Chas, you raise a very good point. And I suppose we must make a distinction between the idea of preserving a language for the purpose of knowing how it was spoken in the past, versus preserving it for the purpose of actually using it. In this modern era, I can understand why there is no interest in speaking an antiquated, rare language. Such an exercise would be merely for academics, not for 'real world' use. I can't even think of how these languages would survive in modern usage, except to pick a community where the children will be taught that language as their primary tongue, which automatically puts them at a disadvantage in society. No one would want to do that to their children just for the sake of keeping a language alive. It would have to be the result of a real community effort to preserve their heritage and culture.