Where now for ‘dead’ languages?
I went on a trip to north western Wales the other day and whilst in a pub, I was fortunate enough to overhear a group of native Welsh speakers in conversation; noting my interest, they welcomed me into their throng and I was treated to some basic Welsh lessons.
Now I must admit, that although being proficient in a language from each one of the Germanic, Slavic and Latin family of languages, this particular version of Celtic language totally eluded any of my efforts to get to grips with it.
I will always be grateful to those kindly Welsh speakers, so it is without any disrespect that I find myself wondering whether there is any real future for these ‘dead’ languages. In this instance, ‘dead’ of course doesn’t mean long gone and defunct, but implies languages that will never practically be spoken outside of their small area (in this case Wales) and furthermore, even within its area, is only spoken by a minority.
Additionally, every language has to evolve, and unless it is to borrow terms and phraseology from other languages in order to have descriptive terms for newly introduced technology, trends, methodology (which would dilute its Celtic nature with Anglo-Saxon input), how is it to overcome this hurdle and yet not make its new nouns sound like long winded infantile descriptions e.g. ‘power house that burns inside’ as a ‘Welshism’ for ‘internal combustion engine?
Any ideas?