Also just gonna point out here:
In the UK, the languages Gaelige, Gaelic, Cymraeg and Kernewek (thatâs Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Cornish respectively) didnât just âdie out.â There was a concerted effort by the English to kill them off.Â
For example, in Wales, if a child was heard speaking Welsh in a classroom, theyâd be given a âWelsh Notâ, a wooden plaque engraved with âWNâ to hang around their neck. Theyâd pass it onto the next child heard speaking Welsh, and whoever had the Welsh Not at the end of the day was punished - usually with a beating.Â
Kernewek was revived after a long hard struggle by the Cornish folk, and is now being taught again, but a lot about it has been lost because everyone who grew up speaking it has died.
And languages are never revived âjust because.â The language of a place can offer so much insight into its history, so if youâre content to let a language die then youâre content to let history die.
People talk about âdeadâ languages as if they dwindle away gradually, naturally coming to an end and evolving into something else, but thatâs rarely the case. Languages like Cymraeg and Gaelige and especially Kernewek didnât have the chance to die with dignity, they were literally beaten out of my parents and grandparents.Â
Is it any wonder every other country hate the English? We invade their country, steal their history, claim pieces of their history as ours or flat out re-write it, and kill every part of their culture that we can.Â
Itâs a miracle that any of the Celtic languages survived, so even if you donât see the point in keeping them alive, the actual natives of each country weâve fucked over are clinging onto what heritage they have left through the only thing they can: their language.Â
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