Language changes not only over distances. This also changes over time. It is interesting to know what language ancestors spoke.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/language-ancestors-spoke-2-500-bc-revealed-062533758.html

Language is dynamic, the way grand father speaks language is different from now what I speak mother tongue, the language which do not change with time, is considered as dead language, one such recent example is Sindhi language which is now a dead language, as it is no longer spoken by Sindhis, as now their generations are speaking either Hindi or some other language, Language which does not change with time is considered as dead language, so it is bound to change.

Owing to this reason, English has survived and Sanskrit has become a language of the past.

In fact, Sanskrit has not died. This has changed so much that its present variants are known by many names- Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali etc. These are all variants of Sanskrit itself. Present English also differs from the old but name remains same. Only we call old English, Medieval English, modern English and so on.

The fact that Sanskrit is not widely spoken does not mean it is a dead language. In fact there are thousands of people who are studying it very actively and consciously and have undertaken an enormous task of researching the vast knowledge we have in the various scriptures and translating it into different regional languages. Noteworthy is the fact that each year hundreds of students from European who come to India to enroll in Sanskrit language courses in various Indian universities.

It is the truth that some languages eventually become dead, but sole reason is because of dwindling numbers of people who speak them. Where most languages are concerned such as Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati and et al. they are constantly evolving. In Mahabharat there are references to languages such as Punjab, Gujarati, Bengali, Prakrit etc. but the form of those languages was quite different then than it is now.

I agree that with disuse a language dies a natural death, some languages are very much being used without any scriot like in the case of my own language Thulu which had a script earlier but somehow was never regularly used.Now they are trying to revive it ...I feel that any language has its own importance and relevance and it is our duty to pass it on to the next generation..India is probably the richest where languages are concerned since we have the largest number of lanuages spoken in one country ...

Exactly! Many of the languages spoken by secluded tribes and clans have died down because of ignorance and lack of education. But whereas we are concerned we must remain conscientious and take every efforts to pass down what we know to our children and try to make them proud of our languages so that they do the same! It is sad that Thulu is suffering such a fate in spite of having numerous followers some of whom were so illustrious people. But it is good that now efforts are being taken to revive it.

Marathi too has different variants such as Konkani Marathi, Ahirani, Khandeshi, Marathi spoken in Pune, Mumbai etc. But as long as people will keep efforts, our own languages will never die.

I think Konkani too has no script and here in Mangalore we have two different styles of Konkani - one spoken by the Hindus and the other spoken by the Catholics which has some portugese words in it and the pronunciation too is slightly different ...

Yes, I think Konkani here in Maharahstra too does not have any script of its own. In fact there are so many dialects that may not have their own scripts. So such languages need even more efforts for preservation by people who speak them.

Language changes not only over distances. This also changes over time. It is interesting to know what language ancestors spoke.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/language-ancestors-spoke-2-500-bc-revealed-062533758.html

Language is dynamic, the way grand father speaks language is different from now what I speak mother tongue, the language which do not change with time, is considered as dead language, one such recent example is Sindhi language which is now a dead language, as it is no longer spoken by Sindhis, as now their generations are speaking either Hindi or some other language, Language which does not change with time is considered as dead language, so it is bound to change.

Owing to this reason, English has survived and Sanskrit has become a language of the past.

In fact, Sanskrit has not died. This has changed so much that its present variants are known by many names- Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali etc. These are all variants of Sanskrit itself. Present English also differs from the old but name remains same. Only we call old English, Medieval English, modern English and so on.

The fact that Sanskrit is not widely spoken does not mean it is a dead language. In fact there are thousands of people who are studying it very actively and consciously and have undertaken an enormous task of researching the vast knowledge we have in the various scriptures and translating it into different regional languages. Noteworthy is the fact that each year hundreds of students from European who come to India to enroll in Sanskrit language courses in various Indian universities.

It is the truth that some languages eventually become dead, but sole reason is because of dwindling numbers of people who speak them. Where most languages are concerned such as Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati and et al. they are constantly evolving. In Mahabharat there are references to languages such as Punjab, Gujarati, Bengali, Prakrit etc. but the form of those languages was quite different then than it is now.

I agree that with disuse a language dies a natural death, some languages are very much being used without any scriot like in the case of my own language Thulu which had a script earlier but somehow was never regularly used.Now they are trying to revive it ...I feel that any language has its own importance and relevance and it is our duty to pass it on to the next generation..India is probably the richest where languages are concerned since we have the largest number of lanuages spoken in one country ...

