In this video, the BBC's YouTube channel explores the Miriwoong language: one of the rarest in all of Australia.
Language is one of the most critical bonding agents for a culture. I learned this first hand when dating a woman for whom English was a third language. Due to my minimal latitude in language—thanks to only speaking one—many communicational issues in the relationship squarely fell on my shoulders. Unless I exerted conscious effort to weed my speech of colloquialisms, I would unintentionally create hurdles for my lady. Luckily, thanks to speaking several languages, she was a lot smarter than me and treated my shortcomings with grace.
My time in that relationship made me realize how the overlooked nuances of a specific language help foster a deep connection. My partner and I both spoke English, but our perspectives on the language caused us to frame reality in different ways. Take, for example, the various dialects of Spanish and Chinese. Despite the similarities in ethnicity, each dialect acts as the lifeblood that carries a culture's unique customs and traditions into modernity. When a language dies, a culture dies with it.
