Oh yeah, and English is bulls**t. Seriously, it's my native language, the only one I speak, but I hate it. I hate that it's one of the most needlessly complicated "common" languages in the list above, but it's still taking over due to so many businesses being in North America, the UK and Australia, as well as Africa as a whole.
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.
yeah i think it's much easier. german has that er - sie - es stuff (your nickname tells me that you speak some german, so i hope you understand what i mean) and other weird grammarrules. and english sounds cooler in my opinion, it's an easygoing language and you can speak it much faster than german (zero punctuation won't sound nice in german).
I am german and i dont know what you mean with that er-sie-es (he-she-it) stuff .
if you are talking about the different genus of nouns, like the candle uses the female, the house the neuter and the dog the male form of articles, then yes, that is pretty complex and one of the major problems of foreigners learning german.
As much as i love the english language i just don't get why it should sound cooler. You can speak german as fast as english, both languages lose some quality in phonology though, but i see that some stuff like the "auslautverhärtung" ( german words ending with b,d,g sound as if they end with p,t,k)and the plosive sound in the beginning of vowels (which is a major reason why people think german sounds rough and harsh, one that we ourself dont really realise. There is a wee little throatsound in front of words starting with vowels called a glottal stop) makes it a little bit harder to do so.
But as far as there is no one english sound, but many varieties and dialects with massive differences, just the same as with the varieties of german and probably every other language, its hard to compare, because no one here knows what your variety of german is and which one of english you are refering to.
Another thing mentioned, english being easy to learn, is also very subjective. For Middle Europeans with a germanic or romanic language it is really easy. Especially if your native language is germanic.
I heard of english students having huge problems learning old english, while we started translating in the 1st lesson because it was basically a slightly different old german.
The big problem of english is though, that the ways a word is written and pronounced, dont have much in common.
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead--it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother;
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear;
And then there's dose and rose and lose--
Just look them up--and goose and choose;
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why man alive,
I learned to talk it when I was five;
that word is a perfect example. auslautverhärtung, what the fuck?! it sounds like shit. the english translation is terminal devoicing. that sounds cool and, like i said, "easygoing". you can talk about terminal devoicing fluently, but auslautverhärtung? that sounds ugly, even for germans.
i've made a random search on youtube to find other examples, i found something about drugs. just listen to the first sentence. what an ugly language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFQH42qtKuw
and now listen to that first sentence (also random search):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRWwI61so5Q
i also know that there are many dialects, but i heard californian english and british english, and both sound great.
i know that i only replicate my other posts, but i can't explain it better.
tkioz said:
Orcus_35 said:
Those who said French 0.9% are correct, French is the Language of the Diplomats.
Both of these statements are wrong. Many people find English is extremely difficult as it has a plethora of descriptive words that can seem almost arbitrary, and exceptions etc.
It will be Mandarin, which is good because it is a mathematical language and makes learning math easier. Just be thankful it wont be Cantonese.
Lol. Tell that to asians. It is in fact one of the most difficult languages on the planet.
It's just that anyone who speaks it natively, or whose native language is closely related, (Ie. Europeans) won't appreciate that fact.
The trouble with English is it has pretty much the largest vocabulary ever, complex grammar, and way too many grammatical exceptions.
You can't really write down the rules of English without needing a huge list of situations for each rule saying when it doesn't apply.
That's hardly what makes for a simple language to learn.
Still, about 1 billion people speak it as a more or less native language, and about 800 million speak a weird semi-english between each-other.
(Basically, they learn English, but not properly, and only speak it with others that also don't speak 'real' English.)
In fact, there's a good chance that this 'fake' English will take over from the real thing.
Which will probably confuse all of us because it's so far removed from the real thing that people who speak actual official English can have a real hard time understanding what the hell anyone who uses it is saying.
I have call a bit of BS on this. English is easy to pick up but hard to master. There are multitudes of people who are native English speakers in my countries and they speak it fine but can't write it. Writing I can agree but for speaking I would disagree. People can get away in English speaking like Yoda and still get their point across. Also the verb to be in present tense in English is I am, you are, he is, she is, we are, you are, they are. That is nine different words lets look at French Etre Je suis, Tu es, Il est, Elle est, On est, Nous sommes, Vous etes, Ils sont, Elles sont(Last two might be ont I think I might be mixing up with avoir). That is 15 different words for 1 verb. While this evens out in the later stage of learning the language when English becomes hard and other languages become easy.
English is spoken by most of the highly developed nations, Mandarin by the most people, (although it is Cantonese spoken by those who live in China's main money-making centres of Hong Kong etc.).
