Should minority languages be saved from extinction?

As most cultures would think, to lose the language spoken in that culture almost always is a devastating loss to that culture because language is a huge part of culture. What would America be without our expressions like, " a little bird told me " or " bringing home the bacon ". Losing expressions and language like that makes our culture less of a culture basically. So minority languages should be saved from extinction. But if the language no longer has importance in a culture for example, gibberish, then let it become extinct.

Is the ability to acquire language innate or learned?

Since beginning to learn Spanish in school in seventh grade I had always picked it up pretty quickly. A study has proven that people who can read music and have a musical background learn languages better because both require the use of the same part of your brain. To me to acquire a language was innate. Going to private school, I've gotten to know and have learned that lots of people know multiple languages and many have told me that once they had learned one language learning the others was easy. I feel that this also proves that the ability to acquire a language can be learned as well. So depending on who you are and what your exposed to affects ones ability to acquire a language.

Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?

Class is an important factor in language than geography depending on what language your talking about. Speaking in terms of just the English language, the classroom I feel is an important factor in language variation because other than reading a lot and being around people who speak with very sophisticated language someone most likely would not learn the different types of language there is and how to use certain words and just in general might not as learn as sophisticated language. When speaking about different kinds of languages like Spanish, French, German, I feel geography is a more important factor in language variation. In the classroom a student usually learns the language formally but without being in the actual setting where the language is spoken the student won't learn the expressions different places use and even the words that one culture who speaks Spanish uses but another culture, that speaks Spanish as well, does not use.

Does language define our identity?

Language can define a person's identity but I think it depends on the person. My dad being bilingual, to me he has two different identities. When with my mom's side of our family or just English speakers in general my dad is not as loud and speaks slower, still just as friendly but he is a completely different person when he speaks Spanish. When he speaks Spanish he seems to have a lot more pride, is a lot louder, laughs and jokes around a lot more. But language can also be a restriction on ones identity which means that language does not necessarily define a person's identity. A person maybe not as well educated as someone else probably uses weaker language than someone with a very good education but just because they don't speak as eloquently as a well-educated person should not make them defined as "dumb" like most people would. So language can define a person's identity but not necessarily.

Are changes in language directly related to the power of group of language users?

   Language is directly related to the power of group of language users. Language changes all the time because of the power of the group of language users. Because of English class, it's become a habit to over analyze even simple tweets on twitter. In one of P. Diddy's recent tweets he used the word "reppin". I often hear this word and if P. Diddy did not have the fame and was not the celebrity that he is, many people would not use "reppin" in place of representing. Another good example of how language is directly related to the power of a group of language users is the movie Mean Girls. During the movie Gretchen Wieners tries to make the word "fetch" something people regularly use when describing something cool or awesome. Gretchen, one of the plastics is not as popular and does not have as much power as Regina George in the plastics group and yells at her saying, "stop trying to make fetch happen!" If Regina George was trying to make "fetch happen" fetch would happen because she has the most power.