We NEED a Universal World Language

Absolutely ESSENTIAL if Humans are going to ever recognize each other as members of Earth instead of being from Italy or Germany or Italy or Russian or Chinese.

Many people will argue that English could be used but I disagree.
TOO many countries despise Americans for one reason or another.

Besides English is a royally jacked up language that could be MASSIVELY improved upon.

We need to get a meeting of the minds of the worlds best linguists to come together and develop a new alphabet and language.

One that is Easy to learn and easy to speak. Easy to write and easy to translate.

It is either this or wait until we can artificially adjust our minds and memory to be able to have access to multiple world languages inside our minds.

What do yall think? Could this be done?

The creation of the internet and affordability of computers and access to the web have made people from ALL OVER the world be able to come together to discuss interests.

One of the HUGE roadblocks is in the field of communication. I cannot communicate with 90% of the people on the internet because they do not speak English or I do not peak their language.

Would a instantaneous translator be possible to create? One that can instantly translate both written and vocal languages instantly into any other language?

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers

Many people will argue that English could be used but I disagree.
TOO many countries despise Americans for one reason or another.

English is already the universal language.

More people speak English than any other language.
Next would be Spanish then Chinese.
Edit to add Farsi is also spoken a lot. French is somewhere in there.

Even if people speak their native tongue a lot of them either understand or speak English fluently.

By the way people dislike us Americans not the spoken language.



[edit on 4-6-2009 by SLAYER69]

While I would agree that such a thing has it's benefits, individuality is important to people and they will fight to preserve it.
Your communications frustrations are not unique which is why we have translators.
I am against the killing off of all things deemed 'exotic' or 'unique'.
Humans are living in 4 dimensions already and I doubt that will ever change. At the same time, there are people living a stone-aged lifestyle while others are almost cyborgs.
Technochristoric?

reply to post by TurkeyBurgers


You certainly are not the first to express this sentiment. A global language would be of great benefit to unite the people of this planet. It would, undoubtedly, foster understanding and, of course, communication between peoples of varying cultures and ethnic origins and traditions.

A global language does exist -- I am excluding Mandarin, English, Spanish and French -- languages that might be considered common global languages. I am referring to Esperanto.

Esperanto is the first "contrived" language. That is, it's the first language that was deliberately constructed to facilitate global communication. Using elements from a number of languages, Esperanto has enjoyed some brief periods of acceptance and success at different periods since it's inception. At present, it is still in existence and Google even has a search portal in Esperanto.

Indeed, english is already the official language for air traffic control as well as sea transport all over the world.

it would be fascinating if everyone spoke the same language!
not going to happen overnight though

reply to post by SLAYER69

English is already the universal language.

Many people think they speak English. I run into very few people here in Europe that actually can. Which is sad because everyone is forced to take five years of it.



But, if we're looking for a language that's not English to be the language for Earth, I vote for Esperanto. I actually started teaching it to myself yesterday, so this is rather timely.

The good thing about Esperanto is that it is really simple and easy to learn. Many are fluent in it after just 100 hours of study. That compares to 1500 or so for German and 1000 for English. With Esperanto being a man made language, a lot of the irregularities are not present that are in "natural" langauges. For example, there are no irregular verbs, they all congugate the same. So, for example, send in the first person singular in English is "send" and in the third person it is "sends". In Esperanto, it is simply "sendas". It is said that Esperanto flows more with the natural pattern of how people think. [This makes sense if you've tried to learn another langauge!] It's the largest spoken manmade language too. It also sounds like Italian--how cool's that?

adiaŭ!

[edit on 6/4/2009 by octotom]

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers
Many people will argue that English could be used but I disagree.
TOO many countries despise Americans for one reason or another.

English is the language of England.. Not America..More than America speak english as their first language. UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada etc spring to mind straight away..

I know you know that but it sounds like you don't.


51% of the EU can hold conversations in English while only 13% speak it natively... thats another 300 odd million people..

Than means that people can speak english competently in areas that produce at least 40-45% of the worlds GDP at the moment..

I think that qualifies it as THE Global language of business at least..

Also check this for further info..

en.wikipedia.org...

It would be handy to have another language as a universal language but TBH, im too lazy to learn another one.. I already know English, Irish, German, some french.. another one would be a pain in the ass lol

Math is the truly "universal" language, as far as a world wide language, it's like communism, it sounds great until it's put into practice.

Yes, it'd be super great if we could all be humans from Earth, instead of Americans from America, or Mexicans from Mexico, or Iranians from Iran. Do you realize however, that what you're referring to is the same NWO feared by 95% of the ATS member base?

Additionally, the human race is simply too diverse for full integration like this. We might learn to speak a common language, but culture is strong, and different cultures don't blend well with one another. Take a look back throughout history, and you'll find that every major empire falls, eventually. This is well established. The falls always begin with widespread cultural integration, and these clashing cultures inevitably become the ultimate undoing of the empire.

It's a great concept, but as humans, we're just not there yet.

That's funny-- I know a couple from England who, when it was mentioned that Americans speak English said, Uh, no you don't. We speak English, you speak a moshposh of languages."

I do agree that we need a Universal language. I would gladly learn it. I also agree that it doesn't have to be English. I'm pretty open to whatever the vote is so long as unity is the goal.

reply to post by Unit541

culture is strong, and different cultures don't blend well with one another.

When Zinnendorf [I think that's his name] came up with Esperanto, he had this in mind. He created Esperanto with the notion that every culture would keep it's culture and language and Esperanto would only be used to communicate with one who didn't know the local language.

