Comments on: A Pyramid of All the World’s Knowledge http://quixoticquisling.com/2008/12/a-pyramid-of-all-the-worlds-knowledge/ Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:41:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Neil Cocker http://quixoticquisling.com/2008/12/a-pyramid-of-all-the-worlds-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-127 Neil Cocker Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:00:38 +0000 http://www.quixoticquisling.com/?p=195#comment-127 "the bit about the Tofa language of Siberia might teach you something about the classification of reindeer" - The only sentence I needed to persuade me to watch the video, which I've bookmarked for watching with a cuppa tomorrow.... :) “the bit about the Tofa language of Siberia might teach you something about the classification of reindeer”

- The only sentence I needed to persuade me to watch the video, which I’ve bookmarked for watching with a cuppa tomorrow….

:)

]]> By: Anna http://quixoticquisling.com/2008/12/a-pyramid-of-all-the-worlds-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-126 Anna Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:41:54 +0000 http://www.quixoticquisling.com/?p=195#comment-126 This is a fascinating debate. On the one hand, isn't it just pointless nostalgia to hoard old languages? On the other, English has always reintroduced and adapted old words, or drawn from new sources. It's one of the things that's made it so varied and fascinating. I'd tend towards the latter argument myself. I think our global cultural history, if such a thing exists, would be greatly impoverished by the loss of the languages that helped to shape it. The video sadly didn't work for me, probably the flash player being stupid again. This is a fascinating debate. On the one hand, isn’t it just pointless nostalgia to hoard old languages? On the other, English has always reintroduced and adapted old words, or drawn from new sources. It’s one of the things that’s made it so varied and fascinating.

I’d tend towards the latter argument myself. I think our global cultural history, if such a thing exists, would be greatly impoverished by the loss of the languages that helped to shape it.

The video sadly didn’t work for me, probably the flash player being stupid again.

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