"When I think of my tongue being no longer alive in the mouths of men a chill goes over me that is deeper than my own death, since it is the gathered death of all my kind. It is black night descending once and forever on all that world of forests, lakes, snow peaks, great birds' wings [...]"
This passage of the text The Only Speaker of His Tongue by David Malouf resonated with me due to its contents on language, identity and culture. If I were to think that my mother tongue would die out, I believe that I would have the same perspective on the matter as stated in the passage above, as it does not only mark the death of my language, but the death of all of my kind. Words unique to my mother tongue would be lost, traditions would vanish, it values would be forgotten.
In the passage, David Malouf describes the death of his tongue as "deeper than [his] own death", meaning that the death of a language has a greater effect than just on an individual as the language is "no longer alive in the mouths of men". The loss of a language marks the death of its culture, customs, inherited knowledge and its traditions "since it is the gathered death of all [its] kind." David Malouf describes the death of a culture as a "black night", empty and dark, without any light that would represent the life of a culture. With the culture's death, also die the culture's unique way of describing the world, such as its "forests, lakes, snow peaks, great birds' wings", as no two cultures are alike. Each culture, like its language, is unique.
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