And for those without a sense of humour, of course I'm joking.
I would have thought French to be a more popular choice, as it only has around 250k words compared with the several million in English.
Notice however, all these options require some people to learn a new language and abandon their own; This is not fair. Therefore, we must all learn Klingon.
Mandarin, for business reasons. If you're ever in business and have to deal with the Chinese for productions, you need to know it or you're screwed. China is responsible for so much production and their population is so large, that one day I would say it would be Chinese.
the current most common language is actually chinese. English is next, I think. I think English would be more likely to become the global language, because countries like Britain and USA are having vast global impacts, as are other countries that have english as a primary or secondary language. Another reason is that English is rooted in a multitude of languages, many words are based on Latin or French, as well as a few other languages, so it would be most easily received.
I just dont think its a good idea. You have to write English if you;re going to make it one world language. All you're legal documents will be in it, and any you draft must be written in it. I still think Spanish would be the better choice, cause a lot of people can speak AND write it well enough already.
Both of these statements are wrong. Many people find English is extremely difficult as it has a plethora of descriptive words that can seem almost arbitrary, and exceptions etc.
It will be Mandarin, which is good because it is a mathematical language and makes learning math easier. Just be thankful it wont be Cantonese.
Sure, most people know Mandarin, but how many people outside of China know Mandarin? That could be a bit of a problem for a universal language. Also, the script can be a bit off-putting in a world where the Roman alphabet still reigns supreme. English is far more widely known as a second language, making it more easily accepted. Maybe when China grows into the economic powerhouse that everyone predicts that may change, but not quite yet.
Apart from pronunciation English really isn't as difficult as it is made out to be. Sure, it has some pretty random rules and words, but many languages have those , though I admit, European languages seem to excel at complicating themselves (try Finnish, Polish or Dutch and cry...). Despite those difficulties, and because of English already being a major component of international information traffic, English is already a part of many languages in the form of adopted words and expressions. Grammar rules and pronunciation might be a problem for any universal language at first, but a language can adapt.
And because of its richness in expression and vocabulary it can cover a lot of foreign concepts, which is an obvious advantage for international use.
My first language is Welsh and Scots Gaelic my second and I feel like if you made a "one world language" it would be taking away part of someone's identity. I still dream in Welsh and I feel like me speaking Welsh has always made me part of who I am. Other languages are fansinating and taking that away would be a shame it really would.
I just dont think its a good idea. You have to write English if you;re going to make it one world language. All you're legal documents will be in it, and any you draft must be written in it. I still think Spanish would be the better choice, cause a lot of people can speak AND write it well enough already.
Well from I heard from my French exchange student English is much easier than Spanish and she studies English and Spanish so I am personally gonna go with her on which language is easier since she learn them both. Also studies have shown people don't really recognise spelling mistakes as long as the first and last letter are in the same place and the word contains all the letters it should. Given that and that very few people even native native speakers actually speak and write English properly the way it should be written I don't see it as a big of a problem as you are saying. Most people ignore most of the rules as it is.
I don't like the idea of it... but if it does happen, it'll probably not be one, but two.
English speakers tend to be arrogant and don't like learning another language. see poll results) but not many people realize the power of China right now. They have the best economy right now and are growing at an exponential rate. Mandarin chinese will be a language of the world for sure.
In my opinion, the idea of a "world language" is stupid. Everyone should have the right to speak in whatever language they want and practice their own cultural beliefs. Trying to make everyone speak one language is in essence forcing them to give up a part of their identity and what makes them unique.
Another reason I don't like this idea is because it is usually held by english speakers who are usually too lazy to learn another language and misguidedly believe that if everyone was the same as them there would be less war and division, which isn't entirely true. The English language and ideals have been forced on other cultures and people before- as was done through the british colonial empire. I know that my views here sound rather anglophobic but the same can be said of other languages like french and spanish which have both been forced upon various other people around the world not to mention their parallels to welsh and gaelic- such as breton, catalan and basque.
I would also like to add there is no such thing as a useless language- you seem to believe welsh and gaelic are dying out but this isnt entirely true, the welsh language is now spoken by more people than ever and gaelic is still spoken in many areas of ireland and scotland. Languages are not useless just because you can't use them across the wider world- it is enough for them to be spoken by their own peoples.
Thank you.
err you do know I'm not actually talking imposing English on anyone right? I'm talking about natural cultural evolution, the world is getting more and more interconnected, I honestly think if we give it a century or two Europe wont even have countries anymore, rather provinces of the EU, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
As for being too lazy to learn another language, I speak four. English, French (very rusty), Japanese (not as rusty, but getting there I think, I need to use it more), and Gunditjmara (the traditional language of where I was born).
