Jan 17, 2006 | Snooped

It's scary and very Orwellian to think that the United States government would covertly eavesdrop on its citizens who assumed that, in making international phone calls and emails, they were entitled to their freedom to privacy from such sinister survelliance. What a world we've come to, eh?

One thing that's certain about this world that has a lot to do with one course that I'm taking right now is that a lot of languages are in peril of extinction- my "Endangered Languages" class with Dr. K. David Harrison is exciting and enthralling, in that it's perhaps the only discipline that, as he said, strives to seek material that is disappearing right before our eyes. There are at least 6000 "known" and documented languages in the world, and though many more are doubtless soon to be discovered, many more are languages whose proponents are dying out. And when there aren't enough people to speak the language, there's evidently no longer the necessity to use it.

Consider this: 4% of the world's population is considered indigenous, yet they account for 60% of the world's languages. Similarly, 90% of the world's population speaks the 100 most-used languages, which means there about 6000 languages that are spoken by the remaining 10%.

The truth of the matter is that languages are rapidly vanishing, and though they may not be as tangible or as recognisable as monarch butterflies or a rare species of a certain animal, one cannot deny the fact that languages define and are defined by culture and history. To lose a language is clearly to lose a certain part of history. And while historians might have primary documents to pore over, language has the disadvantage of requiring frequent and widespread usage...

Also written on this day..

• 2010: iPhone tools and tips reference page
• 2008: The Kite Runner and Atonement Compared
• 2005: First things first