If you HAD to learn a WORLD LANGUAGE...?

Question

Would you rather:

A) Learn a language with CHARACTERS rather than alphabet so that there will be less spelling mistakes and more meaning in words but more learning?

No more than 5,000 characters to memorize

or

B) Learn a ALPHABET type language which will be easier to learn but will have trouble spelling and some words that are not memorized will have no meaning?

No more than 10,000 Words to memorize

I am planning of making a WORLD language that's why I asked

*BirdHerd, are you without knowledge? There are only two categories and those are:

A) Symbols which represent words

or

B) Symbols that represent sounds TO MAKE words

What else is there to do?

Answer 1

A
i think it would be unique and interesting to learn

Answer 2

Why are you trying to re-invent the wheel.

It's been done before. The language is called Esperanto.

It has no irregular verbs or quaint English style spellings.

It was a dismal failure because everyone would have to learn a second language. Advanced countries in Europe, North America and parts of Asia simply saw it as pointless.

I suggest that if mankind can avoid destroying itself then in 200 years time many languages will have disappeared from common use. Examples are Danish. Swedish and Greek simply because outside Denmark Sweden and Greece nobody has any use for them. A form of English will eventually dominate but I doubt it will sound much like the present form.

Ian M

Answer 3

I would suggest using an alphabet. It would be a lot easier to make and I think you would find it very difficult to make a language with a few thousand characters to remember.

You can still make an alphabet look really cool. Have you seen the Russian Cyrillic alphabet? It looks quite cool. Maybe you can borrow letters from the Latin alphabet (the one which we use), and borrow from Cyrillic and invent letters of your own. So you have a combination.
Good luck!

Answer 4

I assume by (A) you mean a language like Chinese. The type of language that you're accustomed to would make a difference as to which is easier to learn. If English is your first language, then trying to learn another language even with a different alphabet - for instance, Russian - is easier to connect to because you have a basis of comparison.

Answer 5

I would suggest a completely phonetic language, with characters for every useful sound.

word-caps for memorization seem pointless; different cultures/professions will always have their own specialized terms, and common words will be known out of usefulness and necessity.

rotsa ruck on a world language, by the way. Can't see it happening.

Answer 6

5000 charactes for 5000 words makes smaller vocabulary than 10k words written in the alphabet.
being from the alphabet oriented society, I would prefer the aplhabet version. aka English instead of Chinese. less problems with typing.

Answer 7

If you are going to go through the process of making a new language... why don't you do something entirely new... i.e. neither utilizing characters nor an alphabet... why don't you make something entirely new?

Answer 8

Klingon or Vulcan would be a good one to learn. You never know when NASA will achieve deep space flight. Best be prepared to speak with our neighbors intelligently.

Answer 9

I would learn a REAL language not a made up one that nobody speaks

Answer 10

the second type because its the more common of the two types, more people are likely to accept this.