Greetings everyone.
I've spent a nice evening with some people who happened to be from a different country and who spoke a different language. and while we were covering different topics, we came across the language area. my idea was to imagine the world where we all spoke one language, no differences. which brings this question to the table: if we all spoke one language across the entire planet, would that make sure at least to have less conflicts between the nations? would it also deprive us of the joy of discovering how to say certain things in other languages? we've covered this topic in details as much as possible, but it always makes me want to get more opinions. that is why i am asking whomever wants to throw in an opinion in the comments.
and thank you in advance.
2
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
11 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Esperanto was invented 80 years ago with your hopes in mind. Thousands in the Bahai religion speak Esperanto out of many millions who all encourage interracial international marriages.... world peace is feared by weapons and polluter profiteering NONE ARE AFRAID of translators nor Esperanto.
....the PROBLEM is greed NOT language
Larry68Feminist
Level 7
Jan 10, 2021
0
What's the best example of a war being caused by two groups of people speaking different languages? I can think of a place where a variety of countries all speaking Serbo-Croat didn't do anything to prevent a war breaking out between them: it ended up with genocide.
David_Cooper
Level 7
Jan 9, 2021
1
To our American cousins,
Please remind me, which of the sides in your civil war was it that spoke English?
People don't need a difference in language in order to fight, they just need to perceive a grievance.
Paul_Clamberer
Level 7
Jan 8, 2021
2
agreed!
Not likely, and variants of the language would emerge based on regional differences. Compare American English in rural Alabama, the 'hood, the San Fernando Valley, Brooklyn, and Minnesota. Let alone other languages.
Mitch07102
Level 8
Jan 8, 2021
1
This is a fine thought but would your ' dream ' language be American English or English English?
Mcflewster
Level 8
Jan 8, 2021
1
i prefer the american english to be fair
@Basem what is fair about it? Genuine question No tricks
@Mcflewster i grew up in a family that spoke english, so this language was with me since my childhood. not to mention that i listen to english music, so its all part of me. and approach was always toward the american side of the language coz the british was always distant and unappealing. so the fairness is about my preferences.
@Basem Thank you I now understand why you used the word fair. It is difficult to compare two languages unless you could arrange to grow up from birth in each language.
In your phone or computer, there is a program called "The Babylon fish". This program enables your device to speak with other devices that may use different computer languages. The name came from the book "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Where the fish was an actual fish that lived in your ear and fed off brain emissions. In return for this symbiotic relationship, it would automatically translate any foreign or alien language and vice versa. "Rather than being a uniting instrument. The Babylon fish has been a cause of more wars and disputes across the galaxy than any other"
273kelvin
Level 8
Jan 8, 2021
1
i will look into that for sure!
Not only one language, but also one economic (probably socialist) and political (parliamentary?) system. It'd solve a lot of problems.
I think it will eventually happen some day, slowly, without anyone noticing.
But not in our lifetime
Storm1752
Level 8
Jan 7, 2021
3
Yes, a hybrid that will evolve with regional dialects.
Languages in remote low population undeveloped are going extinct as other languages become more dominant.
Anthropologist are scrambling to record the fundamentals of native languages in danger of extinction or they could be lost forever like thousands of languages already.
We now know that modern Coptic is a descendant language from ancient Egyptian. An exciting discovery.
@Willow_Wisp I agree with that.
First it'd be nice if we assured the survival of the ecosystem, and if (a big if) we could do that, the path to a world government seems inevitable.
How long will that take? A wild guess? Faster than anyone thinks, because Gaia is unhappy, and when momma is, everybody is.
Stay tuned for the next pandemic.
They did invent Esperanto and about two million people know it last time I looked, it’s a metric language all nouns ending with the letter o and other rules.
But I prefer my Hamlet in the original Klingon.
Willow_Wisp
Level 8
Jan 7, 2021
3
I attended a seminar in England, in which a speaker stated that the United States and England are 2 countries separated by a common language. That was part of what I enjoyed about living there - the little differences. I think a worldwide, homogenous language would be a sign of a dull, stagnant civilization.
chalupacabre
Level 8
Jan 7, 2021
2
Personally, I wish I had the ability to learn languages easily. Each has its own way to see the world and it would be easier to understand each other if the language was not a barrier.
@dalefvictor It's not even all about understanding the language, so much as exposing oneself to other cultures. I worked in Bahrain for a couple weeks. Didn't speak the language and a lot of my encounters involved locals who didn't speak English, but we figured out ways to convey what it was that we needed and it proved an incredible experience. I don't think Darwin's Theory of Evolution is limited to just biology. It extends well beyond that. Richard Dawkins describes how organisms' interactions with their environment shape their development and I think the same principles apply to culture and language, too.
@chalupacabre Darwin's theory is the best thing we've ever had!
i can also say that from the language's perspective, a native speaker of that certain language determine their reality and the view of the entire existence. but to me, i think a language is barrier that is there for me to overcome and discover that the other bank speaks almost using the same logic as mine, which we all know as the human logic.
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Related Groups More
World Music
1327 members
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.