Universal language

[Athena]

When will the world officially have one universal language?

Should it implemented soon, so that everyone can be on the same page, so that humans can easily communicate and progress as a unified whole?

[WanderingOak]

That has been tried with Esperanto, but I don't think it will ever get very far.

[Barcs]

My guess is that within a few decades there will be an official global language, most likely English. This doesn't mean that all other languages will be extinct or illegal, but for official things you need to speak or write English. In the direction we're headed it makes sense.

[strawbear]

ohh i've always been interested in this, especially after traveling. i noticed that english seems to be the semi-official language, since it is not written anywhere that it is the officially world language, but since the american culture penetrates almost everywhere that's the seems to be the universal language.
i detest it though because it also means that somehow this language/culture and everything that goes along with it is somehow superior to any other language. i think we need a language that is not used to become the official universal language.
as stated before Esperanto was tried and is still being tried.unfortunately seems like even for that there are problems. while talking to someone about this, they were quite bias about the issue, but they taught me something, that language carries with it sooo much about the culture that is would be very difficult to incorporate all cultures into the language. to that i say there is a world culture that is not tied to nationalism but rather to the fact we are all humans part of the human race

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Barcs

My guess is that within a few decades there will be an official global language, most likely English. This doesn't mean that all other languages will be extinct or illegal, but for official things you need to speak or write English. In the direction we're headed it makes sense.

I highly doubt it. Many nations are far too proud of their linguistical and cultural heritage and already do all that is in their power to limit the influence of English. And if even the USA can't settle on an official language, I can't really see the rest of the world doing it.

The unofficial global language today is international English (ie, bad English), but I'm not even sure this will last till the end of the century. Who's ready to learn Mandarin?

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

I hope that we never become a world with only one language. How boring.

[Subscreet]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

I hope that we never become a world with only one language. How boring.

Give me a break. It would be much more practical if the entire literate world could communicate with each other and English, if it were to be adopted, has hundreds of thousands of words available to use. When would you even consider the implications of having only one language and how "boring" it would be outside the context of this discussion?

[magi13]

Originally Posted by Athena

When will the world officially have one universal language?

Should it implemented soon, so that everyone can be on the same page, so that humans can easily communicate and progress as a unified whole?

Nah, it's better this way. People can have there own privacy. That's why we're created with the exception of some who can read minds.

[Kura Ookami]

A universal language? You think that everyone will be able to understand each other if they spoke the same langauge? I don't. In the USA some people call a soft drink a soda, some call it a pop. Same language, total lack of understanding between people. This is what you want?

The most likely universal language would be Mandarin if we continue in the direction we're going I think. With China becoming the worlds leading power.

When will people progress as a unified whole? I think the time when everyone sees other people as brothers and sisters, as family, that's when humanity will progress as a unified whole.

[MartialDev]

Communication difficulties are not a result of language, they are a result of experience. Language is one aspect of that life experience.

When everyone has the same experience, it will be The End of Progress, not the beginning.

[magi13]

Originally Posted by MartialDev

Communication difficulties are not a result of language, they are a result of experience. Language is one aspect of that life experience.

When everyone has the same experience, it will be The End of Progress, not the beginning.

^^, I have to agree with this one.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Subscreet

Give me a break. It would be much more practical if the entire literate world could communicate with each other and English, if it were to be adopted, has hundreds of thousands of words available to use. When would you even consider the implications of having only one language and how "boring" it would be outside the context of this discussion?

Why so upset? I would find it boring. It's merely an opinion, no need to roll your eyes at me as if there is something wrong with me feeling that way.

In fact, I've always thought that the varied languages of the world are beautiful and considered how much culture and tradition would be lost if they die out. You may not agree, but please don't belittle my opinion.

Sure, it would be helpful to have a language that is taught the world over to facilitate global communication. Even in supporting that idea, I reject the idea of letting all of the other languages die out.

[magi13]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

Why so upset? I would find it boring. It's merely an opinion, no need to roll your eyes at me as if there is something wrong with me feeling that way.

In fact, I've always thought that the varied languages of the world are beautiful and considered how much culture and tradition would be lost if they die out. You may not agree, but please don't belittle my opinion.

