The Last Post Game!!!!

[Swatopluk]

Latin is supposedly dead yet there are some die hard fans in the Vatican.

Last _{are we deader?} Post

That's why I used Akakdian and not Latin as an example.

And there was for some time a regular  Latin broadcast on Finnish TV (during some Olympics iirc)

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

So, the criteria for a dead language is that if someone different from a number of linguists and historians outside a university somewhere still speak the language it isn't dead?

Last _{or something more extreme like the language that the inhabitants of Teotihuacan spoke is dead because they are and nobody knows what the heck they spoke?} Post

[Swatopluk]

The prime example is Cornish. It is known when the last person speaking it died. At her last words the language turned from living to dead.
Of course a dead language can get revived provided its grammar and vocabulary got preserved. Then it is just a matter of people learning it as a foreign tongue and teaching it to their kids as first tongue.

Hebrew as it is spoken today may be a border case. As far as I know it got revived directly from the Biblical texts not the purely liturgical use

Those languages where the last speakers died before it could be put on paper (or tape or other material/way of preservation) are lost forever though. Reconstructed Indogermanic imo does not count as genuine, so any attempt to speak it would not constitute a successful revival.

Last _{again, Latin is a special case and not just because clerical celibacy prevents the natural transfer to the next generation} Post

[Griffin NoName]

Don't forget the e-vrit e-readers.

Classical Hebrew (yes, biblical) is different to evrit and also religious Hebrew texts include some sections in Aramaic. I learnt classic Hebrew from (being forced to) reading the Bible in Hebrew with no translation. I remember very little (but do still have some words) but remember struggling with the word for ass.

[Swatopluk]

Donkey or sitting-on part of the body?

Looking it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_revitalization), I find that your 'moribund' comment is actually using an official term and not an ad hoc.

Still, is modern Hebrew the result of a Frankensteinian experiment or not?

Last _{why can't we do the same for Gothic?} Post
Admittedly, it would make the term Gothic Novel a bit ambiguous

[Griffin NoName]

Looking it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_revitalization), I find that your 'moribund' comment is actually using an official term and not an ad hoc.

You doubted moi?

Last Post

[Swatopluk]

Since I make up terms when I am unable or unwilling to look the 'proper' words up and 'moribund' sounded exactly like that...
I would see no fault in either case since the meaning was never in doubt.

Last _{and you have not answered the question} Post

[Griffin NoName]

actually I made moribund up, but that shows how intelligent I am

Still, is modern Hebrew the result of a Frankensteinian experiment or not?

I know nothing about the rise of modern Hebrew. I doubt Ms Shelley was involved since she only has a history of six weeks which would not be enough time.

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[Swatopluk]

I doubt Ms Shelley was involved since she only has a history of six weeks which would not be enough time.

I don't fully understand about the six weeks. What do you mean with that

Last _{The Lord needed six days, mortals need six weeks for less} Post

[Griffin NoName]

wiki : History of a Six Weeks' Tour is a travel narrative by the British Romantic authors Mary Shelley (pictured) and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Published in 1817, it describes two trips taken by Mary, Percy, and Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one to Lake Geneva in 1816.
Also, you have to fully understand? I doubt you fully understand all the Last Posts.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Who understands nothing on this thread?

Last _{my understanding} Post

[Swatopluk]

The Last Post is far too sublime to be fully understood by anyone.

Last _{but it can still be taken} Post

[Griffin NoName]

But its meanings are clear in an alternate parallel universe, yes?

Last _subliminal Post

[Swatopluk]

Or its meanness, alternatively

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[Griffin NoName]

Not a mean bone in its body. Just contradictions.

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