Re: [tied] Ah, look at all the lonely languages

Gerry wrote:

>Agreed that isolated and dead mean two different things. However, if
>Latin is dead, then why is it experiencing a re-emergence?
>

Because people have decided that they want to learn it. Being dead
doesn't mean that there's something about a language that prevents its
being learnt; it just means that the language has no native speakers left.

> About
>Basque, how can a language that is supposedly isolated have so many
>new speakers?
>

An isolated language is one that has no known related languages. This
does not mean that people can't speak it. If all the world spoke a
single language which just magically popped up yesterday, than that
language would (might) be an isolate, in spite of the fact that everyone
spoke it. (If all the world spoke a single language and had done for
thousands of years, then it'd still be an isolate.)

>About Sumerian.....did it ever exist?
>

No, it's all a myth.

--
Tristan <kesuari@...>