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Most languages weren’t in the running. However, Spanish, French, Latin, or English could easily have become the international trade language. German was in the
by Retric 2y ago
Most languages weren’t in the running. However, Spanish, French, Latin, or English could easily have become the international trade language. German was in the running for Scientific publishing etc yet somehow English won in multiple domains.
And it doesn’t just win officially. I’ve seen groups without a common language default to English with people translating back and forth to other languages as needed even when more than one language was known to several members of the group. It’s not absolute, but there does seem to be an inherent advantage to English when translating across multiple languages.
- yongjik 2y agoThe "inherent advantage" of English is basically the same advantage of Facebook and Instagram: people use them because other people use them. When a Korean meets a Greek, chances are that neither knows each other's language but they both know English. So they converse in English.
- Retric 2y agoI’ve seen groups use English even when other languages are more well known in terms of number of people or levels of fluency. Broken English works better than broken French / German. Not sure about Spanish, but something is going on beyond English winning because it was already ahead.