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Almost incomprehensible
Bijdrage, Onze Taal, 19-12-07
In the archives of the former Dutch government in The Hague scholars have discovered a rare document from the year 2007. The language in which the document was stated - an old European language - is almost incomprehensible for modern day readers. Our European forefathers at the beginning of the 21st century used to speak a great number of different languages, all connected to a specific part of Europe.
The newly discovered document speaks about some kind of competition, organized by a society that has long since disappeared, called ‘Our Language’. This organization was dedicated to maintaining and stimulating the sheer endless and unpractical variety of European languages by trying to preserve one of them: Dutch. Dutch was spoken by a approximately 15 million people that lived in the area between Berlin en the North Sea.
‘Our Language’ asked the readers of its magazine to submit their ideas about the state of their Dutch language in the year 2082. They clearly hoped to preserve their already declining tongue, but, as everyone can observe, their efforts were futile, as their paper cannot be read anymore except by some experts.
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