[BfloGuy]

Breton is still spoken in France, but the government does not try to help its survival and apparently the number of speakers is steadily declining. The language was brought to that part of France by people fleeing from Britain.

There are people who have tried to revive Cornish (maybe mainly in Cornwall) but I think they have to "fill in the gaps" with material from Welsh (like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park which were recreated with the help of frog DNA).

Interesting phenomenon, this idea of trying to save dying languages. Now, I'm fascinated by language, but I just don't quite see the point of saving one that has no use.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think in France it is a question of the government being hostile to languages other than French. Some languages are going to die out, particularly those whose numbers decline beyond a certain point, but each language has some unique features or idioms and is a museum of how the speakers of that language in the past viewed the world--the human race is poorer when languages become extinct.

But modern nationalism tends to promote the dominant language of a country above all others. I think it is desirable for immigrants to America to become fluent in English, but we shouldn't accelerate the disappearance of Indian languages that were spoken here pre-1607.