Can there be an international common language? On what would it be based?

Question

There have been several attempts. Esperanto is one.

Chaos by Trenite would seem to rule out American English. http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/chaos.html#

A co-worker of mine is from Cameroon they have a "trade language" (Hausa?). He says it if effective for trade but would be insufficient for philosophy, poetry or the arts.

Answer 1

No, there can not and will not ever be an international common language...

If someone *were* to somehow manage to get everyone to agree to the concept in the first place the following would happen:

The first generation would not be native speakers and, therefore, wouldn't trule speak the language.

By the second generation, there would already be different dialects.

By the third generation, there would already be dialects that were not mutually intelligible.

So...for 20 years, it is *possible* (in theory). Much beyond that, it is a physical impossibility.

Answer 2

Speaking on one international language is a brilliant idea, but it would be very hard to even make up that language, then just imagine how hard would it be to do all the things that are needed to be done if one language wants to be official.
You said some very interesting things, but some peoples opinion are much different than ours are. I would personally love to understand an African as good as a British. But some wouldn't. That is the problem. That problem is in our minds. Many people are affraid of differences between us, between black, white, yellow... Everyday we can hear that someone has been murdered because he was black, or just different physically. Not to mention just psychological differences. At the same time, we can see that numerous small groups of people intend to become a nation, to speak on their language. Just see how many states and countries exist. And i am almost sure that in 5 years there will be even more of them. As an example from Europe take the countries from the Balkans. After SFRY fell apart, every single country pronounced its DIALECT as an official language which is spoken at the region that nation lives! From one language serbian-croatian, now we have at least 6 new languages, and they are all the same, just based on another dialect. When talking about dialects: all of you mentioned English as an international language. I think that the time of English is slowly, but surely passing out. Nowadays we have Aussie english, british english, american english... This is all ONE language but every kind of english I mentoned is developing in it's way, and, as the linguists predicted, in 50-100 years these languages will be completely different languages.
In my opinion if we want to form an international language, we must find a deep connection between all cultures and languages which exist nowadays. But is that possible? Is it possible to somehow unite the whole human race? Will politicians and diplomats allow this to happen? We can see that the Europe is trying to unite, but I think it found out that that is impossible. European Unions meetings are worse and worse, and it will soon brake, but that is not the subject. The point is that it is hard to unite even the whole Europe, and then try to that with the whole world! But maybe if a connection could be found things would be bettere for us.
Is that connection Latin? We know about the Roman Empire and how it ended. Wasn't that the try of uniting the West and the East? But still Latin is still the connection among the Europeans. Roots of many latins words are still roots of many words we use in many languages nowadays! But on the other side, Latin connects JUST the Europe. What about Asia, America, Africa?
This is not only a question of one language, this is question of being human, of living as a human, understanding your "race". Numerous people have that blockade for uniting and being EQUAL! Ther's the key. Many can't imagine being equal, and when we evolve and learn on our mistakes, change our points of view, we will be able to understand every men on the planet, even if he speak Japanese or English.

Answer 3

Well, during Roman times Koine Greek was the common language which was used all over the Roman Empire. It was kind of a trade lanugage, a common language, and actually became the language of the New Testament.

Wherever you have groups of people over a particular regional area who speak different languages I think common languages come into use. Various pidgins are such languages.

But I think trying to make one up for everyone to use is a futile occupation.

Answer 4

I agree with those who mention lingua franca - a second language, alongside national/local mother tongues, is far more likely than a single, new language to replace others.

Esperanto, and other artificial languages, don't usually have enough cultural or literary impetus to make them broadly appealing; besides, they are usually based on one group of languages (Esperanto is clearly Indo-European in vocabulary), and therefore difficult for speakers from other language families.

And since we (people from many different countries) are having this discussion... it seems to me that English is already a lingua franca for a lot of people in the world (including for business in India and the Middle East). It could be that we have several (Mandarin Chinese has a huge population base, many of whom don't speak English) - it is interesting to note that the United Nations has 6 official languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic).

PS: Thanks to the asker for the link to the poem "chaos" on irregularities in English spelling. English is my first language - and I struggled to read this out loud! If your English is not good, don't even try - get a mother-tongue speaker to embarrass themselves!

Answer 5

Though here have been a few attempted common or man-made languages, all have had the same amount of success. English seems to be taking the lead at the moment due to multi-media and the net, with many people learning it as a second (or third) language.
Latin was used for many centuries, but unfortunately has been dead for many centuries.

Answer 6

It is needed for a limited number of people, because globalisation is mainly for rich. And they may take this one, which prevails in their chools as a result of colonial policy.

On surrealistic level, it would be logical to have one such language as second language in schools. But that is just surrealistic. And may end fast because language barriers are very important tools to keep status quo for some in power.

To select one of existing languages for international communication would mean to ensure artificial privileges for some native Englsh speakers. And some additional oppression from such countries.

Answer 7

lingua Franca - A lingua franca is any language widely used beyond the population of its native speakers. The de facto status of lingua franca is usually "awarded" by the masses to the language of the most influential nation(s) of the time. Any given language normally becomes a lingua franca primarily by being used for international commerce, but can be accepted in other cultural exchanges, especially diplomacy. Occasionally the term "lingua franca" is applied to a fully established formal language; thus formerly it was said that French was the lingua franca of diplomacy.

The term "lingua franca" was originally used by Arabs to name all Romance languages, and especially Italian (Arabs used to name Franks all peoples in Western Europe). Then, it meant a language with a Romance lexicon (most of words derived from Italian and Spanish) and a very simple grammar, that till the end of XIX century was used by mariners in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in Middle East and Northern Africa.

Answer 8

We are already on the way. Large percentages speak English and Mandarin Chinese(I think Chinese has a slight edge). So may be one of those two will become the international language.

Answer 9

English if USA continues to dominate the world, but China and India are catching up so Mandarin or Hindi may well be langauges to learn.

Answer 10

The following language is recognized everywhere. When presented people will make every effort to understand you no matter where in the world you are;
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