I don't know the details of some of those languages so I didn't vote for anything, however there are a few things that should *not* be in some global language.
1. Gender based nouns. I do not need to know if a cup of coffee is masculine, feminine, or neuter. (Took some german in college, could memorize the words and the grammar, just not the genders)
2. Tone differences between different words/syllables. Chinese dialects do this (the ones I know of at least) and when I can say "Meaty arm" and "Eyeball" by just changing my tone, it gets confusing. In addition it prevents the tone from implying as much emotion in my opinion.
3. Multiple written and verbal languages. I love how the japanese language sounds, but two syllable languages and one symbol language wrapped up together make for a hard time learning it all.
4. Complicated grammatical structure. I never studied russian language, but I have heard that there are specific ways to say a person's name based off of what type of sentence you are using it in. I could be misinformed about that, but the concept is still there. Grammar is difficult even for native speakers of some languages (I am sure there are many errors in this very post) so making it complicated will just make things worse.
Well that lists all of the languages I have either studied some, or heard complaints that I agree with. I will finish this with one thing. Language is a defining part of human civilization. A single world language would help with modern communication, but destroy some of our cultural heritage. Without the nuances of language, would poets and playwrights have anything interesting to say?
TL;DR version: A world language needs to be easy to speak, write, understand, and learn. Language should be, however, as complicated and diverse as it is in order to keep our culture and literary heritage.
P.S. English is not my favorite for the global language either, it is complicated, broken, and difficult to learn. It is, however, what I speak and write best, if not very well.
1. Gender based nouns. I do not need to know if a cup of coffee is masculine, feminine, or neuter. (Took some german in college, could memorize the words and the grammar, just not the genders)
2. Tone differences between different words/syllables. Chinese dialects do this (the ones I know of at least) and when I can say "Meaty arm" and "Eyeball" by just changing my tone, it gets confusing. In addition it prevents the tone from implying as much emotion in my opinion.
3. Multiple written and verbal languages. I love how the japanese language sounds, but two syllable languages and one symbol language wrapped up together make for a hard time learning it all.
4. Complicated grammatical structure. I never studied russian language, but I have heard that there are specific ways to say a person's name based off of what type of sentence you are using it in. I could be misinformed about that, but the concept is still there. Grammar is difficult even for native speakers of some languages (I am sure there are many errors in this very post) so making it complicated will just make things worse.
Well that lists all of the languages I have either studied some, or heard complaints that I agree with. I will finish this with one thing. Language is a defining part of human civilization. A single world language would help with modern communication, but destroy some of our cultural heritage. Without the nuances of language, would poets and playwrights have anything interesting to say?
TL;DR version: A world language needs to be easy to speak, write, understand, and learn. Language should be, however, as complicated and diverse as it is in order to keep our culture and literary heritage.
P.S. English is not my favorite for the global language either, it is complicated, broken, and difficult to learn. It is, however, what I speak and write best, if not very well.