According to my philosophy, people have lost sight of what language really is and that is why they obsess with written documentation whenever they are faced with a dying language. The solution to language death is learning. In general, Western philosophies have a tendency to be rather lofty and to stay away from what is natural, human and biological. This is, I believe, an explanation for why people do often not see there is an alternative to written documentation. I regard human-based documentation as equally valid, it is a way of preserving a language.