What Is The Main World Language?

[asdftheking 1]

It would be really silly in my opinion to try and make another language other then English the main language. Sure there may be more people in other parts of the world speaking some other language but only English is and will always be considered the international language. We have keyboards that are designed for English. We write programs in English. If you try and make another language other then English a main language your taking a step backwards. It would be much easier for other speaking languages to learn English if they would like to do business internationally.

You're right about English's predominance in so many things, especially the world of computers and technology. However one also needs to realize that the English language is "messed up" on many levels. One that we all know is the at best semi-rational spelling and pronunciation. Other languages have superior use of verbs (Spanish for example) and others yet better use of tenses (some have 3-5 past tenses instead of just one). There will always be ideas that can be better expressed in one language than another. Simply put, English is a quirky language and it's "world domination" has much more to do with the people who used it (and the faith of the pilgrims, in my opinion) than it's value as a language.

[asdftheking 1]

There's a subtle difference between the world's "main" language and one that is more "international". By percentage I think you'd definitely be hard pushed to convince anyone that Chinese (or variations/dialects/whatever-they're-called thereof) isn't a definite contender, but that's certainly not the only factor to consider. As an example, looking at this page on Wikipedia shows that Chinese is "officially" spoken in only 3 countries, whereas English is "officially" spoken in the US, India, Nigeria (and 52 others). Assuming you use this as your source of the most common language, English certainly wins.

 

I think the main problem simply comes down to actually adopting any language as the official one. Culturally, you'd be hard pushed to push every country in to speaking your own language. Aside from that, what makes one language better than the other? Perhaps one is decidedly easier to learn in general, although not yet widespread. Would it be best to teach the majority a language that requires the minimal effort than the minority one that requires the most effort?

 

Who's to say that any of our current languages will eventually end up being the international one? Why not make one[/i] instead? Honestly, I see little reason to not construct one ourselves that is generally accepted as being an international standard. Perhaps even make up a new alphabet (or whatever you want to call it) for it, with entirely new characters. Heaven knows English is a nightmare to learn, even as a native speaker, and inconsistencies and exceptions make things even worse. Surely we could solve that by agreeing on a "fixed" language, once and for all?

When Chinese comes into the discussion one should note that it is a flawed assumption to list it as a language. Mandarin Chinese is a language, but it cannot be lumped together with Cantonese and the many other languages spoken in China any more than Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and French or English and German can be said to be the same language. In the 19th century "Mandarins" were imperially appointed officials like judge/mayors of towns and districts. They spoke Mandarin as a political language to be able to communicate across such a vast empire hence its roots are not anything like the roots of English in America, per se.

 

A second thought, languages are human, not computerized or standardized. Any standards set have to be continually changed and reimposed. No attempt to universalize language will succeed. Humans will continue to use, adopt, and change languages according to the environment around them and their ambitions and convenience. Imposing a universal medium just won't work.

Edited November 16, 2008 by asdftheking (see edit history)

[mm22 0]

When Chinese comes into the discussion one should note that it is a flawed assumption to list it as a language. Mandarin Chinese is a language, but it cannot be lumped together with Cantonese and the many other languages spoken in China any more than Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and French or English and German can be said to be the same language. In the 19th century "Mandarins" were imperially appointed officials like judge/mayors of towns and districts. They spoke Mandarin as a political language to be able to communicate across such a vast empire hence its roots are not anything like the roots of English in America, per se.
A second thought, languages are human, not computerized or standardized. Any standards set have to be continually changed and reimposed. No attempt to universalize language will succeed. Humans will continue to use, adopt, and change languages according to the environment around them and their ambitions and convenience. Imposing a universal medium just won't work.

Two good points, Mandarin Chinese is still used by many in China the way Europeans use English to communicate with each other, the Chinese government is putting efforts into flattening language differences across China but this process is obviously not easy and not even desirable in a cultural sense as it will signify the loss of many other dialects. The introduction of simplified Chinese characters has already meant that several characters have suddenly disappeared, after thousands of years of evolution (traditional characters are however still used in Hong Kong and Taiwan).

