Wouldn’t internationalism shrink language diversity?

[Romanophile]

I am very interested in having a border‐less, internationalised world exist, but there is an implication that admittedly makes me hesitant to advocate it : namely, that languages would all graduate into one another and eventually form one language. Now, I do not totally hate this idea as it does have its own benefits, but I would very much miss the language diversity that already exists. For me at least, I learn languages to have fun, not for utility or for convenience. Having multiple languages helps us think in different ways and experience different things, and I would miss the enjoyments and thrills of comprehending new tongues. Wouldn’t an international society eventually take this diversity away ?

[Left Voice]

The reality is that languages naturally evolve, that's how things are even in the current context. Languages die out, fall into disuse to become replaced by a more dominant language (as in the case of Welsh, Gaelic etc.), become consumed by another language, and sometimes even the inverse happens - new languages can evolve from existing languages. I don't think a borderless world would massively influence what is an organic process of language evolution that happens in our world anyway. Indeed, the penetration of a language usually does not conform with national borders, one example being the diversity of languages in Bangladesh and the Bengali region. And even within a nation, language use can vary to a massive extent (compare English used in southern England compared with northern England).

As a language student myself who studies Japanese, I can relate with your fears. But we have to regard the fears to be not founded in rationality - if a language does die out due it it's own irrelevance, this is a natural and organic process, and simply adds to the list of hundreds of thousands of languages that have disappeared throughout history. There will be scholars who document the language so that the knowledge is not lost, but we should not forcibly attempt to maintain an irrelevant language for variety's sake if it has outlived it's necessity.