Poll: One world language?

[Okysho]

I don't like the idea of it... but if it does happen, it'll probably not be one, but two.

English speakers tend to be arrogant and don't like learning another language. see poll results) but not many people realize the power of China right now. They have the best economy right now and are growing at an exponential rate. Mandarin chinese will be a language of the world for sure.

 

[alliedlama]

In my opinion, the idea of a "world language" is stupid. Everyone should have the right to speak in whatever language they want and practice their own cultural beliefs. Trying to make everyone speak one language is in essence forcing them to give up a part of their identity and what makes them unique.
Another reason I don't like this idea is because it is usually held by english speakers who are usually too lazy to learn another language and misguidedly believe that if everyone was the same as them there would be less war and division, which isn't entirely true. The English language and ideals have been forced on other cultures and people before- as was done through the british colonial empire. I know that my views here sound rather anglophobic but the same can be said of other languages like french and spanish which have both been forced upon various other people around the world not to mention their parallels to welsh and gaelic- such as breton, catalan and basque.
I would also like to add there is no such thing as a useless language- you seem to believe welsh and gaelic are dying out but this isnt entirely true, the welsh language is now spoken by more people than ever and gaelic is still spoken in many areas of ireland and scotland. Languages are not useless just because you can't use them across the wider world- it is enough for them to be spoken by their own peoples.
Thank you.

err you do know I'm not actually talking imposing English on anyone right? I'm talking about natural cultural evolution, the world is getting more and more interconnected, I honestly think if we give it a century or two Europe wont even have countries anymore, rather provinces of the EU, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

As for being too lazy to learn another language, I speak four. English, French (very rusty), Japanese (not as rusty, but getting there I think, I need to use it more), and Gunditjmara (the traditional language of where I was born).

This thread isn't about forcing anyone to do anything, but rather a debate about the merits of a global language.

Personally I think in a perfect future a thousand years from now most if not all of the major languages are still around with 3 related synthetic languages providing the middle ground; basic lingua (trade, very basic, think pigeon English), Lingua (every day English, for conversations, novels, etc), and high lingua (for science and philosophy). Everyone is mandated to at least learn basic, but most people would learn the middle ground, and only those that need it learn the high version.

We're getting close to the point where we totally understand how the language centres of our brains work, and once we do we can design a language that will be easy to use and learn.

Well thanks for making that clear. After re-reading your post I see that you yourself havent put forward any such idea of forcing english or any other language upon others, although it does seem that some people who have also commented seem to be swaying towards this sort of idea- which does sadden me.
In response to your idea of some form of Global language then, I would like to say it does sound like a good idea for being able to convey ideas between different peoples while they are able to retain their own cultural traditions. I'm still a little unsure about using english as a framework for this gloabl language however- it could be an entirely new language for example, taught- as you have suggested, in some basic form to as many people as possible.
I would also like to reiterate that I am not an anglophobe, although I do believe that the english language has a negative influence on some other languages- such as Welsh, my own language, as it is a much larger language and attracts people due to its wide use in popular media.

Well, my idea for the lingua's isn't based on English, more using English as an example, they would be true synthetic languages; which given that we're starting to understand how the brain works will be doable within our lifetime, the ability to construct an easy to learn synthetic language. The current synthetic languages (Esperanto for example) were made by very smart people who understood language, but they didn't have all the facts that we do now, and will have in the future, which is why they never took off.

A true synthetic language that everyone speaks in addition to their own language would help the world as great deal; well at least it would prevent things like the story my grandfather use to tell me. He was in Korea during the conflict there, his unit was in a village and they needed to speak leader, only no-one there spoke English, but one village spoke very basic French, and so did my grandfather, so through the use of three languages there were able to get the idea across, in about ten times the time it would have taken if he had spoke Korean or someone had spoke English.

As for Welsh, well honestly languages die out over time; just look at Latin, it's dead, there are no native speakers left (people who learnt it before all other Languages), it's just the natural order of things, sad? yes? but it's not English's fault, the English (the people) maybe (my UK history isn't as good as I'd like), but not the language.

I can see how in such a context as the story you have told some form of common synthetic language would help. I would also like to reiterate that welsh is NOT dying out, and is infact on the rise, one day I believe we will see a wales where welsh is spoken by an overall majority- there is hope for my language.

 

[Captain Pancake]

I think in a perfect world this would be the next step in human unification, but iin practice there would be arguments over which language should be taught and it would devolve quickly in to petty bickering.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

English is good as a first language but I sure as hell wouldn't want to learn it, people have enough trouble with the apostrophe rule as it is!

We need to use a simple, easy to understand language with simple patterns, no matter what it is...

90% of people who know english don't even use the apostrophes anyways so that rule is basically null. i think as long as you can speak a language decently clear then your good to go.

ot: i think we are heading that way but im not too sure on english being the language to have..although a lot of people have pointed out we have so many damn words and hell we have words that are used in other languages since they used english words so it only makes sense that it would be english more then likely.

 

[alliedlama]

Lots of languages are dying off, you just need to like at the UK and the huge amounts of money they are spending to "save" languages like Gaelic and Welsh (?) to see that, but do you think we're moving towards a single one world language and would that be a good thing?

