Language - The language problems, Solution?

[Umoja]

Their are an estimated 3000 to 5000 spoken languages in the world. Most of us only know one or two.

Although this is a site largely used internationally, it's easy to notice that the principle language is english, with a few others speaking Spanish, but that's about it. Has anyone ever thought of this as a problem? English, by being a national language is politcally biased.

I'm not sure about anyone else here, but I have known this before I was a Socialist, and am also a wannabe Esperantist. Esperanto is a planned language, that is used for international communication, and has no actual country of it's own. It was invented in the late nineteenth century, and has grown to about 3 Millon (or 8 Million depending on who you ask) speakers around the world, with many concentrated in Europe, Brazil and Japan. It's rather simple to learn, and numerous places on the internet are devoted to it, and many books in Esperanto have been written, I'm suprised it isn't associated more with Socialist. It's ironic because I'm seen the word "Marxismo" and "Socialismo" given as examples in many Esperanto books.

Learnu Esperanton! Estas Facile la bona lingvo! (I haven't spoken in awhile, so my spelling is horrible)

http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/key.htm

[Som]

3 - 8 million?

the highest estimate ive seen is 2 million.

Mi ne parolas esperanto.

[MJM]

I thought it had been given up as a genuine idea.
Thats why the EU adopted both french and english as their language rather than esperanto. English being the main language used, but the french were pissed about it and insisted french be included.

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

I thought about it and think that with one language the communication between nations will improve and avoid problems. I am in favor of English, because it's easy;)

[Umoja]

Yeah, but English isn't exactly easy, and it's extremely biased since it's Englands national language, and shows the effect the England has had on human civilization. It's accepting imperialism, when their is an alternative, that is also much, much simplier then English, and since everyone has to learn it, everyone is on equal footing when speaking it, because a person can never speak any language close to as proficiently as a native speaker.

[chamo]

Different languages are national and cultural idenities for many people. The Irish don't particullarly like speaking English but they do as the language has been changed after the british took over Ireland. Sure nearly every Irish person knows Irish, but only 5% speak it as a first language. And it's sad to see that languages are disappearing due to english. Also the British Empire having been the biggest ever means that alot of people know and are made to learn English for trading and marriage. This is why you have to learn English in school, because so many people speak it as a first language and most of the Western world speak or know it. There is only one solution to the language problem on this board and that is too speak English, as it's what most people here know. If you want to speak a bit of your own or a different language here, please do so, but don't make a great show of it. If you want to purely speak another language, you would have to go to another board, as this is an internationalist board, and the most widely known language happens to be English.

[mentalbunny]

English is my first language but I also speak french fairly well and a little bit of german. I'd be interested in learning Esperanto if I could actually use it but it seems to be fairly limited as far as use is concerned.

[Umoja]

It's not really limited, you can express everything you can in English. It's just that, this is generally needed because so few people I've met have ever needed to use that amount of detail.

Happyguy, I was giving a solution not saying we shouldn't speak English. Just because some people don't believe in property doesn't stop them from owning computers.

[elisabeth]

I started learning Esperant about two years ago (but I stopped quickly because I didn't have time enough to study) and I think that this would be the best solution. Everybody should learn it because it's very, very easy and nobody is discriminated (all the non-English speaking people ). We should have an Esperanto Club in here!!!

[ColDFirE]

Esperantois easy to learn, but most of the people don't want to learn it because nobody used it. I know 2 people who learned it, but they can't use it anywhere.

And for the fact I don't think that any growerment did everithing to keep Esperanto alive. and whitout money Esperanto almost dead.

[Guardia Bolivariano]

I think no language most ever be forgoten or replaced.Language is part of human culture and identity It's a sort of pride.I think everyone should keep their own language and learn Esperanto that way you can speak your own language and comunicate with the rest of the world.

[Umoja]

Esperanto doesn't need money, most courses for it are free on the internet, because it's more of a convinent thing. I've been to numerous Esperanto chats, and they are all quite interesting, but as I'm currently learning Arabic and Spanish, I don't have much time to get past basic Esperanto (but of course I know how to curse in it).

[Anonymous]

il just stick with portuguese! i mean i alredy suck at english, and i cant evenspeak my mother language that well.... why try luck? :cheesy:

[timbaly]

I've been thinking about a united world language under socialism for a long time. In fact I was planning on making a new thread about it. That Esperanto language seems very interesting, I never heard of it before, but I think it would be easier to make English the worlds language since so many people already know it. I'm not saying that all other languages should die out, but I will say that I beleive English should be everyones first language and learning any other language would be voulantary. We could of course should never allow any language to die out without a trace because it could be crucial when translating artifacts. We could have a rosetta stone for each language there is to ensure that the information is never lost.

[redstar2000]

I recall reading a science fiction novel once in which all the major languages in the world had "melted" into a universal tongue...the sentence structure was based on English but words and idoms of every language were in more or less daily use.

This seems to be what actually HAPPENS...living languages freely borrow useful words (and ideas) from other languages. English is actually a combination of Norman French and old Saxon (a Germanic tongue) but has borrowed words from dozens of languages.

I've read that, along with English, the other language that most freely borrows from other languages is Spanish. A future "great language" (if not exactly universal) might be "Spanglish"...a combination of the two most fertile western languages.

But how to work Chinese, Arabic, the languages of the Indian subcontinent, etc. into the mix will be a problem...to say the least. :cheesy:

[Umoja]

More people Speak Hindustani (Colloquial Hindu and Urdu) then people who speak English. The only reason English has a large speaking base is because of imperialism, and I'd try not to accept it, since it will kill off other languages, and therefore other cultures.

Besides, English is difficult. I'm a native speaker and I still struggle with some words.

[mentalbunny]

I agree that English isn't simple and I think I forgot to mention that I'm learning Japanese as well and planning to take up Russian and Italian next year, I also currently study Latin and ancient greek.

I think what will probably happen, is as communication increases the languages will mix so there will be several ways of saying things but you can mix and match, like speaking franglais, which is what I pretty much always do when speaking to a french person because my french has deteriorated a little since the last time i was in france and i always have to ask my french french teacher for vocab. Most of the time I jsut say the english word in a questioning voice and sometimes she tells me the french for it, other times we just carry on with our discussion, especially if it's interesting. we talk about Baudelaire and socialism and stuff.

Another thing is that if we lose some languages we will lose a way of thinking. The French language had an effect on Satre's and Camus' thinking, german affected Marx and Engels and we are all affected by our languages and the culture and lifestyle that is linked to it.