Boa Sr, the last speaker of the Bo language, recently died on an Andaman island off the coast of India at the age of 80.

Her death ends the native linguistic link to the 65,000-year-old Andaman cultures of Southeast Asia.

Languages are a connection to a culture that cannot be achieved in any other way. One cannot translate a people’s history, songs, stories, jokes, legends and way of life without losing key parts of them.

Languages hold cultures together. Through language we can keep traditions and pass them on. Language is our first link to our heritage.

And they are lost when they don’t have native speakers.

English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are rising at the cost of our less-common languages.

They are like the price club driving the mom-and-pop stores out of business; they can’t compete unless we make an effort to keep them alive.

Because we know in the long run, it’s the right thing to do.

Like Latin, Bo is now a Frankenstein language, only spoken as a second language.

OU understands the value of keeping languages as alive as we can. OU offers students Creek, Kiowa, Cherokee, Cheyenne and Choctaw — all American Indian languages that need to be kept alive in the face of the great English price club.

A language’s death should be heralded as the saddest of events, a tragedy that receives far too little attention.

We need to prevent this type of tragedy.

Step out of your bubble. Learn a language, help keep it alive. Experience a new culture through language.