I think an interesting contrast throughout history and in present times that we discussed in class is the differences between languages that are accompanied by written text and those that are strictly or primarily oral. The benefit of having a language with written tools is that it is more likely to withstand the test of time because there are physical artifacts that can be preserved. However, I’m sure there are countless languages that have died out over time because they were only spoken by a single group of people that were either colonized or unfortunately died out. That means there are entire cultures that are missing from our contextual understanding of history. That is why it is imperative that we prioritize the preservation of contemporary spoken languages, in order to keep their culture alive in the future.
However, I and many others are very visual learners. Language classes revolve around a balance of reading, writing, and speaking the new language, and all of these support growth in the other categories. Therefore, I think learning a language that is only spoken would be much more difficult than one that is accompanied by writing. It seems the best and only way to really become fluent in strictly oral languages is through immersion, which is not realistic for everyone. The question then is- how do we preserve these languages? Do we encourage these cultures to develop a written language, or does that take away from the culture and language? How can we honor the function of a community’s language, while also preserving its value?
One Paige At a Time 
You offer the solution of creating a written language for those that are strictly/primarily oral, and though that would make the preservation and functionality of such a language more effective, there is definitely a strong cultural value and simply art in keeping the strictly oral languages STRICTLY oral. Giving such languages a written component I feel would lessen its worth rather than preserving it as you state such a worry at the end of this post.
I, too, have wondered such things but typically about the early poetics that were also strictly oral and spoken. Only some of such poems were recorded or remembered but not the very first ones and not nearly all of them. This also makes me feel like I am missing out on something due to the failure to preserve these words on paper, but there is a hidden beauty in things so in the present and unrecordable.
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