Americans, just less developed.