Languages don't die, Mark. What happens is that a large linguistic
community gobbles up (cannibalizes) a smaller linguistic community.
Nothing to do with the nature of the language, in either case. Unicode
can do a lot to slow down this process, by facilitating the registration
of characters needed by the latter, to match the full complement already
available to the former, thereby accordiing both languages equal access
to electronic resources. Even such small linguistic communities as are
very strong on the ground (in the real, non-virtual world), need
e-support for the future.
mg
Scríobh 05/12/2013 16:25, Mark Davis ☕:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077056
with a popular article at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/12/04/how-the-internet-is-killing-the-worlds-languages/
The source article was interesting, although I'd take issue with some
of their methodology.
The WP gloss takes some liberties; in particular, the source says "The
latest (2012/02/28) publicly available version of the [SIL] database
distinguishes 7,776 languages" while the WP leaps to the conclusion
that "…at least 7,776 languages are in use in the greater offline world."
Mark <https://google.com/+MarkDavis>
/
/
/— Il meglio è l’inimico del bene —/
//
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Marion Gunn * eGteo (Estab.1991)
27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn, Baile an
Bhóthair, An Charraig Dhubh,
Co. Átha Cliath, Éire/Ireland.
*[email protected] *[email protected] *
