I don't know... I feel like there should be some language database with pronounciations, auditory examples, visual cues of the throat and tongue vibration, hell, whatever is necessary to keep the language in question alive. That way, thousands of years in the future, one could still learn Ainu or Cajun French if one had the time and patience.
That said, language is a constantly evolving thing. I like the idea of Esperanto being taught at least as commonly worldwide as English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, etc., so we could have the best of both worlds, i.e. having our own languages, accents and dialects while still having a united language should the need to converse quickly with a stranger arise.
I guess that shows how little I know of the current linguistic situation, huh? I read too much sci-fi.
English is way too hard and way too complicated, seemingly for no damn reason. It's like they made it up as they went along. Therfore I say German; it's a whole lot simpler.
Oh yeah, and English is bulls**t. Seriously, it's my native language, the only one I speak, but I hate it. I hate that it's one of the most needlessly complicated "common" languages in the list above, but it's still taking over due to so many businesses being in North America, the UK and Australia, as well as Africa as a whole.
one "world language" would be very cool.
i'm german, but english sounds way cooler and isn't hard to learn, so i think english would be a great world language.
yeah i think it's much easier. german has that er - sie - es stuff (your nickname tells me that you speak some german, so i hope you understand what i mean) and other weird grammarrules. and english sounds cooler in my opinion, it's an easygoing language and you can speak it much faster than german (zero punctuation won't sound nice in german).
I am german and i dont know what you mean with that er-sie-es (he-she-it) stuff .
if you are talking about the different genus of nouns, like the candle uses the female, the house the neuter and the dog the male form of articles, then yes, that is pretty complex and one of the major problems of foreigners learning german.
As much as i love the english language i just don't get why it should sound cooler. You can speak german as fast as english, both languages lose some quality in phonology though, but i see that some stuff like the "auslautverhärtung" ( german words ending with b,d,g sound as if they end with p,t,k)and the plosive sound in the beginning of vowels (which is a major reason why people think german sounds rough and harsh, one that we ourself dont really realise. There is a wee little throatsound in front of words starting with vowels called a glottal stop) makes it a little bit harder to do so.
But as far as there is no one english sound, but many varieties and dialects with massive differences, just the same as with the varieties of german and probably every other language, its hard to compare, because no one here knows what your variety of german is and which one of english you are refering to.
Another thing mentioned, english being easy to learn, is also very subjective. For Middle Europeans with a germanic or romanic language it is really easy. Especially if your native language is germanic.
I heard of english students having huge problems learning old english, while we started translating in the 1st lesson because it was basically a slightly different old german.
The big problem of english is though, that the ways a word is written and pronounced, dont have much in common.
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead--it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother;
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear;
And then there's dose and rose and lose--
Just look them up--and goose and choose;
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why man alive,
I learned to talk it when I was five;
that word is a perfect example. auslautverhärtung, what the fuck?! it sounds like shit. the english translation is terminal devoicing. that sounds cool and, like i said, "easygoing". you can talk about terminal devoicing fluently, but auslautverhärtung? that sounds ugly, even for germans.
i've made a random search on youtube to find other examples, i found something about drugs. just listen to the first sentence. what an ugly language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFQH42qtKuw
and now listen to that first sentence (also random search):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRWwI61so5Q
i also know that there are many dialects, but i heard californian english and british english, and both sound great.
i know that i only replicate my other posts, but i can't explain it better.
tkioz said:
Orcus_35 said:
Those who said French 0.9% are correct, French is the Language of the Diplomats.
Both of these statements are wrong. Many people find English is extremely difficult as it has a plethora of descriptive words that can seem almost arbitrary, and exceptions etc.
It will be Mandarin, which is good because it is a mathematical language and makes learning math easier. Just be thankful it wont be Cantonese.
Lol. Tell that to asians. It is in fact one of the most difficult languages on the planet.
It's just that anyone who speaks it natively, or whose native language is closely related, (Ie. Europeans) won't appreciate that fact.
The trouble with English is it has pretty much the largest vocabulary ever, complex grammar, and way too many grammatical exceptions.
You can't really write down the rules of English without needing a huge list of situations for each rule saying when it doesn't apply.
That's hardly what makes for a simple language to learn.