The example of China could be extended to the whole world if a common language were to be introduced, although in this case there would be even more challenges and "losses". And yeah, I agree, it won't work. Nevertheless if everyone has a sufficient knowledge of the same language (let's say English at this point) things are much easier, and I believe learning a language is not such a daunting task if all we need is some "working knowledge" that enables us to get along with fellow workers/students/businessmen from around the world.

[Mordent 0]

I think we've all noticed that as time goes on, and communication between different nations and cultures increases, words have been adopted from various other languages, or we've picked up the odd smattering of a language that we use commonly.

 

For those of us who don't really speak much other than English, we can get by more and more by speaking the exact same language we have been all our lives due to the integration of English in to other languages and vice versa. While I don't doubt that there are a whole host of other languages out there that are becoming "known" by a larger percentage of the world's population, I think that in the context of forming an international language English is certainly among the forerunners in the contenders for it.

 

Again, though, I still don't see why an entirely new language built with the intention of being simple enough to not have clear and concise meanings, yet complex enough to allow a rich vocabulary and grammar to evolve, isn't the way forwards. If it's not based on any current language (i.e. built from scratch, with grammar rules, sentence structure and even new characters) then each of us should find it equally simple to learn. I'm not saying that it will happen soon, or that it won't have trouble integrating with those who have their language thick with culture, but surely it is a viable alternative to mixing and matching words and phrases from the current languages we have available?

[sknsoftwares 0]

Yes you are right english looks like the mostly used language but when you go remote in many a countries they did not use a single word of english. Obviously it is widely eccepted but even though in the top charts its third. So it will be difficult enough to grab the top status by english. As I said many other languages have made there position in charts and it is difficult to get rid of them as they are off other language speaking communities and so it will be difficult to make a chageover for them.?

[Mordent 0]

Yes you are right english looks like the mostly used language but when you go remote in many a countries they did not use a single word of english. Obviously it is widely eccepted but even though in the top charts its third. So it will be difficult enough to grab the top status by english. As I said many other languages have made there position in charts and it is difficult to get rid of them as they are off other language speaking communities and so it will be difficult to make a chageover for them.

By no means am I suggesting that English is the most widely spoken language, but you'd have to admit that in terms of how prevalent it is in the modern world (the internet being a great example of how English is having an impact) it's certainly a forerunner.

As an example, while variants/derivatives of Chinese are, I'm sure, spoken by a hefty percentage of the world's population, you'd be hard pushed to prove that it is the most commonly spoken language by other frames of reference.

Using my previous example of the internet, while I'm aware that there are a whole host of Chinese internet sites out there I doubt they're as "international" (i.e. used by a wide range of nationalities and cultures) as English sites are. I haven't got any proof to back that up, but it's a pretty big hunch I have.

Again, though, we could argue about which language is the most common and therefore the "best" world language out there for years, my main argument, and the way this thread seems to be going, is in working out which language would make the best "international" language. Clearly there are many languages which stake a claim to being the best candidate, but does it really matter?

Given that the language would be introduced over time, after being approved by each nation that's interested, of course, why not construct the language from scratch? It would be just as difficult to learn for all nationalities (in theory), and would not be biased towards one particular nation in that they already know the language itself. As for the remote regions that basically have little/no contact with the rest of the world, does it matter? Whatever language is used as the international language, they wouldn't know any better any way.

[Nik 0]

Of course english is the global language. And about its future it will be as the local language in all countries.Even chinese people are also more excited to learn english. In my country I have observed many people wants to learn english and also they wants their child to complete their education only in english not in the local languages

[deadmad7 4]

Of course english is the global language. And about its future it will be as the local language in all countries.Even chinese people are also more excited to learn english. In my country I have observed many people wants to learn english and also they wants their child to complete their education only in english not in the local languages

I don't think we should teach children only in English, English should merely be a Second Language if you are in non-english speaking countries. It is MORE important to preserve the local heritage and cultures. I would actually like it more if its diverse people from different part of the world rather than everybody speaking English and not knowing anything about their own country. Personally i believe that more LANGUAGES and MORE cultures that you know and have witnessed, the better life you would have.