Against "Language Preservation"

We should stop speaking of "language preservation" and start using "language conservation."

"Preservation" is a term we use in cases where we want to save something from decay. We preserve historic buildings or texts. We preserve foods to keep them from spoiling; we preserve wood to keep it from rotting. We preserve static, dead things. 

Languages, on the other hand, are living things: they don't decay or spoil; they evolve. We "conserve" our living heritage: we protect and maintain the natural world through conservation, and language is a natural resource. 

So while we may preserve an ancient text, we shouldn't think that "language" is something static, a collection of words and grammar structures the way a historic building is a collection of bricks and mortar. 

Instead, language is like a living, breathing forest; full of birds and reptiles and fish fighting, eating, flying, and mating. Just as we conserve an ecosystem, we should speak of "language conservation" in order to imbue the activity with the connotations fitting to it.