Exactly! Many of the languages spoken by secluded tribes and clans have died down because of ignorance and lack of education. But whereas we are concerned we must remain conscientious and take every efforts to pass down what we know to our children and try to make them proud of our languages so that they do the same! It is sad that Thulu is suffering such a fate in spite of having numerous followers some of whom were so illustrious people. But it is good that now efforts are being taken to revive it.

Marathi too has different variants such as Konkani Marathi, Ahirani, Khandeshi, Marathi spoken in Pune, Mumbai etc. But as long as people will keep efforts, our own languages will never die.

I think Konkani too has no script and here in Mangalore we have two different styles of Konkani - one spoken by the Hindus and the other spoken by the Catholics which has some portugese words in it and the pronunciation too is slightly different ...

Yes, I think Konkani here in Maharahstra too does not have any script of its own. In fact there are so many dialects that may not have their own scripts. So such languages need even more efforts for preservation by people who speak them.

Many languages and dialects have no script of their own. The scrips are fewer than languages. Roman script is used for most of the European languages and also for tribal languages of North East. Devnagri script is used for Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and probably Gujarati also in slightly different fonts. Personally, I favor using Roman script for all languages.

In my own state we have so many languages spoken in different parts - Kannada being the state language is spoken differently in different regions and the difference is so much so that it is difficult to follow it even for those who know kannada. There is Thulu,Konkani,Kodava languages all spoken by qquite a large number of people and none of them have scripts so Kannada is used for writing ..There is also Thoda language which sounds a little like Afrikanese - apparently some people of negroid origin settled here centuries ago and adopted to the local customs.their language too has undergone transformation and now spoken with a mix of Thulu and Africanese,,

In my own state we have so many languages spoken in different parts - Kannada being the state language is spoken differently in different regions and the difference is so much so that it is difficult to follow it even for those who know kannada. There is Thulu,Konkani,Kodava languages all spoken by qquite a large number of people and none of them have scripts so Kannada is used for writing ..There is also Thoda language which sounds a little like Afrikanese - apparently some people of negroid origin settled here centuries ago and adopted to the local customs.their language too has undergone transformation and now spoken with a mix of Thulu and Africanese,,

This is new information, I had never heard about the merger of Afrikanese language in any Indian languages. How come there are Africans who settled so far back? Is it that they were brought to work on coffee plantations?

Have you ever cared to listen to Banjara people who are always on the move. They are Romas basically who dress like Rajsthani but speak combination of Marwari and several languages from Europe and South America. They live on manufacturing hand tools in their tents on the road and sell them going to nearby colonies. Their features look similar to Europeans and some of them look like South Americans. They have no homes but live in their carts and on the move all the time. They stay for few months in a place and then move on. They are also called Gariya luhar.

Have you ever cared to listen to Banjara people who are always on the move. They are Romas basically who dress like Rajsthani but speak combination of Marwari and several languages from Europe and South America. They live on manufacturing hand tools in their tents on the road and sell them going to nearby colonies. Their features look similar to Europeans and some of them look like South Americans. They have no homes but live in their carts and on the move all the time. They stay for few months in a place and then move on. They are also called Gariya luhar.

Yes, i noticed these nomads. And I also noticed that within the period, they stay in a place pick a few words from the local language and they add to their language. This helps in communicating easily with the local people. In some of these nomad clans, there are soothsayers also.

Have you ever cared to listen to Banjara people who are always on the move. They are Romas basically who dress like Rajsthani but speak combination of Marwari and several languages from Europe and South America. They live on manufacturing hand tools in their tents on the road and sell them going to nearby colonies. Their features look similar to Europeans and some of them look like South Americans. They have no homes but live in their carts and on the move all the time. They stay for few months in a place and then move on. They are also called Gariya luhar.

Have you ever cared to listen to Banjara people who are always on the move. They are Romas basically who dress like Rajsthani but speak combination of Marwari and several languages from Europe and South America. They live on manufacturing hand tools in their tents on the road and sell them going to nearby colonies. Their features look similar to Europeans and some of them look like South Americans. They have no homes but live in their carts and on the move all the time. They stay for few months in a place and then move on. They are also called Gariya luhar.