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On the other hand, imagine a world with only one written and spoken language. Where everyone can easily communicate with everyone else, regardless of the accide

On the other hand, imagine a world with only one written and spoken language. Where everyone can easily communicate with everyone else, regardless of the accident of their nationality. I for one hope that's where this trend is leading, as I think it'd be a worthwhile trade off against the loss of cultural knowledge that results from language death.

Aloha 9y ago
I'd like to live in a world where even nationality eventually fades to the background - but I don't think that will happen until we make contact with another species from off of this planet.
- duncan_bayne 9y ago
  I think that will happen, eventually. National groups would have seemed inconceivable to our tribal ancestors in pre-history. I _hope_ that eventually our descendants will be horrified by the idea of nationalism.
imron 9y ago
> I think it'd be a worthwhile trade off against the loss of cultural knowledge that results from language death. I don't. Out of curiosity, how many languages do you speak?
- BillChapman 9y ago
  Yesterday (21 October 2017) I chaired a gathering of Esperanto speakers in Conwy, north Wales, UK. Present were speakers of Welsh, Tagalog, Slovene, Estonian, Brazilian Portuguese and maybe a few others besides English. We had Esperantyo as our common language. I have spoken Esperanto for precisely fifty years, and throught that time I have seen Esperanto as an aŭiliary language (sorry, my keyboard has just gone into Esperanto mode!), i.e. a language which values our native tongues while enabling trouble-free communication. I speak Welsh, French and German, by the way, and have an ability to bluff my way in a few more languages. Life is too short to learn them all. Keep on fighting for your smaller languages. There is plenty of room in the world for them - and for Esperanto.
- duncan_bayne 9y ago
  Two, one poorly - English, and Maori (the native language of New Zealand). I spent many years of my childhood in kura kaupapa Maori[1] classes (within regular NZ schools). I was at best conversational in spoken Maori, better at written, but it's been many years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_Kaupapa_M%C4%81ori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_Kaupapa_M%C4%81ori

Aloha 9y ago

I'd like to live in a world where even nationality eventually fades to the background - but I don't think that will happen until we make contact with another species from off of this planet.

duncan_bayne 9y ago
I think that will happen, eventually. National groups would have seemed inconceivable to our tribal ancestors in pre-history. I _hope_ that eventually our descendants will be horrified by the idea of nationalism.

imron 9y ago

> I think it'd be a worthwhile trade off against the loss of cultural knowledge that results from language death. I don't. Out of curiosity, how many languages do you speak?

BillChapman 9y ago
Yesterday (21 October 2017) I chaired a gathering of Esperanto speakers in Conwy, north Wales, UK. Present were speakers of Welsh, Tagalog, Slovene, Estonian, Brazilian Portuguese and maybe a few others besides English. We had Esperantyo as our common language. I have spoken Esperanto for precisely fifty years, and throught that time I have seen Esperanto as an aŭiliary language (sorry, my keyboard has just gone into Esperanto mode!), i.e. a language which values our native tongues while enabling trouble-free communication. I speak Welsh, French and German, by the way, and have an ability to bluff my way in a few more languages. Life is too short to learn them all. Keep on fighting for your smaller languages. There is plenty of room in the world for them - and for Esperanto.
duncan_bayne 9y ago
Two, one poorly - English, and Maori (the native language of New Zealand). I spent many years of my childhood in kura kaupapa Maori[1] classes (within regular NZ schools). I was at best conversational in spoken Maori, better at written, but it's been many years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_Kaupapa_M%C4%81ori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_Kaupapa_M%C4%81ori