Poll: One world language?

[Giest4life]

I put "None." And literally, too. Language represents the need to communicate, and the need to communicate represents a weakness, that we need society because we cannot each, individually, carry the burden of existence alone.

I'd rather have no language at all, because I rather have everyone be self-sufficient.

 

[AeonicAnax]

English. Simply because it's starting to be a critical language. I mean If all your science books and web pages were written in pig latin you would learn pig latin to read those.

 

[Death God]

Out of every language, Latin is the only one I think everyone wouldn't argue on if it came down to picking only one because Latin is the base of every language. It wouldn't be too hard to learn.

 

[Wintermute_]

Imperial Gothic of course.

This. And humanity will reclaim the stars in our great crusade.

But seriously, English. The vast majority if not all computer code is written in english. The digital age is upon us escapists, and if you want to get in on the computer age, you have to learn english. Plus the majority of economic exchanges are done digitally, so that means english, so that means if you wanna be a wealthy global economy.., english.

Eventually, when the singularity hits, the computers will be speaking english, so sorry non-english speaking world, but...

 

[Kryzantine]

A singular world language would be a very scary thought. It would take drastic, drastic world change for the notion to even be considered. For instance, you would need to first have a global government. Then you would need to have a global culture. That alone is just frightening.

Well, to be honest a lot of nations already have "one culture" with any regional sub-cultures, I'm Australian, I'm part of the Australian culture, but I'm also a Victorian, that means I have a slightly different culture then someone from South Australia... the same could be done on a global scale.

You're thinking atoms while I'm thinking organs. The difference between a Victorian and South Australian is nothing. The difference between a Russian and a Chinese, an American and a Swede are massive. You can't just take the world and say, "Here, we're going to adapt this culture and stick with it, just forget everything you've ever had before". It doesn't work.

 

[darth gditch]

Hmmm.....I like the idea of a trade language, perhaps a simplified version of english, that's universal but then have everyone keep there own languages.

I picked English not just because I speak it but because it is not ambiguous or tonal and it has a small alphabet. A lot of the Romance languages are ambiguous, sometimes the same word means totally different things. A lot of African and Asian languages are tonal, or have mad complicated alphabets (see Mandarin and Cyrillic). So English seems the de facto trade language due to its utilitarian nature and how easy it is to learn how to speak it well enough to function.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

English is pretty wide spread language, so out of all the languages existing today I put that one up for the main language of humanity. The only thing though is that it sorta feels like cultural favoratism. Which is why I think that a new language should be made so that everyone can communicate with each other. Perhaps combine common elements from different language groups so that it doesn't feel entirely weird for any people of a particular culture. I still think that all the other languages should be preserved, but a sort of "communication" or "trade" language would be really useful.

 

[Red Rum]

I have to say that I'm appalled that the most chosen language is English; it only proves how egotistical we, as English-speakers, are. I voted for 'artificial', because I'm sure that as people of differing races cross over, their native languages and cultures will be taught to their children.

As long as a one-language world is inevitable, I might as well like for it to arrive in around 200 years (it'll make my upcoming story on DeviantArt more believable).

 

[soulsabr]

There is already a universal language. We simply call it "money".

 

[aakibar]

not to be a bigot or anything but english is the best language also given my inability to learn new languages. But honestly the world language is determined by who controls the world (to some degree) in the 17-19th century it was french and in the past two centuries its english.

 

[moshineko]

I have to say that I'm appalled that the most chosen language is English; it only proves how egotistical we, as English-speakers, are. I voted for 'artificial', because I'm sure that as people of differing races cross over, their native languages and cultures will be taught to their children.

As long as a one-language world is inevitable, I might as well like for it to arrive in around 200 years (it'll make my upcoming story on DeviantArt more believable).

Well, could also have something to do with this being an English-language website, and people supporting the home team? Only natural for you to think that your way, your team, your language, is the best. After all, if it wasn't, why would so many people you know agree with you?

 

[ICanBreakTheseCuffs]

Somewhere in the bible it says that every human being spoke one language and so god stoped that so we couldn't rise to astonishing heights so if we did speak one whole language it would help us do things we would never think possible and if we did speak one language god would come down and disperse us back into several languages which would either prove god exists or not

 

[tkioz]

Imperial Gothic of course.

This. And humanity will reclaim the stars in our great crusade.

But seriously, English. The vast majority if not all computer code is written in english.

And American English at that... which is really bloody annoying, the amount of times I've had to retype centre into "center" for example is just plain shocking. It's also obnoxious considering The Queens English is used in more nations then The Presidents English.

 

[tkioz]

Somewhere in the bible it says that every human being spoke one language and so god stoped that so we couldn't rise to astonishing heights so if we did speak one whole language it would help us do things we would never think possible and if we did speak one language god would come down and disperse us back into several languages which would either prove god exists or not

God wouldn't have the balls to try that by the time we've got one language untiring us this time, we'd kick his ass all the way back to whatever hole he crawled out from.

 

[Nechti_Visara]

I say we all learn a dead language. Or, alternatively we all learn a dying one. That way, everyone has to learn a new language instead of the majority harping on others that already know the selected language.

 

[Yankeedoodles]

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.

really? english sounds cooler than german? and it's easier?
hmm i figured our (U.S.) english had too many colloquialisms and turns-of-phrase to be viable. so many people who immigrate here claim that it is very difficult... guess they're the minority?

They're probably referring to the written English language which - with all its double consonants, silent letters and vowels which never seem to have a set sound - is nothing short of a phonetic train wreck. Honestly, after learning Spanish, in which virtually every sound of every word matches up neatly to a letter, I'm amazed that non-native speakers ever learn to read English at all. Our written language is desperately in need of reform. We have far to many sounds in our language for the Latin 26 letter alphabet to be adequate.

That being said, the spoken English language is amazingly adaptive and its rules of conjugation and grammar are relatively simple.

 

[Elephant Walker19]

I'm simply dumbed by the fact that japanese alomost has as many votes as mandrin.

 

[Danman1]

English, mostly 'cause it's the only one I speak good. I'm just learning french, I can't imagine trying to learn mandarin.
EDIT: goodly* (sorry about that there)