Still, about 1 billion people speak it as a more or less native language, and about 800 million speak a weird semi-english between each-other.
(Basically, they learn English, but not properly, and only speak it with others that also don't speak 'real' English.)
In fact, there's a good chance that this 'fake' English will take over from the real thing.
Which will probably confuse all of us because it's so far removed from the real thing that people who speak actual official English can have a real hard time understanding what the hell anyone who uses it is saying.
I have call a bit of BS on this. English is easy to pick up but hard to master. There are multitudes of people who are native English speakers in my countries and they speak it fine but can't write it. Writing I can agree but for speaking I would disagree. People can get away in English speaking like Yoda and still get their point across. Also the verb to be in present tense in English is I am, you are, he is, she is, we are, you are, they are. That is nine different words lets look at French Etre Je suis, Tu es, Il est, Elle est, On est, Nous sommes, Vous etes, Ils sont, Elles sont(Last two might be ont I think I might be mixing up with avoir). That is 15 different words for 1 verb. While this evens out in the later stage of learning the language when English becomes hard and other languages become easy.
English is spoken by most of the highly developed nations, Mandarin by the most people, (although it is Cantonese spoken by those who live in China's main money-making centres of Hong Kong etc.).
And for those without a sense of humour, of course I'm joking.
I would have thought French to be a more popular choice, as it only has around 250k words compared with the several million in English.
Notice however, all these options require some people to learn a new language and abandon their own; This is not fair. Therefore, we must all learn Klingon.
Mandarin, for business reasons. If you're ever in business and have to deal with the Chinese for productions, you need to know it or you're screwed. China is responsible for so much production and their population is so large, that one day I would say it would be Chinese.
the current most common language is actually chinese. English is next, I think. I think English would be more likely to become the global language, because countries like Britain and USA are having vast global impacts, as are other countries that have english as a primary or secondary language. Another reason is that English is rooted in a multitude of languages, many words are based on Latin or French, as well as a few other languages, so it would be most easily received.
I just dont think its a good idea. You have to write English if you;re going to make it one world language. All you're legal documents will be in it, and any you draft must be written in it. I still think Spanish would be the better choice, cause a lot of people can speak AND write it well enough already.
Both of these statements are wrong. Many people find English is extremely difficult as it has a plethora of descriptive words that can seem almost arbitrary, and exceptions etc.
It will be Mandarin, which is good because it is a mathematical language and makes learning math easier. Just be thankful it wont be Cantonese.
Sure, most people know Mandarin, but how many people outside of China know Mandarin? That could be a bit of a problem for a universal language. Also, the script can be a bit off-putting in a world where the Roman alphabet still reigns supreme. English is far more widely known as a second language, making it more easily accepted. Maybe when China grows into the economic powerhouse that everyone predicts that may change, but not quite yet.
Apart from pronunciation English really isn't as difficult as it is made out to be. Sure, it has some pretty random rules and words, but many languages have those , though I admit, European languages seem to excel at complicating themselves (try Finnish, Polish or Dutch and cry...). Despite those difficulties, and because of English already being a major component of international information traffic, English is already a part of many languages in the form of adopted words and expressions. Grammar rules and pronunciation might be a problem for any universal language at first, but a language can adapt.
And because of its richness in expression and vocabulary it can cover a lot of foreign concepts, which is an obvious advantage for international use.
My first language is Welsh and Scots Gaelic my second and I feel like if you made a "one world language" it would be taking away part of someone's identity. I still dream in Welsh and I feel like me speaking Welsh has always made me part of who I am. Other languages are fansinating and taking that away would be a shame it really would.
I just dont think its a good idea. You have to write English if you;re going to make it one world language. All you're legal documents will be in it, and any you draft must be written in it. I still think Spanish would be the better choice, cause a lot of people can speak AND write it well enough already.
Well from I heard from my French exchange student English is much easier than Spanish and she studies English and Spanish so I am personally gonna go with her on which language is easier since she learn them both. Also studies have shown people don't really recognise spelling mistakes as long as the first and last letter are in the same place and the word contains all the letters it should. Given that and that very few people even native native speakers actually speak and write English properly the way it should be written I don't see it as a big of a problem as you are saying. Most people ignore most of the rules as it is.
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