Suppose a one world language was made, would it be best to use Latin or German for such a language?

I understand that English is a mash of Latin/French and German, but, considering the fact that Romance Languages (Spanish, French, Italian) are most popular, excluding English and Mandarin Chinese, should German languages be used for the root words of this language or Latin/French?


I guess this is a Philosophy about one world language...

reply to post by arpgme


Esperanto has word roots common to all the major European languages. Never caught on, though.

Maybe I am biased, but I have to think that English is the correct choice for the one world language. I think that English is the most versatile of all languages (keep in mind, I read-write-speak only one language), as it is a bastardized orphan of so many other languages; it keeps the options so easily open to create more and more words and concepts all the time as needed. This will keep the language and it's use stimulated and growing for eons to come.

I have heard that English is one of the hardest languages to even learn, let alone master, so I can understand the viewpoint that English should not be the one, however, maybe it is hard to learn because of it's potential for diversity in it's use, and because of the nature of it's background having origination's in so many other languages? So when people who are learning English, in a sense, they are learning the fine nuances of many languages, not just one?

Force English apon them.

The most beautiful and rich language in the world.

sohere is a list of spoken languages in the world, the list is ordered in rank by number of speakers.

Top 10 most-spoken primary languages
1. Mandarin Chinese (845 million)
2. Spanish (329 million)
3. English (328 million)
4. Arabic (221 million)
5. Hindi/Urdu (182 million)
6. Bengali (181 million)
7. Portuguese (178 million)
8. Russian (144 million)
9. Japanese (122 Million)
10. German (90.3 million)

Source

so using that list i would say the fairest language to make the "official world language should be Mandarin Chinese since it would require the least amount of education to get the rest of the world on the same page.

the list was archived in 2009

Why not just crate a device capable of translating language onto your native tongue,and be done with it?

That way everybody keeps their languages,and everyone's happy.

reply to post by CaDreamer


If you speak to intellectual Chinese people, they will tell you that English is by far the best language. Mandarin simply cannot even translate a lot of English word for word.

Originally posted by DAZ21
Force English apon them.

The most beautiful and rich language in the world.

ROFL! I must believe that dripped with sarcasm

Sadly, 150 years ago that may have been true. In my Geology department's library there's a 100+ year old unabridged dictionary. It's about a foot thick! Today's version is prolly 4, maybe 5 cm thick. English has been whittled down to a shell of it's richness and detail.

My vote goes to Chinese. I think that's the eventual direction of things, as they grow into a dominant 1rst world economic force. Pressure will build to cater to their economic power, and English will command less respect as the US economic power wanes.

Seems like English would be the logical choice, at least for the western world. But I think it would be pretty cool if it was Japanese

reply to post by arpgme


English is taught and spoken globally in the majority of countries.....so I say....English just may be the one world language already.

reply to post by blamethegreys


It's a shame. 1984 comes to mind.

There is already one world language, and it is English. For an analysis of the statistics, go here:

www2.ignatius.edu...

Chinese is rarely spoken outside of China, but English is spoken everywhere. This is something of an historical accident; Spanish or French might have won out, but the Brits were better sailors, businessmen and, well, soldiers. Thanks to the American roots of the Internet, English is now the global language. Check back in fifty years time and it will have evolved into something virtually unrecognizable.

reply to post by CaDreamer


Those are the primary languages spoken, though. Many people speak several languages, especially in Europe. I had a friend from Amsterdam who could speak four languages fluently.

I think English; as someone above me stated, it's taught globally already.

my preference would be a mix of Chinese and English like in the TV series Serenity.

reply to post by arpgme


there is a common human language already in existence
it's the same language spoken before the Babel Infocalypse

it comes hardwired in the brain at birth, but pretty much everybody has it conditioned out of them as children
it's only spoken in dreams or ecstatic states now
it's Babytalk, ever noticed how babies are able to communicate? or how sometimes babies will seem to make perfectly intelligible statements before being able to speak their mother tongue?


shamans relearn it during initiation.
properly mastered it allows you to talk to animals and can function in a universal translator mode
however a lie spoken will be translated as the truth that the speaker wishes to hide.
in magic it's the original tongue of fire, in which the word IS the thing.

it's now called glossolalia, with a lot of disinfo attached, so do your homework.

AK KAK LAMU SALENU KON!

It's a shame that no one at all answered my question...

Let me ask again:

SUPPOSE a one world language was made, would it be best to use Latin or German to create it?

Originally posted by arpgme
It's a shame that no one at all answered my question...

Let me ask again:

SUPPOSE a one world language was made, would it be best to use Latin or German to create it?

Heh, you just got a little taste of english bias, OP....

To answer your actual question, I would think Latin would be the common sense choice. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Latin is the base root of most languages, more so than German is.

I think English would be the best choice. I'm german myself, and i can tell you from experience
that most foreigners have problems with the right grammar&spelling, nearly 95%
If its your first language, then you know immediately by touch if some spelling/grammar is right or wrong.
BUT!!!..., even germans often don't get it right

reply to post by arpgme

SUPPOSE a one world language was made, would it be best to use Latin or German to create it?

Neither. Since English is what happened when Germans tried to speak French, and French is what happened when Gauls tried to speak Latin.... perhaps the answer is "both." Never mind.

Originally posted by CaDreamer
sohere is a list of spoken languages in the world, the list is ordered in rank by number of speakers.

Top 10 most-spoken primary languages
1. Mandarin Chinese (845 million)
2. Spanish (329 million)
3. English (328 million)
4. Arabic (221 million)
5. Hindi/Urdu (182 million)
6. Bengali (181 million)
7. Portuguese (178 million)
8. Russian (144 million)
9. Japanese (122 Million)
10. German (90.3 million)

Source

so using that list i would say the fairest language to make the "official world language should be Mandarin Chinese since it would require the least amount of education to get the rest of the world on the same page.

the list was archived in 2009

edit on 4-12-2011 by CaDreamer because: (no reason given)

I believe that list is for Native speakers of a language, not how many people actually speak these languages.. It doesn't take into account people speaking a second language which the percentage would be English.. If that list was revised taking second languages into account, I'm sure English would be top of the list by a mile..

It is already the global language in business and would be an ideal candidate for a world language.. It's versatile and despite a comment above, very easy to learn due to the variety of way a sentence can be constructed.. I speak 3 languages being fluent in (obviously) English and also French.. French is a far more difficult and complex language, even native speakers that has spoken it all their lives frequently make mistakes.. And I have often heard arguments and debates between French people over the correct way to say a certain thing..