LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  When according to accounts we had 6500 different languages in the world, we were told that several languages died daily. I hear now that the number has increased to 7000. Those figures do not jibe. How are languages counted? Who decides between language and dialect? Who issues language death certificates? Do you remember Dalmatian? When Tuone Udaina died in 1898, the Dalmatian language died with him. He was the sole speaker left. We must assume that he spoke to himself only and managed to communicate in other languages or else he would have been unable to express his needs and ideas. This language lore does not wash with me.  There are American languages spoken by tribes of only 300 members. A language like that has no future not because it is more or less suitable for modern life but because the voice intercourse is very limited, although this is relative. I, for one, speaking English and Spanish can in theory communicate with over one thousand million people. In fact, some...

  Mankind and language go hand in hand. The death of a person is the death of his language. Dead languages are languages whose speakers died. When Mr. Tuone Udeina died in 1898, Dalmatian, as a language, also died, and became a dead language that very day. But pehaps I digress... The above apropos of how speakers shape, change, rape, manhandle, and misuse this wonderful tool, to their heart´s content. Why do speakers prefer long phrases instead of verbs? Why are they fond of using two or three words instead of only one? Examples: "To have breakfast" insted of "to breakfast" "To take a nap" instead of "to nap" "To take a shower" instead of "to shower" "To stand up" instead of "to stand" "To sit down" instead of "to sit" "To stand up" instead of "to stand" "To have lunch" insted of "to lunch" Ah, the mysteries of the human brain that created language...

Madrid is holding yet another Second-hand Book Fair in Paseo de Recoletos, near Cibeles. I try to visit the stands in order to keep in touch with my literary youth and recollect old books read as a child. Suddenly my eyes discover Emilio Salgari, James O. Curwood, Emile Zola, Rafael Sabatini... and so many others we can no longer find in the few bookstores that are left open. Yesterday I saw a two-volume set of St. Thomas Aquinas ´ Summa Theologica in Latin. The price was 150 euros. The combination of author, title, and language got me to ponder. 150 euros for a title written in a dead language, few can read today, is a hefty sum. St. Thomas Aquinas is no celebrity -he has not appeared on TV recently!- and Latin is not a popular language people are trying to master. When nationalisms decided to use local languages and do away with Latin, European civilization lost a means of scientific and cultural communication of great importance. Educated people throughout Europe read Lati...