Sure, it would be helpful to have a language that is taught the world over to facilitate global communication. Even in supporting that idea, I reject the idea of letting all of the other languages die out.

People whimsically make decisions without enjoying the simple things. They often and most of the time take it for granted.

[allirowe23]

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks one language? American

[Trezker]

I only speak one language, Swedish. But I write two, and know some stray words from various languages, and have started construction my own language. My own language still has no word for penis, in case anyone wondered.

Esperanto was a big failure and in my humble opinion, a crappy attempt. It seems like they took an existing language, cleaned up the grammar a bit and changed the words slightly.

I say if we want a global language why revive good old Latin? It's the standard for naming scientific things already so why not make it the common language? The problem is that we need to convince countries to make Latin a standard class in school, like English is just about everywhere now.

Alernatively we could take one of Tolkiens languages. I think Quenya is a very beautiful language. Or From Star Trek we have Klingon, but that's rather rough, I don't think it could be popular enough even though I heard more people know Klingon than Esperanto.

Ava vanta i salquessë

[Brutha]

It's the standard for naming scientific things already so why not make it the common language?

English has become the scientific language and nearly no scientific papers are published in Latin anymore.

Or From Star Trek we have Klingon, but that's rather rough, I don't think it could be popular enough even though I heard more people know Klingon than Esperanto.

I don't think that there are many people who are fluent in Klingon. I also haven't heard of native Klingon speakers while there are native Esperato speakers like George Soros.

Lojban also happens to be a nice project for a new language.

[Athena]

Why the need to invent a new language?

Why not just use English?

It is fairly simple in construction and already in wide usage.

Why don't we consolidate the other languages, including those have words for things that English does not have, create an English equivalent, so the vocabulary is expanded to cover all meanings,

and thus have a comprehensive language that everyone in the world can use?

[Barcs]

Why do so many of you think that making an official language will erase the culture? I don't agree with that. Culture can still be preserved regardless of what language you speak, and having an official language wouldn't mean the other languages would disappear. I think too many people struggle with the concept of EARTH CULTURE, rather than specific culture from specific countries. In case you haven't noticed, America is a very culturally diverse country. It brings in tons of culture, and also creates its own. If we have a "world" culture, it would definitely have to be a combination of several, just like America. We need to start looking at the world as a whole instead of petty things like countries and borders and fighting amongst ourselves. What would we do if a race from another planet came here?

[Xanafax]

English. As spoken originally by the English - none of that American rubbish - will be the official language of the world.

It is precise, broad and poetic. Most of the world already speaks this language, and almost any person, in any culture, will know a little bit of English.

[Barcs]

^I'll be damned if I have to add an extra U into the word "color" or "favorite!"

But then again, it would be pretty sweet going back to original English with the "thou shalt not" and the "Thy will be done". I love speaking like a knight.

[John Tedder]

I think it is much more likely that someone will invent a portable computer to act as a translator than the nations of the world will agree on a common language.
You could have a portable device that can translate many languages. It's just a matter of time.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Barcs

Why do so many of you think that making an official language will erase the culture? I don't agree with that. Culture can still be preserved regardless of what language you speak, and having an official language wouldn't mean the other languages would disappear. I think too many people struggle with the concept of EARTH CULTURE, rather than specific culture from specific countries. In case you haven't noticed, America is a very culturally diverse country. It brings in tons of culture, and also creates its own. If we have a "world" culture, it would definitely have to be a combination of several, just like America. We need to start looking at the world as a whole instead of petty things like countries and borders and fighting amongst ourselves. What would we do if a race from another planet came here?

Language is culture. Erasing language means erasing culture, period. Some scientists assert that one's mother tongue marks them indelibly.

Folks, let's be honest and call this by its name. Not "standardization" and "progress", but xenophobia and a lust for extermination.

[wachusettgirl]

Originally Posted by John Tedder

I think it is much more likely that someone will invent a portable computer to act as a translator than the nations of the world will agree on a common language.
You could have a portable device that can translate many languages. It's just a matter of time.

Maybe so, but I think that artificial intelligence would only be able to handle the roughest, most basic communications, not the necessarily the truest. Anyone who has tried to translate spoken word, or even text from one language to another knows that this requires creativity and intelligence. Every language has it's nuances, so things are often "lost in translation".

