Universal language?

Question

Should the world agree to use only one language? And if yes which one should it be?

Answer 1

No, the world should not agree to use just one language. Maybe the world should agree to use the same language as everybody's second language (or third, fourth, fifth...), but not the one and only language.
I think everybody's additional language should be English, or at least the generations to come, we can't really expect people who have lived most of their lives already to start learning English.
But I definitely think everybody should keep their languages alive forever and keep teaching them as their mother tongue to their future generations. That includes dialects, different accents, anything that makes the language distinctive of a particular culture.
The last thing we need in this chaos world right now is for some country to impose their language on the rest of the world.
Plus, people like me who love learning new languages would be left without their biggest passion.

Answer 2

What would be the fun in that? I don't want to give up English and have someone tell me I have to learn a language. I'm sure the rest of the world would say the same thing if we said they had to give up their language. The only hope for this is a neutral 2nd language. What language do you think we could convince everyone in the world to learn as a second language?

Answer 3

No, that would suck because a language is the main part of a culture and when you decide a foreign language takes precedence over a loca one, the local culture would be ruined. How would you like it if Mandarin became the world's language? Yes, Mandarin because it's spoken by more people in the world natively than other languages. How about Spanish because it's only behind Mandarin. Seriously, how many nations speak English as their official language? English is not even the official language of the US. Besides it would be impossible because no individual, no group has the authority to impose such stupid idea on other nations. Learn a few other languages besides your native tongue for your own good.

Answer 4

There are so many problems with having a single universal language, and the probability of any one country being able to impose its language on everybody else is so remote as to not even bear thinking about. The loss of culture would be a major blow to the world.
An international auxiliary language, where nobody is forced to give up their language, and nobody is forced to operate at a linguistic disadvantage, where all concerned meet on an even playing field is by far the best language. Better yet, if it is completely regular and easy to learn, then you don't have to sink a lot of effort into learning the rules and the exceptions to the rules like you do in English and just about any national tongue you can name.
The notion that it would degrade into dialects like so many other languages is less likely for a few reasons.
1) International communication has become instantanious, which greatly reduces the isolation of linguistic groups, which would normally lead to language modifications that are not absorbed by all of the respective groups.
2) Since it would be used as an AUXILIARY language, it wouldn't (shouldn't) be used as a primary language. Isolated language groups that continue to conduct day-to-day matters in their local community would pretty much continue to modify their own language, but would recognize the impact and loss of contact with the other groups should they alter the auxiliary language.

Of the multitude of international languages, few have had the impact that Esperanto has.
Esperanto is the strongest contender as the international auxiliary language. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrates linguistic theory that is useful in understanding all languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.

I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

The most depressing aspect of dealing with Esperanto is the constant unsupported claims that it has no value. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (119 years) and a culture.)

Where Esperanto stands to make its biggest success is in international communications, primarily at the UN and EU, where each respectively spends in excess of $500 million USD annually on translation services alone.

Currently Esperanto holds observer status at the UN and UNESCO, and as the plight of the cash straped UN and EU becomes even more severe, they will be looking at ways to lighten the financial load. It may take a while, but sooner or later some nations are going to blink, and permit Esperanto as a working language.

The World Esperanto Association (in Esperanto UEA: Universala Esperanto-Asocio) is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 119 countries (as of 2000) and is the office that administers official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 95 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA.

Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 5

English should be the language as it is very adaptable and is already in the prime position for a global language. It would be great if we all spoke the same language. Just imagine the wide variety of opinions we would get.

Answer 6

No. The erosion of diversity in languages is bad enough as it is. Every language expresses a wealth of history, culture and interconnected meaning which is unique to that language, and its loss is the loss of all this heritage, a loss to the whole of humankind.

Everybody should learn to speak another language than their native one thouroughly to understand this.

Answer 7

What language is spoken by the most people? That is the language that should be used universally.

Answer 8

Even if we did magically get "one language", the dialects would adapt and change so much over the course of the years that we would all end up in the exact same position as before: not understanding anything someone else has to say.

Answer 9

the universal lang shld be english as many many knows how to speak it. however, we should also speak other languages like our mother tongue so that we can share secrets or sthg....

Answer 10

Klingon!