Are questions about the (non)extinction of languages on-topic?

Question

Recently, we had this question come up, and it seems that the OP is asking whether an African language called "Thaqovelith" is extinct or not, as the question states that there were very few references on the Internet about this language.

I personally don't think this question is a good fit for the site: it's definitely an interesting topic, but I don't see a big relationship between language learning and this question, other than the fact that they both mention language. Because of this, I've voted to close as off-topic, and I suggested that the question be asked on Linguistics.SE, which might be a better fit for the question.

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Since our site is indeed titled "Language Learning", I believe that questions should pertain to this topic. I agree completely with the closure of this question, as the question is asking for information about the existence of a language, and not about learning it.

This question may be on topic for Linguistics.SE, as a somewhat similar question was considered on-topic there.

Answer 2

Unless someone's being forced to learn a language, people have to evaluate whether or not to learn a language. It'd be rather tragic if someone learnt a language, and only later on found out that no-one spoke it.

I think that questions asking about aspects of a language in order to inform their decisions (eg "Q: Do I need to learn logograms to learn Korean? A: Not really.") should be on-topic.