United States of America ? That would be the USA ? Right ? I'm from the east part of Canada called "Quebec" and I speak french as my native language, thank you very much!

And we're all a little better for it.

The world with one language would be like a banquet with one flavor. Boring!

I've noticed english is not the native language for many people on this web site. I wonder if the fear of assimilation is present for those. Here it is a big thing and that's why many are reluctant at speaking anything else than french.

Is there as much of a concern for Quebecois french being supplanted by a more "proper" version, like a Parisien french?

ElBrunzy wrote:

I've noticed english is not the native language for many people on this web site. I wonder if the fear of assimilation is present for those. Here it is a big thing and that's why many are reluctant at speaking anything else than french.

But that's just French people in general. Try to buy some wine in a small village in Normandy and they'll look down their nose and only answer in French even though they can speak English as it's one of the biggest visiting place for tourists from US/UK. 🙄

robertmo wrote:

English is one of the most fucked up languages. what you write has absolutely nothing to do with what you say. Even ancient egiptian is easier as the drawings at least resemble what you talk about.

The problem with English spelling reform is that there are so many different regional accents and nobody can agree on which should be paramount. "Received Pronunciation" had semi-official status in Britain for a time but is now considered archaic. It was never accepted in America. Similarly, Webster's (very minor) 19th C. spelling reforms were never accepted in Britain.

The English language has an ancient and convoluted ancestry that accounts for both it's richness as well as it's penchant for peculiar spelling!

But it's so fun to speak. Then again I speak texan

Why would anyone want to be limited by a single language?

I know several languages and it's definitely an advantage, even if I don't actively use all of them! 😁

oerk wrote:

Bummer. […]
Show full quote

Errius wrote:

It won't involve a fish in the ear though.

Bummer.

sf78 wrote:

I remember travelling around Germany in 2009 and I was appalled how badly (even young) people understood day to day English. Obviously you shouldn't be expected to speak English everywhere, but it just puzzles me how people don't learn it "by mistake" with all this information and available resources at their fingertips.

Because everything is dubbed here and almost everything the general public needs is available in German. You're required to learn it in school, but like any skill, if it isn't used now and then...

Even some of our top politicians speak English badly 😠

I have come across more than one German who had actually learned to speak Dutch, I certainly was surprised, I can tell you that!

It wasn't as good as a native speaker, but in a way it's the effort that counts 😀

Tetrium wrote:

I have come across more than one German who had actually learned to speak Dutch, I certainly was surprised, I can tell you that!

It wasn't as good as a native speaker, but in a way it's the effort that counts 😀

That's the spirit! 😎

I haven't really joined this discussion but let me tell you my thoughts.

English is a fine language, but it needs other languages do develop, to grow. Other languages keep English alive.
Imagine, if there ever was something like a standardized, "global" English everyone has talk. How long would it last ?

People like their local peculiarities, their dialects, their fairy tales and sagas.
And they love to speek/invent their own words (kids do it all the time).
Even if that means that these words are only known and spoken in their little hometowns.
So if they only knew English, they would at some point try to extend that language with their own creations.
A few examples:
a) This would continue until a new, secondary language is born again
b) The Standard English will fall apart, because every town uses it's own dialect
c) English as we know will change out of all recognition

If they knew English, but were also allowed to use their own native/regional language:
People would use their own speech in their towns and cities, but would also talk in English to tourists and foreign friends (internet).
English would keep on developing, borrowing interesting words from time to time (the tourists heared and liked them, and told their friends).
Standard English would stay intact. People from all sides of the world would look after it and they would also want to learn it.
Other cool English flavors will emerge, but they won't replace Standard English (because that's the *link* between the people, so they would preserve it)

Tetrium wrote:

I have come across more than one German who had actually learned to speak Dutch, I certainly was surprised, I can tell you that!

I would love to be able to spead Dutch!

I'm spoiled that all my Dutch friends speak German very well, so I had no incentive to learn it so far. Then again, I'm literally in the opposite corner of Germany, far away from the Netherlands.

English needs to incorporate more Klingon grammar.

Hi, sorry for the little necro, but there's some quote that I missed to mention a few years ago..

The purity of the English language

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore. It not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary.

James Nicoll (b. 1961), "The King's English", rec.arts.sf-lovers, 15 May 1990

https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/purity.html

Edit: For the sake of fairness.. : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awful_German_Language
😉

Errius wrote on 2016-06-04, 18:47:

parolas esperanton?

