Importance of Dead Languages

The linguistic ability of the human being As a living being, it is undoubtedly one of the elements that has differentiated it from the rest since the beginning of history. living beings. The possibility of establishing a systematized language, with rules and a specific operation it has expanded the capacity of our brain and contributes in thousands of aspects to our life daily. In this sense, the history of Humanity has witnessed the development of numerous languages, some already extinct, which, however, have served as the basis for current languages.

The extinction of ancient languages

Throughout history, human groups or societies have developed different languages ​​that had to do mainly with the ability to build a more or less complex system of communication. Elements such as the environment in which they lived also contributed to shaping these languages. Many of them, those that existed in Antiquity, are considered dead languages ​​today. This means that people who have none of these languages ​​as their mother tongue are no longer born on the planet because it is no longer transmitted from human to human, although they can be learned.

Dead languages ​​are, among others, Latin, Elamite, Hittite, Akkadian, Ancient Greek, Classical Egyptian, Classical Chinese, Ancient Sanskrit. All of them belonged to ancient peoples and although they were perhaps very important and spoken by a large number of people at that time, the evolution of language caused them to lose shape, to become a new language (as happens with languages derivatives from Latin), that even disappeared.

Languages ​​are not eternal but they can be kept as a cultural heritage of Humanity

To understand the importance of dead languages, we must be clear that all forms of language have a life that can wear out over time. The languages ​​we know today are not the same as those used just five centuries ago and are likely to continue to evolve or even disappear. The disappearance of languages ​​can be due to many causes: the imposition of new languages ​​through force when a people conquer the other, the annihilation of the people itself, the complexity of the language that does not make it easily transmittable to others, etc

In any case, dead languages ​​are nowadays considered a central element to understand the evolution of Humanity, that is why it is important to preserve them as paintings, works of art and all kinds of cultural creations are preserved.

Fotolia image: Konstantin Kulikov, pzAxe