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Reviving ancient languages

I have always been somewhat in awe of the Israelis, who dusted off biblical Hebrew and revived it into a living language, although to achieve this an overlay of slavic syntax was applied by the scholar Ben Yehuda.
I'm also acquainted with recent efforts in Taiwan to revive its numerous proto-Malay aboriginal tongues, which have up to now survived hundreds of years of marginalisation by China and Japan. Although efforts may be futile, there's still something very satisfying about being part of efforts to preserve a language still retained by only a few thousand people.

Sent by: Michael

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