If everyone globally spoke one language... which would you like it to be?

[hippy dave]

That's not really a language more than a medium, would be like saying "handwriting" as a language.

Idk if you got good enough at telepathy, you could communicate ideas and concepts directly without having to interpret them via language.

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

Idk if you got good enough at telepathy, you could communicate ideas and concepts directly without having to translate them via language.

Maybe

 

[SAORIxMEGUMIN]

That's not really a language more than a medium, would be like saying "handwriting" as a language.

It is though. The brain interprets shapes to convey thoughts and ideas. With language you can "hear" the spoken ideas if you visualize the person speaking them when thinking internally, separated from the actual speaker.

In a sense, you would be interpreting the spoken language, not the words/letters they are speaking.

Furthermore, In this sense the different languages wouldn't be an issue. For instance when I watch an anime and a memorable line is spoken in Japanese, I remember the meaning in English. I read subtitles, though I can hear it in the same tone in English. I remember the tone of the voice and can sort of hear it in English as well as Japanese.

Many people do this, that's why people often complain when the dub voice doesn't "match" their character.

In this way, thoughts and ideas would be direct without the middle interpreter, yet you could hear the person who spoke it in your mind, as well as their appearance. In this way you could discern who you are speaking with.

 

[AlexMCS]

I would like a better letter system that can be mirrored without issue, maybe acts as a pronunciation key (see Korean), covers all the human sounds (see phonemes).

Considering written language as well, I'd like something like this. I love not having to worry about pronunciation when reading kana, but it lacks sounds.

 

[nxwing]

While Latin European languages used vocab from the Latin language, that's sadly a dead language.

However, I read there's universities somewhere that still teach Latin which is pretty cool.

Anyway, what language? (Modern) English would be too obvious, so Classic English.

I didn't really think of everyone putting in the effort to learn a language, I just assumed that the world would magically start speaking that language. Which is why I said Latin since I think everyone alive speaking a dead language would be fun to see.

Yeah, Latin is pretty much dead as no one uses it in daily communication outside of academic context or religious ones even, but I do think it's nice that it's preserved in some form at universities. Wish it was the same for every other language though.

Pig Latin or gtfo.

Nah, I want full on Latin.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Yeah, Latin is pretty much dead as no one uses it in daily communication outside of academic context or religious ones even, but I do think it's nice that it's preserved in some form at universities. Wish it was the same for every other language though.

Old English is the same way. It's so radically different from modern English that it feels a language by its own and leagues different, not just in vocab, but also in class.

 

[tech3475]

So US English?

You mean the language where you pronounce the letter Z in the same way a C?

 

[Jaxom]

Coming from France, using English everyday for work, living in Germany and marrying a Turkish (I know, what's next?! Well, I also studied Latin and Italian at school, so... ), I saw the differences in all these languages and how useful they can be to express different set of feelings of thoughts. But I found it really hard to rely on an other language than French to express emotions, we have more lexical options in that specific field, for instance, than English. So in the end, I'm not sure English in its current state would be enough to explain complex thoughts without having to use extended sentence constructions that would have been more precise and also shorter in French. It feels too limited sometimes, but it's still a convenient language to use as it's the most spread in the Occidental countries.

In the end, I just realize, with time, that languages evolved with their people and the topics they were more interested with. They are the real reflects of cultural evolution, and if we had to rely only on one universal language, we would surely have to start from scratch (Esperento failed, as underlined before) or having a big team of language experts from each countries to work on something. Would require years of work and discussions, and the languages they started with will all have evolved between the time they begin and the time they come with a solution. But heh, would be a nice and interesting project.

To conclude, I'd say that maybe South Park was right with that foreshadowing from episode 806.

 

[DBlaze]

ungabunga grug

 

[FAST6191]

ungabunga grug

You do know people have been banned for less?

 

[linuxares]

We already have one, Esperanto. But it haven't caught on.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

English has the same disadvantage as Chinese: You need to learn the spelling and pronunciation (esp. thanks to the vowel shift)
I´ll go with Russian or Korean.

 

[Mayo1990]

Greek. We need to go back in time, my boys!

 

[Minox]

Swedish, to annoy everyone

 

[subcon959]

Python

 

[AncientBoi]

I was going to say English, But..

I'll now go for

C++

 

[CoolMe]

C++

Is that Pac-Man eating ghosts?

 

[DBlaze]

You do know people have been banned for less?

UNGA!
i...i don't know am i in trouble?

 

[Spring_Spring]

One where talking too loudly is considered a mispronounciation

 

[Lavaimp]

Anything that isn't modern english because i understand none of the new slang and what not. It's tiresome.