Would you learn to speak a dead language? (Like yiddish, esperanto, ladino etc.)

1) I learned Latin and Old Greek, which are considered dead languages (although they were used widely for the Catholic mass until the end of the 20th century.
None of the languages you mentioned is a dead language.
I think Yiddish is not so difficult to learn if you know German. I could eventually learn it.


2) "Yiddish is written and spoken as a living language in many Orthodox Jewish communities around the world. It is most notably used as a first language in most Hasidic communities, where it is the first language learned in childhood and used in home, schooling and many social settings."
"Total speakers: 3 million"
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish


3) "Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language"
"Total speakers: Native: 200 to 2000 (1996, est.);
Fluent speakers: est. 100,000 to 2 million "
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto


4) "Ladino is a Romance language with a vocabulary derived mainly from Old Castilian, Hebrew, Turkish and some French and Greek. Speakers are currently almost exclusively Sephardi Jews, for example, in (or from) Thessaloniki, Istanbul and Izmir."
"Total speakers: 100,000 in Israel
8,000 in Turkey
1,000 in Greece
300 in the United States
150 in the Bosnia and Herzegovina
unknown numbers elsewhere, steady decline in all those places "
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladino_language

Well none of those that you mentioned are dead languages, but I would love to learn Latin.

I didn't think Yiddish was dead, nor Esperanto (not widely used but it is the most widely used "artificial" language).

I like Latin and Ancient Greek. I despised languages in school but for some reason I like Greek and Latin. I am always threatening to learn Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic language but never have the time... Being Welsh everyone asks if I know that which I don't as no-one in my family ever spoke it. Welsh was a dead language that has been resurrected for political goals which I fail to see the point of. :)

Since I speak both Esperanto and Yiddish I had to briefly comment: Both languages have given me particular joy. The two languages have an intimate connection. 1. The birthplace of Esperanto is the partial deathplace of Yiddish--Bialystok, Poland- at the time Esperanto came to being--was about 65 pecent Jewish and largely Yiddish speaking. Unfortunately-in the infinite cruelty of Nazi Germany--the majority of this population was annihilated--including two thousand Jews shoved into the Great Synogogue of Bialystok to be burnt alive. (The metal remains of this synogogue are a popular tourist point in my recent visit to Bialystok.) 2. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto--wrote a grammar book on Yiddish, the manuscipt of which lies in an Israeli University in Jerusalem.