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

reply to post by Warpthal


But I'm not asking whether or not something is the best universal language, I'm asking this:

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

reply to post by arpgme

Oh, right. You want a specific answer.

Latin, obviously. We fought two world wars to avoid having to learn German. Have you forgotten?

I say German. It's great for utter emotional speeches with hair getting stuck in flickering eyes, fists hammering tables, spit flying around and people going wild.

But that's not all Jim. When German would become the global language, we can watch all the classic movies in a totally different atmosphere.


And last but not least we get to enjoy all the fantastic schlager hits we missed untill now. Juuust type "schlager" into yt and imagine that on the "Weltweit Fuchs Unterhaltung Kanal".

Vote german!

Do you checked already Farsi?

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by arpgme

 

Oh, right. You want a specific answer.

Latin, obviously. We fought two world wars to avoid having to learn German. Have you forgotten?

But our language comes from German not Latin. Anyway I think English above Latin I don't want to walk around sounding like I'm naming plants or something

reply to post by steveknows

But our language comes from German not Latin.

Not really. The Teutonic roots of English are also the roots of modern German. English is not descended from German any more than humans are descended from chimps; in both cases, the related modern forms are drawn from extinct common ancestors.

I believe English borrows more from Latin than from any other language. Latin entered the English language twice: first with the Roman conquest, when it mingled with the Celtic tongues of the early Britons, then with the Norman conquest, when it mixed with Anglo-Saxon, which had already absorbed much from its Celtic precursors.

Besides, I think the OP is trying to impose an either/or. Latin or German is the choice. He doesn’t want any other suggestions.

Anyway I think English above Latin I don't want to walk around sounding like I'm naming plants or something.

De gustibus non est disputandum.

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by steveknows

 

But our language comes from German not Latin.

Not really. The Teutonic roots of English are also the roots of modern German. English is not descended from German any more than humans are descended from chimps; in both cases, the related modern forms are drawn from extinct common ancestors.

I believe English borrows more from Latin than from any other language. Latin entered the English language twice: first with the Roman conquest, when it mingled with the Celtic tongues of the early Britons, then with the Norman conquest, when it mixed with Anglo-Saxon, which had already absorbed much from its Celtic precursors.

Besides, I think the OP is trying to impose an either/or. Latin or German is the choice. He doesn’t want any other suggestions.

Anyway I think English above Latin I don't want to walk around sounding like I'm naming plants or something.

De gustibus non est disputandum.

edit on 6/12/11 by Astyanax because: of illiteracy.

The original language for Europeans was Indoeuropean, From that springs Latin,Germanic and Slavic.

From The Latin brach you get Italian, Spanish etc. From the Germanic branch you get German, scandinavian, Danish, English etc. From the Slavic Branch you get Russian, Polish, etc. yes there is a cross of all different languages today but it hasn't always been that way. There are many different languages in the English language but the root language of English is Germanic so yes I meant Germanic but it comes form the people who lived in the area which is Germany. As they started to spread out and discover the same thing at different points and times they gave it different names but the Germanic language of those first people after Indoeuropean can be said to be the first German and it's from those people that all Germanic languages originate.

And yes there is no dispute in the manner of taste.


www.englishclub.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by steveknows

Can’t stand Latin tags myself. As a German lady of my acquaintance once said, 'you English speakers always mispronounce Latin.’ This was a bit rich, considering that no-one really knows how to pronounce it, but I think she’s right anyway, and besides, Latin in the mouths of Anglophone schoolmasters sounds only slightly less barbaric than Latin in the mouths of Anglophone schoolboys.

Yes, most Eurasian languages spring from a common root. The one closest to that root is probably Sanskrit. One of the languages I speak is a fairly near descendant of Sanskrit and another early Indo-European language, Pali.

The Germanic tribes who conquered Britain spoke a language (or rather, languages) historically anterior to Old Saxon – the tongue that, in turn, bred many spoken German dialects and eventually so-called ‘High German’, which was a literary language rather than a spoken one for many centuries. Old Saxon speakers could understand Old English speakers, and vice versa.

German has had, I think, a more troubled developmental history than English. The great thing about the English is they never broke each others’ heads over language issues.

reply to post by arpgme

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

I'm not sure either one is a good choice. You might be better to choose the Lithuanian language for it is the oldest language still in use in Europe today and is derived from ancient Sanskrit. Latin died when the empire died and Germany self-destructed. Why would we speak the dead and dying languages of dead and dying empires?

Some people were making the case for American English however the English-speaking vocabulary of the global business class is extremely limited making it similar to VOA's "Special English" which is America's global propaganda language... and that is exactly what Big Brother would like you to have... a mini-language that can never evolve but only devolve. Double Plus Good!

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


Why would they want to devolve the language? Wouldn't that make things better? By devolving it, it would be simpler and more people would be literate.

Also, if we need complex words, we can just make compound words..

In German, "Hydrogen" is wasserstoff (water-stuff).

reply to post by IronDogg



Nei, it is not the hardest to learn, nor the easiest one, why but because there are languages like japanese that are way more harder to learn, if you only speak english right? and by the way, my japanese friends had it way easier to learn spanish than english, so maybe that means that spanish should be the universal language, based on that single fact? who knows! :-p