what would you make Earth's official language?

[Stu35]

Anybody who said anything other than English should be shot. We didn't spend 300 years forcing foreigners to speak our language just for them to go and choose something else when it comes time to speak to Aliens.

And when I say English, I mean the Queens English, none of that regional dialect nonsense. In fact, just to be sure, we should make sure the Queen is the ambassador of earth. Also, to save on confusion, she should be given title of Queen of the Earth.

It's simple to read, it's simple to write and it's precis unlike English where you can write a whole text and they people won't be knowing whether you write about a girl or a boy because of the lack of gender.

Serious question, do you assign gender to objects (like tables and such) in Bosnian? Because they do that in French (for example), and it's fucking retarded. (Seriously, any language which assigns a 'correct' gender to objects should be declared illegal, with anybody speaking it to be shot.

 

[Pandabearparade]

I suppose giving my mother tongue would be selfish, so I'll say French. It's the prettiest language, in my view.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

I would like to make it Swahili just to piss people off but for practical purposes it would probably be English because; Many countries around the world have it as the official language or one of the official languages, most people in Europe speak English or know someone who does and it's already a business language or sorts (most business people speak English)

 

[likalaruku]

Simlish.

 

[Patrick Buck]

English.

Because I speak english...

Nah, just kidding. Latin, because latin is just cool. Romans had class.

 

[John the Gamer]

Terran. A completely new language, made through coöperation of all cultures, races and possibly species.

It would be a very dumb decision to elevate one culture and it's legacy above another. It would also be very narrowminded to use 'human' language only. Maybe the whales want to speak with the aliens too?

And besides, there's a pretty big chance that aliens don't have ears/eyes etc in our sense of the word. Maybe they don't speak at all, instead they use scent to communicate.

Again: Don't be narrowminded.

 

[lionsprey]

High gothic.
or binary that works to

 

[JoJo]

nadsat, my droog

I was going to say English but I'm going with this, nothing like a bit of the old ultra-violence with your fellow malchicks eh?

 

[Amgeo]

Honestly, I'd have to go with English. It's the most widespread language on the planet.

 

[Reginald]

It's simple to read, it's simple to write and it's precis unlike English where you can write a whole text and they people won't be knowing whether you write about a girl or a boy because of the lack of gender.

The ambiguity of the English language really isn't that big of a deal. If gender isn't explicitly mentioned, it can usually be gleaned through context. Besides, English can make great use of deliberately obfuscating gender, particularly in literature. It can be used to stimulate thought and surprise in readers, among other things.

English can be as precise as any other language, or even more so. It can also be quite vague. That's part of the beauty of the language, the versatility. English has the ability to illustrate in plain terms, it has the ability to force a reader/listener to think about what is being said, and it also has the ability to utterly confound someone, which is a perfectly valid technique in writing fiction or biographies. I quite enjoy texts that force me to think about them, myself.

 

[newdarkcloud]

Al Bhed. Because then I'd have a reason to collect those damn primers.

 

[miketehmage]

Latin. Some of the words sound cool as fuck.

But realistically if this ever happens it'll probably be English.

 

[Xenowolf]

Anglish [http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Folkwandering], just for laughs. If Anglish doesn't count, then German. I love German, it's such a poweful language. Also, Rammstein sounds terrible when not in German. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmtcByt5tD4]

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I'm gonna go with English, even if I am a bit biased...

 

[bobajob]

I speak French & Spanish but I found Spanish to be much easier, personally. Huh.
Should be English though, obviously XD

 

[Unsilenced]

English. Partially because I'm lazy, partially because I'm a misanthrope who wants everyone to go through the misery of learning this wretched, contorted abomination of a language.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Simlish.

Aruba flip narf? Pompa, ipsoo?

But apparently Simlish does contain traces of most major languages, so it would actually be a very neutral and quite interesting language to go with. For that reason: Simlish too!

 

[The Funslinger]

Pig Latin.

Orfay ehtay olzlay!

crewsay ouyay.

OT: English, if for no other reason than I like it over any other language I've listened to.

The main argument for it I'd pick is that it's also the bastard language cobbled together from other languages. It also has a huge amount of colloquialism (hence the saying "english is the easiest language to learn, but the hardest to master") so it would come naturally to a lot of non-english speakers because there'd be some inherent familiarity.

But on the weekends, Klingon.

 

[370999]

Lurvvvvvvvvvvvveeeee.

We could be the loving planet.

 

[kasperbbs]

English, it's pretty easy to learn and it already is an international language anyway. There might be better choices but it sure beats my native language and i don't know much about others.