The value of the language

Abstract

. Each language is invaluable, first of all because it is a unique variation of language. Languages are not specimens of a species called language, but species, and their extinction represents an irreparable loss to our knowledge of language. Second, each language is the result of an unrepeatable historical drift, and its extinction entails an irreparable loss to our knowledge of ontogenetic, ethnogenetic and phylogenetic processes. Third, each language establishes a symbiosis with culture and represents an irreplaceable access route to fundamental aspects of collective identity and mentality. The value of a language does not emanate from practical or material writing, but from its own structure that makes it writable in different systems, starting with symbolic writing. The disappearance of a language implies the disappearance of a world of ideas and symbolic representations. An educational system that does not contribute to the strengthening of a language in its own cultural environment contributes to its destruction.

Keywords. Language, value, symbolic writing, culture, symbiosis of language and culture, inclusive education.