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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial;">===============================================<br>
<b>L O W L A N D S - L - 30 March 2010 - Volume 05</b><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
<a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: <span class="gd"><span style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Sandy Fleming</span></span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="go"><<a href="mailto:sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk">sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: </span><span class="gi"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">LL-L "Language varieties" 2010.03.28 (01)
[EN]</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gi"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I wrote:<br>
<br>
> In the future I think people will say that we destroyed many languages<br>
> because we didn't have the necessary scientific understanding of<br>
> language change and psychological attitudes to language, or how to<br>
> snapshot a language, or what the consequences were of losing a<br>
> language,<br>
> and other such technology and understanding.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I wonder if I could just
rephrase these as questions for discussion?<br>
<br>
1. How do you preserve language information for posterity? How do you<br>
deep-freeze it so that when the descendants of the speakers who let go<br>
of it start to pine for it again? Obviously there are dictionaries and<br>
grammars but attempts by non-speakers to learn a language from these<br>
alone always produces an imitation that native speakers feel terrible<br>
about. Does that matter if all native speakers are long gone? Is a large<br>
body of literature and recordings enough or could a statistical approach<br>
produce essentially the same results with much less work?<br>
<br>
2. What are the consequences of losing a minor language or dialect?<br>
<br>
3. How could we go about doing better science so that activists have<br>
more agreement amongst themselves instead of wasting resources on<br>
internecine war?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sandy Fleming<br>
<a href="http://scotstext.org/" target="_blank">http://scotstext.org/</a><br style="">
<br style="">
</span></p>
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