[John Tedder]

C3P0, the robot who new all kinds of different languages from Star Wars, is probably not that far away. Someone will develop a "Universal Translator" that will let an English speaker travel to Italy and "converse" in Italian. The translators will get better and better over the course of time.

I don't think it will mean that people will stop learning a 2nd or 3rd language; it will just mean that you can go anywhere on the planet and understand what someone is saying. They will be able to understand you as well.

Even if you speak German, French and Chinese, the translator will help you understand English and Spanish.

[JGrace]

Originally Posted by Athena

When will the world officially have one universal language?

Should it implemented soon, so that everyone can be on the same page, so that humans can easily communicate and progress as a unified whole?

Terrible idea. One language would mean cultural death of variety. Humans need their various cultures to celebrate, and not be all homogenized.

[Brutha]

Sometimes people mean something with words that simply don't exist as a concept in the others mind.
If a scientist speaks of a significant result he has something in mind that has no representation in Sindarin. You would probably need multiple sentences of Sindarin to explain what significant means.

Even something like atoms don't exist in Sindarin.

If I write something about how a system like politics works and use the term "complex" as it's defined in systems theory someone who has no concept of the term as it's used in system theory won't understand me.

If I use a word like realpolitik (with does exist with that spelling in the english language according to Webster) you probably wouldn't understand me because you don't know the word. It's a nice German phrase that found it's way into english but you still don't understand me if I would choose to use it.

You can use language in way where you are very precise about your meaning and you can be unprecise.
Overcoming Bias: Why Love Is Vague is a nice post about the sentence "I love you".
Language aren't only there to communicate information but also to hide information.
Different languages allow to be differently precise with the same amount of words.

In Japanese you are able to separate degrees in politeness in the language in a way that would require a lot of words in English.
Additionally the fact that you would need more words would change the meaning.

Additionally a word like "or" with can used both as logical "or" and as logical "either or" with leads to problems. It's a strange way to hide what you say because the difference is sometimes important.

Sitting in a presentation and hearing what isn't said is sometimes more important than to hear what is said.

There a language that has distinct expression for things that you know because someone told you and things that you know because you experienced them yourself. If you communicate in that language you can't hide that you never have experienced something without lying.
If English would be like that it would probably have an effect on the guru culture in America

In case you haven't noticed, America is a very culturally diverse country.

Some people think that America hasn't anything that could be called culture.
Those people also happen to use the word culture in it's older sense instead of what it usually means today.

Someone will develop a "Universal Translator" that will let an English speaker travel to Italy and "converse" in Italian.

You can only converse on the lowest common denominator in concepts for which both languages have the same concepts. If you speak with a Japanese and your translator doesn't put out the right form of politeness you will be understand differently than someone who gets the politeness right.
Information about the politeness just isn't in the original words.

[Subscreet]

Language is culture. Erasing language means erasing culture, period.

Terrible idea. One language would mean cultural death of variety.

You're both wrong, and this assertion is extremely ignorant. The definition of culture is much wider than just "language" and you'd do well to learn it before participating in this discussion and saying such ridiculous things. Are both of you linguists or do you have any sort of qualifications that would lend a shred of credibility to these statements? Even in just the U.S. there are distinct cultures that all speak English, though some use different dialects.

[Riddle]

Originally Posted by Xanafax

English. As spoken originally by the English - none of that American rubbish - will be the official language of the world.

It is precise, broad and poetic. Most of the world already speaks this language, and almost any person, in any culture, will know a little bit of English.

It's also the most complicated language.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Subscreet

You're both wrong, and this assertion is extremely ignorant. The definition of culture is much wider than just "language" and you'd do well to learn it before participating in this discussion and saying such ridiculous things. Are both of you linguists or do you have any sort of qualifications that would lend a shred of credibility to these statements? Even in just the U.S. there are distinct cultures that all speak English, though some use different dialects.

Language is culture in the sense that a square is a quadrilateral. This doesn't mean that "square" is equal to "quadrilateral". Subscreet, you would do well to learn the meaning of the word "is" before critiquing its use and users!

[newmark]

Just learn to speak lots of languages; it's good for your brain. And has a few other advantages.