R.I.P. Scout26
Marginal Revolution points out a paper by David Clingingsmith that argues that worries about the extinction of most existing smaller languages are likely overblown. Languages with at least 35,000 speakers (Frisian, for example, has close to a half million) seem to be stable, with little danger of going into a death spiral.In a promotional video above for the Frisian language of northern Netherlands and Western Germany, Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes offers a compelling case for speaking Frisian, which is a sort of German and Dutch with maybe a little English. I’m not quite sure what points she is making in favor of Frisian, but whatever they are, I find them wholly persuasive.
