Poll: One world language?

[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.

 

[RAMBO22]

Personally, I would have to say Latin or Greek.

Most people in the world speak a language that is a Romance language based off of Latin, which is, in turn, partly based off Greek characters.

So yeah, I would say either Greek or Latin because they are the base of most languages in the world we live in today.

 

[Bruin]

Latin.

It's not that hard to learn.

Nearly everybody has latin language roots.

It wouldn't be that big of a transition.

Latin's a dead language.
No one speaks it except scholars and religious types (ie the Pope does latin mass).

The fact that people speak languages derived from Latin is irrelevant.

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.

 

[Geekosaurus]

Well the most widely spoken language in the world at the moment is French. So well done to the three other people that voted for that. Here are cookies for each of you:

However the language of the future will probably be 'Pan English'. A combination of French, English and Chinese. It was on QI, and therefore true.

 

[Cmwissy]

US English its well spread and not hard to learn

I would disagree, British English is used in the Commonwealth and the European Union rather than American English.

The only nations I know to teach it's people American English are Asian ones.

 

[RAMBO22]

Latin.

It's not that hard to learn.

Nearly everybody has latin language roots.

It wouldn't be that big of a transition.

Latin's a dead language.
No one speaks it except scholars and religious types (ie the Pope does latin mass).

The fact that people speak languages derived from Latin is irrelevant.

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

 

[tkioz]

Chingelish - language of the future, Stephen Fry said so

Stephen Fry is one of the main reasons we should make English the world language... his voice... oh god I'm not even gay and I'm in love with that voice. The rest of the world should be enraptured by it.

 

[tkioz]

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.

 

[Hashime]

English, it is already the international language of business.

 

[CheckD3]

I'm going to say English, N. America speaks it pretty much exclusively (except Mexico, that darn American's pointy noise)

It's just so widely known as the "universal" language. Most languages are native to mostly their own contries and the surrounding, but English is spoken all over the world, since America is slowly moving tourists to the counties and taking them over

Though when we meet aliens, that's when we might have to change languages...

 

[warprincenataku]

Almost every nation I've been to uses English as their universal 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".