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I'm a native English speaker. I don't really know any other language, though I've studied a bit of the romance languages. I don't think English is a good "stan

by jwdunne 10y ago

I'm a native English speaker. I don't really know any other language, though I've studied a bit of the romance languages. I don't think English is a good "standard" language. Despite widespread usage, there are a lot of problems I see with it when compared to other languages. For example, the word read. Which read did I mean? If I spoke it, and meant the other read, was I talking about the colour red? I know, context and all that, but the inconsistent, broad rules often based on context alone isn't that great. I imagine computers would have a bit easier a time with a language with a more consistent structure. I think a good parallel lies in programming languages. PHP is widespread on the web. Should we make it the standard? If I called for that, I'd be served a link to how PHP is a fractal of bad design or similar with a resounding no and perhaps a bit of shame to finish things off nicely. That and in England the whole "St George's day hurkadurr" crap is pretty tedious. I don't want to see memes like "English is the world standard language. Why do we need a polish shop in ENGLAND?!"

jedberg 10y ago
This is a constructed language designed to solve most of those problems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto People have been pushing for years to make it the standard worldwide language. Incidentally, you can use reddit in Esperanto: https://eo.reddit.com https://eo.reddit.com
- jwdunne 10y ago
  Esperanto came to mind when reading through the comments here. I first heard about it around 10 years ago but not thought about it since. Certainly renewed my interest!
  - geomark 10y ago
    I actually took an Esperanto class when I was a kid. I'm old now, so that was a long time ago, and it never went anywhere in all the intervening years. I have now learned a tonal Asian language and I don't see how Esperanto would ever be adopted by people who speak such languages.
- e12e 10y ago
  The biggest issue with Esperanto, is that it's (from the wp page):"The phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and semantics are based on the Indo-European languages spoken in Europe." While that puts it in the same boat as English - it strikes me as slanted heavily towards the "European dialects", rather than say, Farsi. I actually think Japanese might make as good a "universal" language: it's an old language - and has few sounds. I think (but am not certain), that one would be hard pressed to find anyone that wouldn't be able to distinguish all the phonemes of Japanese (while many have issues distinguishing between "tap" and "flap" ("r" and "l" - right vs light)). A big caveat is that I'm completely unfamiliar with African languages in general, as well as "old" American ones (both things like Navaho and Tupic or Macro Je). For use as a "universal" language, one would probably want to limit the vocabulary and reform the writing system in some way though. Perhaps choosing a subset of the existing Kanji and updating them to be more classic iconographic again.

by jwdunne 10y ago

jedberg 10y ago

This is a constructed language designed to solve most of those problems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto People have been pushing for years to make it the standard worldwide language. Incidentally, you can use reddit in Esperanto: https://eo.reddit.com https://eo.reddit.com

jwdunne 10y ago
Esperanto came to mind when reading through the comments here. I first heard about it around 10 years ago but not thought about it since. Certainly renewed my interest!
- geomark 10y ago
  I actually took an Esperanto class when I was a kid. I'm old now, so that was a long time ago, and it never went anywhere in all the intervening years. I have now learned a tonal Asian language and I don't see how Esperanto would ever be adopted by people who speak such languages.
e12e 10y ago
The biggest issue with Esperanto, is that it's (from the wp page):"The phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and semantics are based on the Indo-European languages spoken in Europe." While that puts it in the same boat as English - it strikes me as slanted heavily towards the "European dialects", rather than say, Farsi. I actually think Japanese might make as good a "universal" language: it's an old language - and has few sounds. I think (but am not certain), that one would be hard pressed to find anyone that wouldn't be able to distinguish all the phonemes of Japanese (while many have issues distinguishing between "tap" and "flap" ("r" and "l" - right vs light)). A big caveat is that I'm completely unfamiliar with African languages in general, as well as "old" American ones (both things like Navaho and Tupic or Macro Je). For use as a "universal" language, one would probably want to limit the vocabulary and reform the writing system in some way though. Perhaps choosing a subset of the existing Kanji and updating them to be more classic iconographic again.