If so, which language should / will it be? Mandarin and Cantonese are both spoken by a lot of people, but then you've got English which is pretty much the de facto "lingua franca" (and isn't that a funny phrase when used in this context) of the business and digital world at the moment.

Or should we develop an artificial language like Esperanto (only you know better...)?

You do know Gaelic refers to Irish which the UK has nothing to do with and actually the level of Irish speakers is supposed to be on the rise and is not actually declining at the moment.

OT: It is not a waste to save languages such as these. Languages are more than just a thing you speak they signfy difference, diversity and culture. Languages have very different nuances and something directly translated into something else will have an entirely different meaning. Keeping native speakers of these languages alive is important otherwise these cultures will be forever lost as with the nuance of the language.

If Irish, Welsh and Scot's Gealic die out that is basically the Celtic culture wiped from the face of the Earth completely. These are main languages with strong Celtic influences left. So I do not think that such ventures as saving a languages native speakers or any such revival efforts are a waste.

Thank you very much. I agree with you whole heartedly- the celtic languages and their parallels around the globe (minority languages) must be kept alive along with these important, beautiful and unique cultures.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

English because I'm American and lazy and don't want to learn a new language.

But didn't you learn anything from the tower of Babel? We aren't supposed to speak one language... or build tall buildings.

 

[nipsen]

Well, obviously it would have to be Norwegian. An at once beautiful and accurate language - that even when spoken by the most artistically inept individual will sound flowingly musical, and.. hey, I'm talking to you!

 

[ImpostorZim]

It would feel a little arrogant of me to say that English would be the world language eventually, but I can tell from experience that even here in South America, where for the most part it's either spoken in spanish or portuguese, the language is booming. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being THE language one day.

 

[Ekonk]

I fear that it might be English.

 

[Midniqht]

Faroese would be awesome, but the world isn't cool enough for that.

Sadly, it's moving towards English.

 

[Baskerville]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
I think that should clear things up.

YES!

 

[teh_Canape]

fuck english

Vulcan needs to be the world's language

also, the lack of spanish in the poll is disturbing, especially since it IS one of the biggest and eldest languages of humanity.... sort of

 

[TheTim]

English, or German because everyone always sounds angry =)

 

[Naeo]

I vote for an artificial/constructed language. All natural languages- English included- are very difficult to learn to speak fluently unless you've been speaking it for a long time or from a very young age. An artificial language can do away with all of that by having extremely simple (or at least extremely regular) grammar, vocabulary that draws from many languages so as to make it easier to learn the vocab, and a simple and easy to pronounce phonetic set.

That is to say, I vote artificial language because you can engineer/construct one to get around all the trickiness of natural languages. And by the time it morphs into a natural-language level of variation and people playing with syntax/words/whatever, more or less everyone will probably already be speaking it.

 

[deadxero]

The English language isn't extactly the best choice. It's actually one of the more over complicated, unintuitive languages there are. Think of every ridiculous word that is imposible to pronounce, phonetically, from the written word... silent letters, extra letters, homonyms... the English language is about like the old English measuring system, retarded.

 

[Nukeforyou]

i think we should refer to all as marklar.

 

[Plazmatic]

Lots of languages are dying off, you just need to like at the UK and the huge amounts of money they are spending to "save" languages like Gaelic and Welsh (?) to see that, but do you think we're moving towards a single one world language and would that be a good thing?

If so, which language should / will it be? Mandarin and Cantonese are both spoken by a lot of people, but then you've got English which is pretty much the de facto "lingua franca" (and isn't that a funny phrase when used in this context) of the business and digital world at the moment.

Or should we develop an artificial language like Esperanto (only you know better...)?

Um Op, are you ok?

First, why would hindi mandarin and japanese be up there? All three are confusing languages that have not been refined to base characters (like english and french, spanish latin/ greek based languages have) Though hindi would be the best out of those three, it is still way too illogical and hard to learn for it to be a world language.

Second, You put up French... why? who speaks French...? and who speaks Spanish? Compare, and you will see that there are a half a billion native speakers in Spanish, hundreds of times greater than that of French, even with non native speakers. There is no reason for French to be up there.

Third, while english is the current "lingua franca" it is not a very efficient and easy language to learn compared to others like Spanish, and Latin. I can see why you put that up there though.

Fourth, and final, Why, for the sake of all things logical and intelligent, did you NOT put up Latin.

Latin is the supreme of all languages on earth, by far the easiest and best for all mankind. This language can be easily picked up by all speakers of indo-european languages, and be more easily picked up by people who speak mandarin and Cantonese.

 

[Arquinsiel]

Imperial Gothic of course.

Low, high or mid?

 

[BENZOOKA]

Where's Volapük?

There will never be a world language. It may seem more optimistic for native English speakers, I assume, but no, there will never be one. End of story.

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

Sorry to be predictable guys; English. A beautiful language with an extremely broad vocabulary, while being easily and clearly spoken with the simplest of lettering. Not the easiest to learn, mind, but it's so widely spoken across the world and most works of literature and film are in English so it's pretty much a no-brainer.