“Language death is like no other form of disappearance. When people die, they leave signs of their presence in the world, in the form of their dwelling places, burial mounds, and artefacts - in a word, their archaeology. But spoken language leaves no archaeology. When a language dies, which has never been recorded, it is as if it has never been.”

—  David Crystal

Source: How Language Works, 2007, p. 342

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David Crystal 24
British linguist and writer 1941

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