I think when a language is lost, also lost is the expression of the people who spoke it. A language isn't just a communication tool it's an expressive tool, a gestural tool, and a educational tool. The English language, for example, has many different versions of slang and pronunciation. This isn't just in what words you say but rather how you say the words and their inherent meaning. I work with a Russian man who speaks English, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. His responses to relatively simple and light-hearted questions come across in English as being crass and "mean", but he is far from being either of those things.
I imagine that in some of these lost languages, that are being lost on a daily and weekly basis, teach us not only how they use language but also how they communicate with one-another. An in learning how they communicate and the idioms in their communication could teach more about them as a people.
Living in Chicago we have a way of speaking to one-another that too comes across as crass and harsh to people with more of a rural or southern dialect.
I believe language and how you speak it it important to individuality and culture completely.
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I completely agree on the idea that when a language is lost part of the individualism of that culture is lost with it. We then lose the ability to truly understand the people and ways of that culture as well. Being no language or form of communication to translate any interpretations or theories then can never really be proven.
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