When you read texts of an ancient language than span several centuries, and the language itself stays the same, it's a strong indicator the language was no longer spoken.

Living languages always change. Only dead languages stay the same.

One thing I learned: fuck dictionaries. Be creative. Invent words if you need them. As long as it's understandable, that's all fine.

My ex-wife was a word snob. I wish I'd seen this when I was married to her.

Great post. Fnrb wijjk blerb phtooie wagawaga nkkjqqz frup walawala madooie.

Edit: What do you mean you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about?

I just like to point out that umami is a terrible word to import into English. Why? Because we already have a word for savory. It's savory. Worse, umami doesn't completely just mean savory. It also means meaty or deliciousness. In English, savory ≠ meaty, and deliciousness is subjective. The word just doesn't translate cleanly. So when anybody uses umami to describe savory food, all they're really doing is sounding like an imprecise, pretentious jackass.

English dictionaries are also very much on the descriptive side of things as of late, especially compared to their counterparts among other languages.

Dunno how the tea totallers do things but here in burgerland we actually have sort of a minor annual event finding out the latest slang terms and grammars that have entered this year's edition of the webster dictionary, and which words have fallen out of significant use enough to be dropped from the book too.

Given our thoughts are largely impacted by the vocabulary we know, being able to come up with new words can be considered a super power!