In other words, the purpose of Esperanto isn't meant to suplant other langauges, just to kinda "be in reserve" if you will. Not a bad idea I think either.

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers
Many people will argue that English could be used but I disagree.
TOO many countries despise Americans for one reason or another.

Well as the language is called English..... shouldn't really be an issue should it?

funny, the georgia guidestones also state we need a NEW language. hmmmm.

reply to post by Alora

That's funny-- I know a couple from England who, when it was mentioned that Americans speak English said, Uh, no you don't. We speak English, you speak a moshposh of languages.

Ha.

Here in Germany, I'm taking German classes since I don't know the language that well. My teacher at the beginning would ask me, "this is how [insert phrase here] is said in English, right?" Then I would say often, "No, not in American English." It got to the point, that he stopped calling my language "Englisch" and started to refer to is as "Americanisch".

"The limits of my language means the limits of my world."
-Ludwig Wittgenstein


The problem with that is that ideas and creativity are somewhat constrained by the limits of the language you use.

Too many languages - no way of sharing.

Too few - limitation on how to think.

What about a Universal Translator that can translate both written language and verbal language from one language into another VERY fast with near 100% accuracy.

How close is humanity to achieving this goal?

How cool would it be to have one hooked up to your computer that could translate Japanese into Arabic? And vise versa?

That way you could keep your own individuality as a race or nation or religion and still have prefect communication with others?

I feel more isolated using the internet and visiting SO MANY websites that I cannot even begin to understand.

Information is about the coolest thing that I can think of and I WANT MOAR of it!

I have messed around with some of the translation programs on the internet and when I speak with people who are fluent in both English and the language that I attempted to translate from or into they say it is VERY wrong the majority of the time.

How about we all adopt Ebonics? It's quite colorful, always interesting, and it's constantly changing and creative. And, unlike Montel Williams, I pretty much understand it and enjoy the challenge of the changes. I chose to call out Montel because he has a history of claiming he doesn't understand what people mean when they speak of black music, black language, black culture, etc., in the U.S.

Seriously, though, English is often recognized as the universal language. But that can change. Why not Swahili? It's a pretty language. Really, though, basic Chinese could be the language of the future. Even in my little town, jobs for Japanese interpreters, spell check anyone? I am lazy today, are being replaced by Chinese interpreters. Same spelling, lol. Heck, the Japanese people that come here to operate and manage the various companies often speak English better than the locals, who have been raised in the public schools here.

On another hand, I sure do enjoy the sounds of a southern gal, no, not a country gal, that is just ugly and hick-like sounds. But true southern accents are quite beautiful, too.

Reminds me of when I worked at a company in Lexington, KY. and the receptionist was fired by the Yankee owners, because they were embarassed by the little gal's accent. Dumb butts didn't realize that her voice and accent was well-liked by the local contractors who did business with the company. I'm sure there is no connection, but the company did go out of business soon after the firing of the gal. But, I begin to wander in my post.

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers
What about a Universal Translator that can translate both written language and verbal language from one language into another VERY fast with near 100% accuracy.

How close is humanity to achieving this goal?

How cool would it be to have one hooked up to your computer that could translate Japanese into Arabic? And vise versa?

That way you could keep your own individuality as a race or nation or religion and still have prefect communication with others?

I feel more isolated using the internet and visiting SO MANY websites that I cannot even begin to understand.

Information is about the coolest thing that I can think of and I WANT MOAR of it!

I have messed around with some of the translation programs on the internet and when I speak with people who are fluent in both English and the language that I attempted to translate from or into they say it is VERY wrong the majority of the time.

I think it is pretty close. A company I own stock in, Nuance Communications, has voice recognition products (Dragon Naturally Speaking) in something like 20 languages. They are approaching 99%+ accuracy. They do not say they are working on this but they do have several "secret" projects, and I for one think that a Universal translator is one of them. If not I would find it severly dissapointing as they are the only company with the technology to do so at this point.

English is already here. There's no more reason to add another odd language that hardly anyone knows in the mix.

I agree that Nationalism is so 19th century! We need to get with the times and scrap Nationalism altogether (and do so in a way that doesn't ruffle the feathers of the paranoid thinking it's a NWO/Illuminati/Master-Plan).

One of the first steps to doing such, other than trying things the EU style which is so progressive in a very boring way, would be to establish a universal language.

I find it amusing that Americans and Brits always seem to think that English already is the Universal language. Such ignorance is the reason we are scoffed at when we go abroad. Spanish is actually the most WIDELY spoken language and Mandarin is the one most COMMONLY spoken language in the world currently. (Languages by Number of Speakers and Languages by Ethnologue). And let's be perfectly honest here...the only reason so many people worldwide speak English as a Third language is because the old joke about Americans and Brits is all too true...

"What do you call a person who speaks two languages?"
"Bilingual"
"What do you call a person who speaks three languages?"
"Trilingual"
"What do you call a person who speaks many languages?"
"Polylingual"
"What do you call a person who speaks only one language?"
An Englishman (or American depending on who is telling the joke)"

Bless the rest of the world for catering to our own educational inadequacies for the last century or two by learning how to speak our language when we were unwilling of learning to speak theirs!

I too, vote for Esperanto, although it may be equally as difficult for those accustomed to Pan-Asiatic languages to master, just as it is for those accustomed to 20-24 letters in the alphabet to comprehend a base 800 character language.

Maybe we should start from scratch.

[edit on 4-6-2009 by fraterormus]