Silver and Gold

       The definition of antique is a collectible item of high value because of it's considerable age. No wonder a first century A.D., rare, Roman helmet sold for nearly $3.6 million. I read and admired pictures in the slide show "Pictures: Rare Roman Helmet sells for $3.6 million", by National Geographic. As soon as this incredible piece of history was found it was taken to Christie's Auction House, in northwestern England. Aitken, an employ at the auction house, said "When the piece came to the auction house, I examined it first hand, I saw this extraordinary face from the past staring back at me." 

       This story shows the weight of time. Time is valuable, it doesn't last. We try to do everything we can to stop ourselves from growing old. There's songs, surgery's, and books on staying fit and prolonging youth. This article makes clear that there is value and beauty in aging. I'm sure that in it's day the Helmet was pretty, but now the Helmet ,that may have been taken for granted, is a thing of wonder. 

         We take pride in our inventions, lets face it we, the human race, have come a long way. We may often forget the significance of our ancient ancestors and their inventions. Yes, everything new is nifty and amazing. History and the wisdom  our ancestors left behind, is precious. This comparison reminds me of a song we would sing in girl scouts: "Make new friends but keep the old one is silver and the other gold." Technology is the new shiny "silver friend", we'll do anything to get our hands on it. It will teach us new ideas and take us to unexplored realms. History (the artifacts left for us to find) is the "gold friend". It is full of passed down knowledge and will will remind us of who we were, who we are, and who we have the potential to be. The absolute best part of the little song is " make new friends, but keep the old." Just because we develop new technology every day doesn't mean we have to forget the lessons we've already learned. History doesn't need to disappear with the advancement of technology.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/photogalleries/101011-roman-helmet-sold-history-pictures/?now=2010-10-11-00:01

Enduring Voices Project

Latin, at one point in history was one of the most common languages. Latin is now an extinct language, what could this mean for any modern present language? I read the article "Lost" Language Found by Anonymous.  Nearly 80% of the worlds population speaks only about 1% of its language's. The language and the knowledge, that went with that language die when the last person who spoke it passes.

The Enduring Voices project went on a expedition to northern India to study two rural languages and found a "new" language called Koro. Although Koro isn't really new it's new to linguists, and it became one of the 6,909 known living languages. The distressing part of this discovery is that Koro is only spoken by 800 people very few of which are under the age of 20. This language is practically dead, most linguists consider half of the worlds 6,909 languages endangered. 

After i read this article I looked up the Enduring voices project. They're connected to national geographic.The goal of the Enduring Voices Project is to "Document endangered languages and prevent language extinction by identifying the most crucial areas where languages are endangered and embarking on expeditions." This is probably one of the coolest jobs I've ever heard of. These people travel to some of the most exotic locations on earth to look for and write about endangered, and new languages. The linguists who journey on these expeditions are extremely gifted. They can pick up what knowledge the languages hold just be listening to them and analyzing them.

Being a linguist hasn't always been a career option. If it had been maybe we wouldn't have so many lost  languages or have so many ancient languages that we don't know and possibly never will know and understand.  This career doesn't just preserve language it preserves life. Not that linguists are saving lives they are just preserving lifestyles. They are preserving the older ways of living that may be forgotten when the language goes extinct. The Enduring Voices Project makes me think of the poem "Forgotten Language" by Shel Silverstein: 

"Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?" 

If we weren't working on preserving languages future generations could be placing one of our modern languages in the place of Silversteins and saying to themselves, "how did it go, how did it go."