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It'd be great if a universal sign language became the world's lingua franca. No more accent issues, much less loss of meaning in non-native exchanges. I'm sure
by luxpir 10y ago
It'd be great if a universal sign language became the world's lingua franca. No more accent issues, much less loss of meaning in non-native exchanges. I'm sure some technology will replace language-learning before that has the chance to happen.
- savanaly 10y agoI believe accent issues are just as much a problem if not more in the communities around the world that use sign language. After all, signed languages can be as different from each other as spoken languages are from each other. I know you had in mind a hypothetical universal sign language and probably weren't mistaking "sign language" as being the same everywhere, but I'm just saying I don't think we would escape the issue of accents so easily.
- gkya 10y agoAny language is bound to develop accents over time. Even the way we speak in our household has some eccentricities that the standard language of our country lacks.
- orph4nus 10y agoI used to think the same as you, but you should know that your just changing the medium, using your hands instead of your mouth. The language still evolves with its culture and its users on a local level. They tried to make a universal sign language which is based on American Sign Language, but after traveling in different continents I can tell you that people using sign language, use the local version, and I don't think I met anyone who knows the universal one. Personally I think using English as a linga franca is good enough, as most people already know it, and so there is no reason to do difficult about it. It's not the first time people try to invent a new universal language, and see it never reach that goal.