ACH: pick a dead language to preserve

Like others said, all of them.
One that hasn't been mentioned yet: Sumerian. I guess we have to prevent Sargon from conquering them and initiating the long, slow, decline of the language.
 

CalBear

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Latin in a walk.

For a thousand years it was the mark of education to be fluent in Latin. It is the basis for many of the languages spoken today. Ideally with Latin, English and the native tongue of the individual (with either spoken Han or spoken Standard Chinese being the third language for native English speakers) taught globally international trade and tourism would blossom as would person-to-person contact.
 
Literally any of the Yeniseian languages. To be able to solidify the link betwen Old and New World languages would work wonders.

Also, Anglo-Romance, if it existed, should be rather easy to preserve if you can keep roman excisions to Scotland on hold so that more Latin-speakers settle in Brittania.
 
Bactrian or Sogdian, as the principal language of a settled, prospering ancient Central Asian civilization that overcomes endless outside invasions.
 
Latin in a walk.

For a thousand years it was the mark of education to be fluent in Latin. It is the basis for many of the languages spoken today. Ideally with Latin, English and the native tongue of the individual (with either spoken Han or spoken Standard Chinese being the third language for native English speakers) taught globally international trade and tourism would blossom as would person-to-person contact.

Agree with the concept, but Esperanto rather than Latin. More practical because much, much easier to learn as a second language, and possibly more culturally neutral (though still Eurocentric).
 

jocay

Banned
Coptic, or as it is known in TTL Khemi, Masri and/or Egyptian

The Muslims conquer Alexandria from the Romans in 641 but there is no Roman counterattack and brief recapture of Alexandria TTL. The Muslim commander Amr ibn al-As successfully appeals to Caliph Umar to make Alexandria the provincial capital of Egypt as opposed to building a new capital in Fustat (what would become Cairo). The sub-provincial divisions, the nomes and pagi are preserved and re-dubbed khittas, allotted to companies based on tribal affiliation.

Alexandria's citizens are offered the choice to stay and pay the jizya or leave; those who leave are mostly Greeks. The Greek quarter is repopulated by a small military colony of Arabs who themselves are outnumbered by a migration of rural Egyptians from the surrounding villages and towns. Much like their Roman and Ptolemaic Greek predecessors, the Arabs are careful to maintain the distinction between Alexandria's communities. Arab presence in Egypt exists mainly in scattered estates which requires the need of educated Egyptians to help govern the land.

al-As and the governors following him attempt to encourage conversion to Islam with promises of land, money and titles. The Quran is even recited in the Egyptian language so it would be intelligible to all. The landed gentry were the first to be receptive to the new religion; it meant untold political power, land and prestige previously denied to them for centuries. The urban-dwellers followed soon after. Muslims would soon transform from a small minority in the seventh century into a plurality by the ninth century.

Although Egyptians increasingly adopted Islam, their distinct identity would be preserved and later revived. Arabs, Turks and Nubians in addition to native Egyptians would participate.

In response to the growing attempts at Arabization and political marginalization by the Ummayads, the Egyptians would join the countless non-Arab mawali communities in supporting the Abbasid usurpation of the Caliphate. A prominent noble named Thanasys al-Masri (Athanasius the Egyptian) led the final assault on the walls of the Ummayad capital Harran in 750. It was also al-Masri who discovered the Ummayad princeling Abd ar-Rahman and his Greek servant Bedr attempting to escape Palestine; they were returned to the Abbasid caliph who had them both executed. As gratitude, the Caliph would offer Thanasys the governorship of any land he desired; al-Masri requested Egypt.

The Thanasysids were the first native dynasty to rule Egypt since Nectanebo II. As such, they gave great care to Egyptian culture and language, sponsoring prominent Egyptian poets. Among them would be the famous court poet Mariam Al-Tayibatani who was born during this era and praised the Thanaysids as the true successors of ancient pharaohs like Ramses the Great, enlightened by Islam. She would assert the supposed cultural superiority of the Egyptians in philosophy, logic, astronomy, music and other subjects.
 
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Vedic Sanskrit. Would have been easily possible had Ashoka not converted to Buddhism, with state sponsorship it would had remained strong enough to be the language of the educated class and survived any foreign interference.
 
Sanskrit. Ambedkar's proposal goes through when deciding the language of administration for India, and gets the backing of Southern states who favor the proposal over Hindi. Broad appeals to the Muslim community for investment in Arabic and Urdu funding, secures the needed support for Sanskrit to be implemented and over the decades a once gone language gets resurrected from the dead.
 
I want to save the languages decimated by Famines in Luzon in 17th-19th centuries, majority of those who experienced famine are the pagan/hindu population.
 
I'd also actually add the languages of various Afri an Pygmy and Island Southeast Asia Negrito languages just to see how they relate to other languages

Though I'm also partial to the theory that Pygmies are merely proto Niger-Congo or proto Ijoid like peoples with substantial archaic ancestry. In which case the language of their archaic ancestors being preserved.
 

Vuu

Banned
I like this idea, but do you have any references for 'Carthaginian settlements'? The standard history is that the Azores were not discovered until C14th/15th.
There are some things in history that are just unconfirmable, which is why we'll never know the full details of anything
 
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