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Y Gymraeg is a lovely language. Music to my ears. There have been several pushes for common languages. Latin once dominated at least the sciences and clergy. F

Y Gymraeg is a lovely language. Music to my ears. There have been several pushes for common languages. Latin once dominated at least the sciences and clergy. French was the literal lingua franca for a good while in various contexts. English has kind of taken over that role at the moment. But those languages are all a bit shitty when it comes to ease-of-learning. French with its complex grammar. English with its spelling oddities and its absolutely mind-bogglingly vast vocabulary. Latin, well, who even speaks Latin anymore. Artificial languages like Esperanto are allegedly easier to learn, but they've never taken off. I've long held the belief that the EU should make English a mandatory second language across all its member states. It's easily the most spoken second language in the EU already, but there are huge differences in proficiencies across countries/regions.

klodolph 7y ago
“Literal lingua franca” might be a bit confusing, because Mediterranean Lingua Franca was a pidgin based on northern Italian dialects.
seszett 7y ago
English is already a mandatory second language in pretty much all countries of the EU. Where it isn't mandatory, it is still the de facto second language in education.
azangru 7y ago
> But those languages are all a bit shitty when it comes to ease-of-learning. French with its complex grammar. English with its spelling oddities and its absolutely mind-bogglingly vast vocabulary. Well, every natural language that developed organically and was not artificially created will, by necessity, have its quirks. But if it is learned early enough in life and actually used on a daily basis, people will overcome these quirks. Latin’s use as an international language of religion, scholarship and science occurred during the time when it was already all but dead. Only a tiny minority of the population knew it; and there was neither a universal system of education to teach it, nor mass media to provide continuous examples of its usage. When French and German were tried as international languages, the situation was somewhat better in the sense that they both were living languages; but still there was no infrastructure in place to teach it to large segments of the population. Now, I feel, the situation is very different. A huge proportion of population receives primary and secondary education, which offers a great opportunity to teach a common second language. A massive amount of films, books, or radio programs offer examples of oral and written English usage; and the Internet is connecting people at a previously unimaginable scale. Now, I feel, we have a fighting chance of finally getting a common language. Of course, I understand that a language becomes international not only due to its linguistic merits, but in a large respect due to the political and economic power of the countries where it is spoken. And since China is on the rise and the West is somewhat in decline, I fear that English may lose its momentum, and we may lose our chance to have it as a truly universal language.
- pessimizer 7y ago
  That English is extremely difficult to write is a serious issue, though. A very large portion of English speakers are functionally illiterate.

klodolph 7y ago

“Literal lingua franca” might be a bit confusing, because Mediterranean Lingua Franca was a pidgin based on northern Italian dialects.

seszett 7y ago

English is already a mandatory second language in pretty much all countries of the EU. Where it isn't mandatory, it is still the de facto second language in education.

azangru 7y ago

> But those languages are all a bit shitty when it comes to ease-of-learning. French with its complex grammar. English with its spelling oddities and its absolutely mind-bogglingly vast vocabulary. Well, every natural language that developed organically and was not artificially created will, by necessity, have its quirks. But if it is learned early enough in life and actually used on a daily basis, people will overcome these quirks. Latin’s use as an international language of religion, scholarship and science occurred during the time when it was already all but dead. Only a tiny minority of the population knew it; and there was neither a universal system of education to teach it, nor mass media to provide continuous examples of its usage. When French and German were tried as international languages, the situation was somewhat better in the sense that they both were living languages; but still there was no infrastructure in place to teach it to large segments of the population. Now, I feel, the situation is very different. A huge proportion of population receives primary and secondary education, which offers a great opportunity to teach a common second language. A massive amount of films, books, or radio programs offer examples of oral and written English usage; and the Internet is connecting people at a previously unimaginable scale. Now, I feel, we have a fighting chance of finally getting a common language. Of course, I understand that a language becomes international not only due to its linguistic merits, but in a large respect due to the political and economic power of the countries where it is spoken. And since China is on the rise and the West is somewhat in decline, I fear that English may lose its momentum, and we may lose our chance to have it as a truly universal language.

pessimizer 7y ago
That English is extremely difficult to write is a serious issue, though. A very large portion of English speakers are functionally illiterate.