This thread isn't about forcing anyone to do anything, but rather a debate about the merits of a global language.
Personally I think in a perfect future a thousand years from now most if not all of the major languages are still around with 3 related synthetic languages providing the middle ground; basic lingua (trade, very basic, think pigeon English), Lingua (every day English, for conversations, novels, etc), and high lingua (for science and philosophy). Everyone is mandated to at least learn basic, but most people would learn the middle ground, and only those that need it learn the high version.
We're getting close to the point where we totally understand how the language centres of our brains work, and once we do we can design a language that will be easy to use and learn.
Well thanks for making that clear. After re-reading your post I see that you yourself havent put forward any such idea of forcing english or any other language upon others, although it does seem that some people who have also commented seem to be swaying towards this sort of idea- which does sadden me.
In response to your idea of some form of Global language then, I would like to say it does sound like a good idea for being able to convey ideas between different peoples while they are able to retain their own cultural traditions. I'm still a little unsure about using english as a framework for this gloabl language however- it could be an entirely new language for example, taught- as you have suggested, in some basic form to as many people as possible.
I would also like to reiterate that I am not an anglophobe, although I do believe that the english language has a negative influence on some other languages- such as Welsh, my own language, as it is a much larger language and attracts people due to its wide use in popular media.
Well, my idea for the lingua's isn't based on English, more using English as an example, they would be true synthetic languages; which given that we're starting to understand how the brain works will be doable within our lifetime, the ability to construct an easy to learn synthetic language. The current synthetic languages (Esperanto for example) were made by very smart people who understood language, but they didn't have all the facts that we do now, and will have in the future, which is why they never took off.
A true synthetic language that everyone speaks in addition to their own language would help the world as great deal; well at least it would prevent things like the story my grandfather use to tell me. He was in Korea during the conflict there, his unit was in a village and they needed to speak leader, only no-one there spoke English, but one village spoke very basic French, and so did my grandfather, so through the use of three languages there were able to get the idea across, in about ten times the time it would have taken if he had spoke Korean or someone had spoke English.
As for Welsh, well honestly languages die out over time; just look at Latin, it's dead, there are no native speakers left (people who learnt it before all other Languages), it's just the natural order of things, sad? yes? but it's not English's fault, the English (the people) maybe (my UK history isn't as good as I'd like), but not the language.
I can see how in such a context as the story you have told some form of common synthetic language would help. I would also like to reiterate that welsh is NOT dying out, and is infact on the rise, one day I believe we will see a wales where welsh is spoken by an overall majority- there is hope for my language.
I think in a perfect world this would be the next step in human unification, but iin practice there would be arguments over which language should be taught and it would devolve quickly in to petty bickering.
90% of people who know english don't even use the apostrophes anyways so that rule is basically null. i think as long as you can speak a language decently clear then your good to go.
ot: i think we are heading that way but im not too sure on english being the language to have..although a lot of people have pointed out we have so many damn words and hell we have words that are used in other languages since they used english words so it only makes sense that it would be english more then likely.
Lots of languages are dying off, you just need to like at the UK and the huge amounts of money they are spending to "save" languages like Gaelic and Welsh (?) to see that, but do you think we're moving towards a single one world language and would that be a good thing?
If so, which language should / will it be? Mandarin and Cantonese are both spoken by a lot of people, but then you've got English which is pretty much the de facto "lingua franca" (and isn't that a funny phrase when used in this context) of the business and digital world at the moment.
Or should we develop an artificial language like Esperanto (only you know better...)?
You do know Gaelic refers to Irish which the UK has nothing to do with and actually the level of Irish speakers is supposed to be on the rise and is not actually declining at the moment.
OT: It is not a waste to save languages such as these. Languages are more than just a thing you speak they signfy difference, diversity and culture. Languages have very different nuances and something directly translated into something else will have an entirely different meaning. Keeping native speakers of these languages alive is important otherwise these cultures will be forever lost as with the nuance of the language.
If Irish, Welsh and Scot's Gealic die out that is basically the Celtic culture wiped from the face of the Earth completely. These are main languages with strong Celtic influences left. So I do not think that such ventures as saving a languages native speakers or any such revival efforts are a waste.
Thank you very much. I agree with you whole heartedly- the celtic languages and their parallels around the globe (minority languages) must be kept alive along with these important, beautiful and unique cultures.
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