With about 4,200 languages spoken worldwide,would it be no more convenient if auniversal language wee adopted?

Answer 1

First, let me be very clear about this.
The idea of a common language, especially if it is arbitrarily chosen or worse (and English would be just one of many bad choices) would be next to useless. This is assuming by 'Common', you mean the sole language.
If however, you refer to an AUXILIARY language, intended to bridge the gap between cultures by providing an easily learnt method of communication then yes. It would open the EU and indeed, the world up to far more in the way of understanding.
Let's exam the first example where each linguistic group would resent the fact that any other language was forced on them, and NOBODY would agree on ANY language since they would all want their own.
Esperanto is making headway in becoming an AUXILIARY language, yet people reject it out of hand because they all fear the loss of their tongue and a single language spoken by all, which of course is exactly what Esperanto is trying NOT to do.
As a common SECOND language you and you and you have no need to sink years into study of a language that you will most likely NEVER fully assimilate like a native. The choice would be yours. With Esperanto you can be comfortable talking to your neighbour in your native tongue and just as comfortable talking to Ming Lu across the waves on an equal footing in this easily learnt language. It's like a neutral handshake, because each participant invested an equal amount of effort to learn this easy language. (16 gramatical rules... NO exceptions!)
Believe it or not, Esperanto represents the best chance for the survival of the multitude of dying languages since it's purpose is to forestall the monopoly of any one National tongue to the disadvantage of another.
So will it some day become universal (which by the way doesn't mean that EVERYBODY in the world speaks it, just those that want it / need it)?
Well, the $600 million+ USD spent yearly on translation services at the UN (six official languages) and a similar amount in the EU says, sooner or later something is going to change, and this is the cheapest and most effective, proven alternative.

Further, if you don't think Esperanto is making headway, check this.
In a recent reprint of the Unua Libro (first book), editor Gene Keyes said that when he first started the project in 2000, he did a search for Esperanto on Google and it yielded over 1 million hits. At the completion of his task in February of 2007, the same search yielded over 34 million hits. Out of curiosity, after I had read that I did the same search and it yielded over 39.2 million hits. That's up over 5 million in two months. So it's growing. Slowly (or maybe not so slowly!)
Obviously not everyone will find a use for it, and that's fine. However for those that take the time and bother to search out the other users, it's worth it. Of course searching out other uses gets easier with each passing day.
Personally I have friends all over the world. Friends I wouldn't have had with out Esperanto.

Some have the opinion that the language is Impractical and awkward.
The two million plus (as of 1995) people that use it says it's not Impractical. Two million was considered the functionally fluent level (IE: able to get by in the necessary elements when travelling) in 1995. Since 1995 the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds, and Esperanto right along with it.
As for awkward, well I don't agree, but then anything that you start might be considered awkward until you get the practice in that you need.
Wikipedia hosts around 250 different languages. Esperanto ranks 17th in the most numerous articles category.
More than these languages to name a few.
18 Slovak
19 Romanian
21 Czech
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias

NOBODY has to give up their mother tongue, nor should they.
Esperanto as an auxiliary language however would be wonderful.

I encourage everybody to research and draw their own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 2

You already have some good answers and what I am going to write my not apply equally in the 21st century.

In the days of the Roman empire, the guys in charge spoke Latin - not Classical Latin but what is called Vulgar Latin. So a centurion in Italy could converse with a centurion in France. But look what 1500 or so years has done: Vulgar Latin has developed into Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Provencal and Romanian. No-one would question that these are now distinct languages and not simply dialects of VL. The difference these days is that communications are so much faster and frequent, such that the uniformity might last for more than 100 years or so; but compare English in England, Scotland, USA, Australia, South Africa - mutually intelligible, but probably mainly because of the American influence of films, etc. And who would be the language police? Who would decide whether to say "Open the boot" or "Pop the trunk"? English is probably the closest we'll get to a universal language over the next few years even though Mandarin and Spanish both boast a higher number of first language speakers.

Answer 3

Of course it would be, but convenience, culture, and nurture are different things and make different language demands.

At the moment English seems to have become the "lingua franca" learnt across the world because of the USA power and the ex-British Empire, though technically Spanish and Chinese are spoken more widely at a local level. Whether English will supersede local languages in the long run is a mute question as people hold on strongly to their own language as a national common ground. Many obscure languages are fast disappearing, but there has been a renaissance in some of them such as Welsh, Basque, or Breton as people are feeling a need to reconnect to their cultural roots.
In any case all languages evolve and in the depths of the future the day will come when English, as spoken in Britain, and American English will have drifted so much apart that they will only be intelligible to those that use one form or the other just like the languages spoken over large areas like the Roman empire in antiquity have splintered into very different modern languages nowadays. As it is marked differences are already appearing, as each country that uses English gives it a twist to suit its own agenda or conditions.

Answer 4

What would be the fun in that? It would take away culture and heritage from billions of people. And how could you possibly choose which that language would be? It would be arrogant to assume that it should be English. The Chinese and Latin Americans could also argue that theirs are world languages which would serve well as a universal language. Would you be prepared to learn Chinese and abandon English?
I love learning foreign languages and am starting to make a career out of this. If there were only one language there would, in the end, be little use for people like me.

Answer 5

Well, it's not that people are too lazy to learn a language, but it's like suppose someone is 60 years old, and that person speaks swahili, do you think he would want to learn a "universal" language, complicated as that may be (because most sound from all these 4200 spoken languages have to fit in, and remember that some sounds are unexistent in some languages!), just because other people say it's better? Nah, there have been many tries, but none of them got to the point, that's why we still speak our 4200 languages....damn, are you sure it's 4200? That's a lot!

Answer 6

confident, Vietnamese is my close by language. I found out English when I went to college. i will additionally communicate some Manchu, Mandarin chinese language, Cantonese chinese language, Mongolian, and a few Hochdeutsch (severe German). i will additionally communicate little bit of Turkish, Russian, Albanian Levantine Syrian Arabic, and Korean.

Answer 7

Then where's the fun of being lost in a foreign land and trying to navigate your way through?

However, it will definately bring the world's economic to a higher level ~

Answer 8

like english? but other people would object.
there were some suggestions, like Esperanto.
it was designed as "an easy and flexible language to foster peace and international understanding"
but people were just too lazy to learn it.