Would you be willing to adopt a single, world-wide spoken and written international language as a second language in order to facilitate the global exchange of information? I would, and I currently speak only English.

Let me state up front that I am not of a One-World mindset. I am an ardent believer in sovereignty of countries and the rights of citizens to defend their countries from aggression with or without the help of other countries (unilateralism), including preemptive actions. I would celebrate the dissolution of the United Nations, whose top administrators pocket food-for-oil money and permit Iraqi citizens to be starved and abused, to mention just one contemporary atrocity.

That said, I do believe that breaking down the communication barrier across the globe represents a paradigm shift that would precipitate the single greatest conservation of resources imaginable. Consider the time, material and opportunity lost to accommodating the world’s plethora of languages, which no single person can even come close to learning. The goodwill benefit would be huge. No one would be forced to espouse such a universally agreed-upon language, but those refusing to get on-board would by default be voluntarily relegating themselves to eventual isolation from much of the outside world. People in the business, scientific, technical and medical worlds would likely be the early adopters since they have the most to gain.

Arriving at a universal language would not be an easy task and might be destined for failure since some ill-appointed, politically-motivated committee would probably be convened to take up the chore. If, however, representatives of the aforementioned likely early adopter groups took on the commission, a reasonable solution might result. Perhaps the project could begin with a study of existing communications and search for a dominating language or group of languages, then poll the user population based on results. I’m no linguist or etymologist, but it seems many of the language groups have large similarities that could be reduced to root forms, producing maybe three or four base languages that could then be combined to generate a singe universal language. Admittedly, finding a way to combine European and Asian languages would not be a simple task, but the ingenuity of some people is amazing. Computer programmers in concert with a world full of Einsteinian thinkers that can write code for dissecting the human genome surely are up to the challenge.

This global language would not eliminate the native tongues of cultures, but would eliminate the burden of deciding which other language or languages to learn when a person’s livelihood is dependent upon exchanging information internationally and across cultural boundaries. Preservation of existing languages is indeed crucial for historical and ethnical purposes. There will always be plenty of people ready, willing and able to learn other languages of the world either as a hobby or for specific vocational work. Those of us who find learning new languages to be akin to a sculptor learning differential equations would appreciate the help.


- Kirt Blattenberger

Registration is not necessary to vote in the poll.

Golic Vulcan - what a riot!

Wasn't that tried already with Esperanto???

This proposed language would make lots of lawyers rich and then fail.

When communicating with those that speak another language, we use a translater. The translator knows, and we know, that we have to be aware that we must be careful to understand the meaning of what has been said and what is the meaning of the translation.

If we had a universal language, people would expect to be understood when they speak it. English is a language taught in many countries and to me is a model for my comment. A f a n n y pack in the US is something to carry spare spark plugs, tire patch, and wrenches in. That sure is not the meaning of the word in Ireland.

Even within the continental U.S. words do not have consistent meanings. Here in Florida, a gopher has 4 legs, a hard shell, and moves very slowly. In the midwest, a gopher has 4 legs, covered with fur and moves very fast. In Southern Illinois they use the word ignorant to say stupid and the word stupid to say ignorant. Stupid and ignorant are very different things.

"That's a bad car." So that's good ?


This inconsistency of definitions will always be a problem with a spoken language. This is why medical fields use Latin. It is not spoken anymore so the words will change meaning within our lifetime.

Here is an informative article on Esperanto.

"Esperanto was developed during the period 1877-1885 by L.L. Zamenhof of Warsaw, Poland (then Russia). Zamenhof, who grew up in a polyglot society, was convinced that a common language would be necessary to resolve many of the problems that lead to strife and conflict..."

http://www.webcom.com/~donh/efaq.html

As recently as 20 years ago, prior to websites and e-mail, the need to communicate across multilingual boundaries was relatively small. Today, such an ability would resould in an explosion of information sharing. Many of the world's darkest secrets would come to light thanks to the type of Blogosphere environment that recently exposed the Dan Rather debacle. Scientific knowledge would advance at a much greater rate if access was expanded to the entire worldwide community.


- Kirt Blattenberger

Hi All,

If you already choose an international language, please let it not be Russian or Russian oriented language, this language sounds so gross way much beyond redemption.

Greetings:

This website appeared in a newsletter I recently received. It appers that there is an attempt underway to revive the Esperanto language.

http://www.esperanto.net/info/index_en.html

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster