Extinct Languages

Dear Sherman, 

It is unlikely that you would know this but not so long ago we had words like 'ambivalence' and 'serpentine' and 'tempestuous'. Not anymore. Not for our immediate or foreseeable retrieval. These words and thousands more like them have been lost. They are out of reach. Linguists sometimes liken language to a river, the way it is constantly changing. The way it is always moving, flowing, changing direction and changing the cultural landscape through which it flows. It connects and defines us. Without language, there is no 'us'. But now? Now it is the time of drought. The river is drying up. Have you noticed? 

How our conversations have become so much more...basic. As a species, we are becoming trapped not in the tar pit or in the ice but by narrowing communication. We are becoming animals again. Nuanced discourse is becoming a thing of the past. Without a rich and diverse vocabulary, our ideas will begin to whither up and die in our heads. Our words are now like blunt instruments and the possibility of misunderstandings and misinterpretation is rife. This is the danger I predicted when we last talked on 12/10/2021. 

Every day it is estimated that another 15-20 English language words are lost to native speakers. And the same goes for all languages. More of less. These figures are confirmed by all leading experts in my profession. Neurologists say there is no identifiable reason for this loss. At first, they thought something was happening to the language centre of the human brain. Or the part of the brain which is responsible for retaining memory. They suspected some kind of mass neurological deterioration was occurring. They though maybe environmental factors were to blame. As you know, there were lots of theories. Radiation from the new super satellites orbiting the Earth or the pollution from the ECZs that were once India and the southern provinces of China. Pollution altering our brains. Pollution in the air, in the food chain. But the tests revealed nothing. No abnormalities. No discernible physical or neurological damage. Nothing had changed and the mystery persisted. And so did the damage. All those words silently going over the edge of the cliff, falling to their extinction, like so many blind buffaloes. 

There are children being born now who will never hear the word 'semiprecious' or 'fragrant' or 'extrapolate'. Of course, we have dictionaries but when it comes down to everyday communication, the words just don't come anymore. They will not stick in the long term memory. You know what it's like: you start talking and everything is fine and then you come to a point where you can't go on because some word you need is missing. What is it? You struggle because there is a hole in what you are trying to say. I must replace this ghost word, you think to yourself. I must replace this word with an alternative word. A synonym. And yes, you do, but still....you are aware that there is this missing word. These disruptions to the syntax are very distressing. At least for those of us who are old enough to be aware that language is deteriorating. This is the loss we all feel. The frustration. It hurts. It is like the fantom limb itching in the dark.  

Communication is getting more basic. No one can deny this. As I say, everything is becoming more literal. More bound up by its own apparentness. Language is a river: that is what they say. A river that is changing all the time, transporting our ideas and our feelings downstream like cargo. It is a river that is shared by all. Always moving away from the source. Or the sources. But now this. This drought. 

A car full of teenagers just rode past my window and someone screamed out, 'I am the.........!' People are on edge and angry. People need to be understood. Ambiguity unsettles the world. I mean....what is next? Will babies start being born without thumbs? Most people have just given up. You can't blame them. Life is short. Too short to fight this kind of battle. The average college graduate (do you remember those people?) used to have 75, 000 words at their disposal. That number is getting lower and lower each day. And it's not simply a matter of the world becoming more stupid, more barbaric. Our language is deteriorating at an alarming rate. I could show you a long, juicy five syllabus word, a word that was in common use a week ago and you would completely fail to recognise it. 

This is my life's work: to archive these lost words. I am responsible for identifying, cataloguing and in essence preserving these words. The problem is how do you identify them? These words disappear silently. Once they are gone, we find a replacement. Life moves on. How can you identify something that no one can remember? In terms of the English language, four years ago there were 171,476 words in use and 47,156 obsolete words. Now there are 143, 476 words in use. This means there are currently 75, 156 obsolete words. Only we don't call them 'obsolete words'. We call them part of the 'Extinct Language'. Or Languages. Let's not forget that many Inuit and Aboriginal languages are now completely extinct. 

Why do I do this? Why do I bother? After all, no one will come here and relearn the words. Why would they? Language is a shared experience based on commonly understood signifiers. If no one else is using a particular word, it will have no context. It will not be in common usage. You can wander around saying 'Discountenance' and 'Baffled' and 'flummoxed' all you like but if no one else is using these words...well. You see the problem. To make matters worst the latest surveys and studies indicate that different groups of people in different parts of the world are losing different words. So it is not a consistent process. And this is creating further problems. Regional dialects. Variations of the same language. 

  

The real problem with this drought is that people are becoming more limited in their thinking. More fractured. It is a case of what came first....the chicken or the egg? The advancement of our species is largely dependent on the ongoing development of human intelligence. And language is the main tool of this advancement. In light of what is happening, we are becoming more focused on our immediate needs. Other people's inner lives are becoming stranger, more alien to us. Put simply, in recent years, it has become increasing more difficult to develop and convey progressive thought. This is beginning to affect us on all cognitive levels. Reasoning, memory...the way we perceive the world around us. Empathy. 

As individuals and generally as a species, we have always been preoccupied with what will bring about our demise. Here it is. No disease or meteorite puncturing the earth's atmosphere, just isolation through the end of language. As we head back to cave paintings.  

It is getting harder to read other people now. Nothing is familiar. And it will only get worse. So yes, to answer your question, my recommendation would be to keep archiving and storing these words in the hope that maybe something will reverse this deterioration. However, my prediction, which is based on what is currently happening, it less than optimistic. 

Yours Sincerely, Otto.