Should there just be one language in the world?

[Razgovory]

It is difficult for, say, English native speakers to learn. 

But easy for, say, Hindi speakers to learn?

Hindi is distantly related to English.  Chinese is utterly alien to both.

[Malthus]

The main problem with learing (spoken) Chinese is that it is a tonal language - meaning that the meaning of words depends on the tone used to speak them.

Since English is not a tonal language, this is very difficult for English speakers to learn. The difference between "ma" (rising tone), "ma" (descending tone) and "ma" (desending then rising tone) are difficult for English speakers (and I assume other non-tonal language speakers) to grasp.

[Valmy]

Mass communications mean that it is not locale that determines dialect, but socio-economic class, ethnicity, interests, etc. etc.

Try listening to some ghetto kids.

Yeah I worked with them for years.  I never had any problems speaking with them.

For one I knew the sort of music they listened to and their slang are part of our mass culture.  Heck their style of dress and speech are imitated around the world.

[Razgovory]

What you guys are missing is that while there is a natural tendancy for language to spread and become common, there is an equal and opposite tendancy for groups to develop their own versions of it, less and less comprehesible to outsiders.

The elites have always had some sort of commonly understood language - whether it be the Latin of the Church, or the French of diplomacy. The commoners have always made do with some sort of lingua franca, or some type of pidgin, made up of a mixture of the dominant language of the day with all sorts of other expressions from a variety of local languages. Meanwhile, the dominant language gets divided by slang, by local variants, etc.

You will never, bar force, get everyone speaking one common language, for the simple reason that language is always changing. Even if everyone in the world spoke perfect English tomorrow, the day after the language would start to develop local variants ...

My prediction: English will indeed become both the dominant (though not sole) language of the international elite, and in a form highly infected with neologisms as seen on the Internet, the lingua franca of the mass for purposes of international communication; meanwhile, languages will go on merrily developing as they always have, with local variants - see the Indian version of English. 

Moreover, there are benefits to being multi-lingual, and none to being unilingual. So this state of affairs is both natural and desireable.

I think distance and time were the major factor in language shifts.  Two villages speaking the same language separated by a three hundred miles would slowly develop their own dialects do to the isolation.  This isolation doesn't exist as much today.  You don't see people in the same city develop different languages over time.  They might use different jargon or will perhaps use deliberate obscuration (such a Cockney or Fenya), but those are the exception rather then the rule.

[Malthus]

Mass communications mean that it is not locale that determines dialect, but socio-economic class, ethnicity, interests, etc. etc.

Try listening to some ghetto kids.

Yeah I worked with them for years.  I never had any problems speaking with them.

For one I knew the sort of music they listened to and their slang are part of our mass culture.  Heck their style of dress and speech are imitated around the world.

That's my point - language development, in an era of mass culture, will not be bounded by distance but will nevertheless occur - as different socio-economic, racial, ethnic, etc. groups develop language that while being "English" is not necessarily mutually understandable.

Certainly *you* could understand these ghetto kids - but *my dad*, who speaks "perfect English" (he's an extremely articulate university professor), could not.

[Valmy]

Certainly *you* could understand these ghetto kids - but *my dad*, who speaks "perfect English" (he's an extremely articulate university professor), could not.

That is because his old fashioned brand of English is dying out to be supplanted by the new universal ghetto english.

[Malthus]

Certainly *you* could understand these ghetto kids - but *my dad*, who speaks "perfect English" (he's an extremely articulate university professor), could not.

That is because his old fashioned brand of English is dying out to be supplanted by the new universal ghetto english.

Not so. What you will get, is two different strands parting ways, combined with a freezing of social mobility - the elois and the morlocks, if you will. 

[viper37]

Wouldn't that mean it is better everybody know their local language plus a universal lingua franca?

Often during times, one language was a language of commerce, another a language used for everything else.
It doesn't have to be one lingua franca.  I find the world, language-wise, ok as it is.
I'm French, I can read you, I can see your tv, read your papers.  Some don't, it's their loss.
HVC has Portuguese origins he can read this forum.
I can't understand Portuguese, he can't understand French.  Yet, we found a way.  Neither of us is uniligual.
Neil speaks French & Latin, and probably some east european language as well.

Nobody needs to speak only language.

Yeah I fail to see how looking the same has anything to do with people being able to communicate with each other.  How is looking the same useful?

Do we really communicate better because we have one language?  I look at your country and it seems to me you all speak the same language.  Yet, I keep hearing about political troubles in Congress, what with near-defaulft on the debt and such.  I keep seeing troubles between Republicans and Democrats.  Yet, they all speak the same language.

The Russians imposed one language throughout their empire.  The Soviets decided it was a good idea to make everyone the same, to solve their differences.  One country, one people.  How did that go for them?

[Valmy]

The Russians imposed one language throughout their empire.  The Soviets decided it was a good idea to make everyone the same, to solve their differences.  One country, one people.  How did that go for them?

Not too good.  But nobody is wanting to create one people through legislation and force.  I think there will be one common way of communication just because we all are going to be communicating alot and therefore such a thing is needed.  Where there is a need humans fill that need.

I mean I am just saying what I think will be so in the future.  I do not mean to say it wil be a wholley positive good or that any steps need to be taken to get there.  Just that it will happen.  Heck people are moving to protect local languages...what are they protecting them from?

[Eddie Teach]

Not so. What you will get, is two different strands parting ways, combined with a freezing of social mobility - the elois and the morlocks, if you will. 

You are way too hairy to be an eloi.

[Malthus]

Not so. What you will get, is two different strands parting ways, combined with a freezing of social mobility - the elois and the morlocks, if you will. 

You are way too hairy to be an eloi.

Hell, who would want to be? Hunted by morlocks isn't any sort of life. 

[jimmy olsen]

The Russians imposed one language throughout their empire.  The Soviets decided it was a good idea to make everyone the same, to solve their differences.  One country, one people.  How did that go for them?

If they were still around the technological advances in media in the last 20 years would be accelerating their linguistic/cultural imperialism.

[HVC]

Bilingualism is good sometimes. for example i have a job interview on Monday that I'm woefully under qualified for, but since I'm fluent in Portuguese they're giving me a shot hah

[Valmy]

Bilingualism is good sometimes. for example i have a job interview on Monday that I’m woefully under qualified for, but since I’m fluent in Portuguese they're giving me a shot hah

Bilingualism is great.  Having any sort of skill is great.  It is just a hard skill to get it takes, like, work and stuff.

[Barrister]

Bilingualism is good sometimes. for example i have a job interview on Monday that I'm woefully under qualified for, but since I'm fluent in Portuguese they're giving me a shot hah

Wait until they hear your pidgin Azorean Portuguese though.