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7th grade reading & vocabulary
Unit 3: Lesson 1
Building knowledgeWelcome to the Living Tongues unit!
Languages change a lot over time and are influenced by culture, historical events, technological advances, and more. These factors also cause new languages to evolve, and, sometimes, cause existing languages to become extinct. Today, linguists are working to preserve some languages that are in danger of disappearing; although not everyone agrees that this is worth the effort.
In this unit, you will:
- Learn about endangered languages, and languages that have a relatively small number of speakers worldwide
- Consider the role languages play in society
- Think about why people are making efforts to preserve languages
By:
- Watching videos that explain different approaches and strategies for reading
- Reading and answering questions about literary and informational texts
- Learning new academic words
In order to answer the essential question: What is the value of preserving languages?
Want to join the conversation?
- How many languages are extinct?(15 votes)
- How many languages are in danger of going extinct(5 votes)
- how do rats speak(4 votes)
- well what if we were in a war and we needed to use a different language so they dont know or plans(4 votes)
- Hi Patrick Andrade!
Perfect question and scenario! During World War 2 (specifically the Pacific Theater), the Japanese were able to crack every code that the U.S. were trying to send and even if these codes were sent safely, it would take many hours to actually decipher it. So, they used a different language called Navajo. These brilliant people, called "Navajo Code Talkers", were able to create codes for specific phrases or military tactics. It was also much more easier and efficient to use and decipher much more quickly. Also, Navajo was a key advantage since back during World War 2, Navajo wasn't a written language. Instead, it was spoken instead. They had to use sound to be able to truly decipher the codes that were being sent. For more information, I have sources that I sourced from.
Sources :
(1) https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/winter/navajo-code-talkers.html
(2) https://www.csmonitor.com/1997/0107/010797.home.home.2.html
(3) https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers(3 votes)
- When was the concept of language created and why? If you think about it language is a form that is still gaining more and more from the years so who was the real mastermind in starting such a diabolical Idea?(4 votes)
- is there any language being able to be extinct(3 votes)
- If people are linguistically talented does that mean that they are really well experienced and comfortable to speak variety of languages?(3 votes)
- how are my poop made(3 votes)