Universal Language, What Would It Be?

Isn't English like already something like that?! I mean, so many stuff are in english so it's kind of expected of people to know it. It's my fourth language and yet i've never really studied it, now at times i feel it's easier for me to explain stuff in english than it is to do it in my own language.

 

English is one of the easiest languages to learn, it makes a good universal language.

 

Why elvish of course...

I would assume one that is simple yet already well known population wise. My knowledge of languages is slim, so I'll leave it at that.

Though you did say universal, so who knows maybe it'll be some alien language.

 

English or Mandarin, I believe. However, there are some languages I feel would have a hard time dying out... The rapid decrease of languages spoken are probably the "lesser-known" ones that branch off of the main stem languages. Once we get down to the main ones, I doubt there will be a dominant one, at least for a while.

 

I really hope we don't come to a point where we have a single dominant language, that would take out all the fun of learning and speaking languages.

I agree with Tai though, It's most likely to be English or Mandarin but I'm leaning towards English due to a simpler character system.

 

I agree with GoldenArrow, probably English as so many people deem it to be more.... welcoming due to the characters.

 

Currently, it's English, but it's one of the worst to have, as it's a "double whammy": Not only can you not tell how to spell a word from hearing it spoken; you can’t even be sure how a word is spoken from the written word.

If English changes its spelling, it deserves to be the universal language, as its grammar and punctuation are very easy.

 

By the time all other languages would die out (if such an event would ever occur), none of the present languages would be in their current forms.

But you've also got to think that some of these languages are spreading further apart; some languages will evolve differently and become separate, like the split between Vulgar Latin and its descendents, which were essentially Creole languages.

Though with the massive increase in global communication, that might be different. It's far too speculative for me to think that anything in particular will happen. At any rate, I doubt that English today will be the same as English in five hundred years, and in a thousand it might be a completely different language or language family.

 

Sign Language. I'm a little fluent in it, and I love teaching it to others. I personally wish that everyone knew the language, so hearing people can talk to deaf people better. And so that deaf people can understand what hearing people are saying without reading their lips.
Also I think everyone should learn Braille, for blind people.

 

Well, i agree that it would probably be English. so many things are in English already, and as goldenarrow said, the characters are simpler than mandarin. But, as goldenarrow also said, that would take the fun out of learning them cause y would u learn them with the knowledge that you would never use them, and it would take out all the diversity of people speaking different languages. sometimes its fun to listen to people speak something you cant understand (as long as ur not rude about it, or they know that you dont speak that language)

 

Even if it was English, what area? English has so much slang and dialects, it's kind of a mess, to be totally honest.

 

BWAHAHAHAHA! English, easy to learn? I've had to help my relatives learn English, and they were totally befuddled by the arbitrary grammar. English is kind of easy to be able to speak well enough to sort of get by. But to actually be able to speak it like a native is very hard. I so think English will be the universal language, however, as so many people speak it.

 

It's pretty amazing how much English has evolved in the last five hundred years, compared to say, Greek, which is pretty conservative in comparison. It's possible for English to branch off, but with the internet and the world getting smaller, I see the many dialects coming closer, with smaller ones dying off, or becoming more like the larger ones.

If the West continues to dominate, which it probably will, I think it's safe to say another Indo-European - personally, I'd like to think it would be something like Esperanto, but hey! Mandarin Chinese and Spanish might have the numbers, but the sheer influence and unique place English has in global communications makes me sure it will stay as number one for quite some time.

I see many universal languages, whether they be more than one used at once, and/or a shift from time-to-time.

 

Of course we could just all start speaking Esperanto. We might then be able to create the Jupiter Mining Corporation and flood Fuji.

 

I'd say English because it already is basically the most universal:

- it's the most widely spoken around the world, it may not have the highest number of speakers but general knowledge of it already is present in basically almost every country.

- it's one of the most expressive and direct languages. It is used with international governmental groups because it is one of the most specific languages and is hard to be misinterpreted.

- it already is the most mixed language on Earth, the English Empire brought many words from other languages into it, more so than basically any other language on Earth. It's a heavy mix of Anglo-Saxon, German, French, Latin and Greek words. It also includes words from around the world like Native-American,Native Australian, Indian, African....etc.

- though I can't find anything to prove it English generally is considered to have the most individual words; words with different meanings.

 

Is that so? I've never heard of that. Do you have any source to back it up? I'm willing to read about that. :icon_bigg

In fact, this global communication doesn't establish a more uniformal English, currently. There are many changes happening right now! Like the cot-caught merger (some speakers have the same pronunciation for this vowel, but others make a distinction), the bad-lad split (some speakers lengthen bad, causing the two words not to rhyme), and there are many other things happening right now.

You are right, languages evolve, words appear and others become archaic.

 

There's already a universal language, sort of.

If you wave, it means hello or goodbye.
If you smile, it conveys positive emotions.
If you frown, it conveys negative emotions.
If you laugh, it usually means you're happy or amused.
If you scream, it usually means you're upset or in trouble.

 

I think a universe spoken and written language might be a combination of several languages. English already borrows many works for other languages, and English speakers continue to use more foreign terms as the world becomes more interconnected.