Poll: One world language?

[Zeetchmen]

English please, all I can speak and all I will be able to speak is english.

Also everyone else in the world pretty much speaks english anyway

 

[Obrien Xp]

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.

English is considered a Germanic language. It does however have quite a bit of romantic (French) in it though.

Many languages nowadays are changing, I've heard that French and German are interchanging on some things. (Frenchfries was the example I was given, was told that Germans are using pommes-frites instead of der guten deustch word).

 

[Yankeedoodles]

language is a fascinating topic. talking to someone is basically poetry, in that you are trying to convey meaning using words, a conversation is the most basic example, lyrics and poetry are more complex and "rich" examples.

The language you use will change the options of expression open to you. I personally find eastern languages particularly interesting (as they have their roots far from Latin based languages), as they have no just different words, but different concepts.

Only bits I remember from memory is stuff like opportunity and problem are the same word in Japanese (I think it's Japanese), because they see them as the same thing, and when you think about it, they basically are. A problem can have numerous different solutions, so "opportunity" makes sense.

I don't think language will ever be united in 1 language, I think the capacity for us to become multilingual, and mix languages is more likely.

Someone's probably already pointed this out but, if not: you're probably thinking of the Chinese word for "crisis". It is a commonly held incorrect belief that the hanzi making up that word are the chinese words for "danger" (wei) and "opportunity" (ji). And while "wei" does translate as "danger", "ji" actually translates to something like "critical moment" rather than "opportunity".

 

[Custard_Angel]

No language will ever, or should ever, be the "one world language".

Just imagine the pointless wars that break out as every race strives to make their language "the" language.

An artificial language you say?

People have a hard enough time trying to learn one language. Just walk around and listen to people butchering their own language (like, oh my god totally, ya know?). Imagine how much trouble would be involved in teaching over 6 billion people how to speak a new language.

Impossible.

 

[razing32]

I think it should be a neutral language like Esperanto.

Choosing one existing language over another may seem unfair to some cultures.

Also , the more common a wide spoken language becomes the more smaller communities loose their cultural heritage and language.I believe we are losing a few tens of dialects a year - I mean them going completely extinct.

 

[Sparcrypt]

Engligh. It's taught to a lot of other cultures and those who speak it natively are often reluctant to learn anything else.

Naturally biased as I am a native Engligh speaker

 

[Zakarath]

Binary. The machine overthrow is coming...

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Those who said French 0.9% are correct, French is the Language of the Diplomats.

Yeah... in 1885...

the european union has most of it's stuff in belgium and france. they talk french in both countrys.

most of the diplomatic missions around the world speak french nowadays, why is that ?

 

[Bruin]

Yeah, just like it's irrelevant that today the "Western" culture we embrace is based off of classical Greece and Rome (sarcasm)...

Latin is a dead language in the sense that no major populace speaks it.

However, if people spoke it, it wouldn't be a dead language.

Because people would be speaking it.

Do you see how this works?

Much of the grammar is the same, many of the words are cognates, and Latin is something people in many countries study. Countries outside of where Latin originated. It's used for so many things these days we all practically know Latin in some form or another.

Therefore, it's not irrelevant.

English is a mix of Norman French and Old English, which is itself derived from Germanic. So since both German and English are derived from some ancient Germanic should we start speaking it too???

Mandarin isn't derived from Latin
Neither is Russian or anything Germanic.

Only Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian and a few others.



Besides, you're talking about destroying people's cultures. Because that's what it is. Culture is heavily dependant on Language, if you started Latin immersion schools across the globe, you're basically going to destroy everyone's culture in two generation.

No one is going to stand for that.

And why should Asian people learn Latin? Why should Russian? Their language has nothing in common with Latin.



If there is one world language, the move towards that language will be both natural and gradual. Not the resurrection of a dead language that has no contemporary relevance.

English has an enormous amount of Latin influence. It's hard not to notice it. After all, you're in a FORUM.

Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, English, a bit of German and their derivatives. This includes Dutch, Portuguese, Etc.

And I'm not talking about actually doing it. I'm not proposing everybody demolish their old languages in favor of Latin. I think it's the one the majority of the world has in common, considering more than a quarter of the world's population at one time lived under Roman rule, and these days, much of the world speaks a Latin-derived language. I think it'd be a very easy language to implement if we had to come up with a language for the world to speak.

I think it's the most practical choice, is all. I'm not saying we should actually do it.

 

[x434343]

English already has 1.8 billion speakers worldwide. One of the highest rates.

 

[LamborghiniJackson]

Times New Roman for teh lulz

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

From what I can see, Mandarin Chinese is the most logical choice, but I would personally vote for German. German is the only language that uses Roman characters that is as efficient as the Asian languages.

You can make so many different words out of the small ones in German, and they are (mostly) logical and, at least for me, easy to pronounce.

My main concern with Mandarin Chinese is that there isn't an Xbox Live game that teaches it to you yet.

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

unfortunately i think it is going to be english since it is a required language in most nations for children in school. english is just such a flawed language that i wish it would die and be replaced by something else. i cant remember the name of the language but there was a professor that created the perfect language and it didnt have any words with double meanings and each syllable had only one pronunciation.

we should also get rid or the standard measures of units and switch to metric in the US

 

[TeeBs]

I honestly see the next sulution is that everyone learns one language, and we all carry around translators, little listening devices that convert any language into your first language.

 

[The Night Shade]

English because everyone knows a little bit of it

 

[justnotcricket]

I hope none. Life would be so bland. I hate the way English had spread everywhere like a disease - and it's my first language! Don't get me wrong, I like it as a language and all, but I am a much bigger fan of variety.

 

[The Bum]

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.

No, i'm american and english is way boring, and hard! I've had to take honors enghlish for years. So many effing rules!!!

 

[The Bum]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

You know it's only a matter of time.

 

[[Gavo]]

English, probably. Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese) is just too damn hard to write and speak for most of the world.