The main reason we humans consider language to be so important is because of our need to communicate with one another. All peoples of every nation have different views, values, and beliefs. Almost all cultures in the world practice a religion and it is through that religion that these values are passed on to future generations. It is by following these moral values that stable societies exist. Most religions have a text that has been passed down through the years containing the fundamental beliefs of their religion. An example would be Islam's Koran or Christianity’s Bible. The people following these teachings would have a very difficult time knowing these traditions if there were no references.

     The Old Testament of the Bible was written in ancient Hebrew. The Jewish people have many spiritual practices that are very important to their culture. The instructions about these customs were all written in ancient Hebrew and placed in the first 5 books of the Bible, called the Torah. If the Hebrew language had disappeared the Jewish culture would not have survived. Without the ability to read and understand what their ancestors had written, they would not have been able to continue these traditions.

      Today there are many small tribes in Africa and Asia that are close to collapse because their languages are dying. Their own languages are being replaced with mainstream languages like English, Mandarin, or Spanish. Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics is an excellent example of a lost language. Around the first century A.D., the native writing script changed to a modified Greek alphabet which was much easier to write. Formal hieroglyphs were still used in ceremonies until the 4th century A.D., but by then only a small number of priests could still read them. When these priests died, the knowledge of how to decipher hieroglyphic writing was lost. It remained that way until the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 A.D. This stone had three languages on it: Demotic, Greek and hieroglyphic. Demotic was the Egyptian's way of writing after hieroglyphics were no longer used. Since the stone had the three languages on it they were able to translate first the Greek to Demotic and then the Demotic to hieroglyphic.

     This is a great example. Once the hieroglyphics were able to be translated, it was like opening a window to the past and Ancient Egyptian culture. No one writes in Ancient Egyptian anymore. It is a dead language; look what happened when it died! The world lost the knowledge of all the customs, practices, and religious views of the ancient Egyptian people.

Sources:

British Museum, "Story: The Rosetta Stone." Ancient Egypt. 1999. ancientegypt.co.uk.  Accessed 05 February 2009. <http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html>

Campbell, Anthony. "Religion and Language." Anthony Campbell. 2008. acampbell.org.uk. Accessed 05 February 2009. <http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/ essays/skeptic/language.html>

Carolyn, Kellogg. "A Peek at a 15th Century Scroll of the Koran." Latimesblogs.latimes.com. 13 Nov 2008. latimesblogs.latimes.com. Accessed 05 February 2009. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/ 2008/11/a-peek-at-a-15t.html>

Pennycook, Alastair. "The Modern Mission: The Language Effects of Christianity." Informaworld.com. 2009. informaworld.com.  Accessed 05 February 2009. <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ content~content=a785040765~db=all>

Picture Sources:

Deepchi. “Koran”.  Flickr.com.  Accessed 05 February 2009. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepchi/3314678699/>
Xjyxjy.  “02aug BM rosetta stone”. Flickr.com.  Accessed 05
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Used under the creative commons license. To view see below.
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