I would not be surprised, if Esperanto was spoken as an intergalactic language. Even though Danish would be fun too, if it was spoken by more than just 7 million people 😀 I mean after all, Harry Harrison wrote quite a few books, where both Danish and Esperanto was a language, the human being spoke in the books.

Jo22 wrote on 2020-11-03, 14:13:

Edit: For the sake of fairness.. : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awful_German_Language
😉

Hey, at least with German the spelling has some bearing on how words are generally pronounced.

"Trough"...troff... come on, gimme a break!

😉

henryVK wrote on 2020-11-04, 15:24:

Hey, at least with German the spelling has some bearing on how words are generally pronounced.

I understand spelling-bees are unheard of in many countries whose native languages have shallow orthographies. After all, if sounds and letters have a one-to-one relationship (like Finnish; or close to it, e.g. Spanish) then what's the challenge even for a child?

Errius wrote on 2016-11-19, 17:11:

The problem with English spelling reform is that there are so many different regional accents and nobody can agree on which should be paramount.

Pretty much once a week on linguistics forums someone will propose an English spelling reform, and this is exactly why nothing ever comes of it. The dialects have all divereged, not enough to be different languages, but just enough that the spelling of Standard English doesn't match any of them anymore.

Not long along, French was the Diplomacy language. My elder brothers, who attented high school in the 80s, were still taught French as a second language, not English. It was in the 90s when learning English became more and more convenient and encouraged (...) to non-natives.

I like English and I guess it is easier to learn than Esperanto.
In fact, it seems a language easier to be learnt than many others.
It could also be argued that the reason English Language impossed as the main international one, is linked to the anglosphere power. Helped by , what Errius wrote before, certain Pop-culture being globalized.

That said, I believe the non-native speakers poeples of the world, should be able to remain speaking their native tongues as their every day one, if that was their will. Recurring to English to communicate easily when it is needed.

Nevertheless, since we are headed to a world of blurry borders and dissolving identities (...), it is probable we end up speaking only one language in a 100 years.

WolverineDK wrote on 2020-11-03, 14:44:

Errius wrote on 2016-06-04, 18:47:

parolas esperanton?

I would not be surprised, if Esperanto was spoken as an intergalactic language. Even though Danish would be fun too, if it was spoken by more than just 7 million people 😀 I mean after all, Harry Harrison wrote quite a few books, where both Danish and Esperanto was a language, the human being spoke in the books.

Personally I'd prefer Danish over Esperanto, if only because I've come into contact with Danish quite regularly since I last wrote something for this thread and I even learned a couple Danish words along the way 😜
It was really difficult at first to read it, but as I go along (and get help from google translate) I actually learn quite a lot about a whole bunch of Dutch words since quite a few ones (and especially of the more archaic ones) have actual cognates in Dutch (like the word gammel)

So Danish would definitely get one vote from me! 😜

henryVK wrote on 2020-11-04, 15:24:

Hey, at least with German the spelling has some bearing on how words are generally pronounced. […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote on 2020-11-03, 14:13:

Edit: For the sake of fairness.. : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awful_German_Language
😉

Hey, at least with German the spelling has some bearing on how words are generally pronounced.

"Trough"...troff... come on, gimme a break!

😉

True 🤣
Best example I can come up with is the poem "The Chaos" by Gerard Nolst Trenité 😜
Here's the first parts:

Dearest creature in creation Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse […]
Show full quote

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

and this poem goes on and on, all about how little sense the pronunciations in English can make 😜

Con 2 botones wrote on 2020-11-04, 19:58:

Not long along, French was the Diplomacy language. My elder brothers, who attented high school in the 80s, were still taught Fre […]
Show full quote

Not long along, French was the Diplomacy language. My elder brothers, who attented high school in the 80s, were still taught French as a second language, not English. It was in the 90s when learning English became more and more convenient and encouraged (...) to non-natives.

I like English and I guess it is easier to learn than Esperanto.
In fact, it seems a language easier to be learnt than many others.
It could also be argued that the reason English Language impossed as the main international one, is linked to the anglosphere power. Helped by , what Errius wrote before, certain Pop-culture being globalized.

That said, I believe the non-native speakers poeples of the world, should be able to remain speaking their native tongues as their every day one, if that was their will. Recurring to English to communicate easily when it is needed.

Nevertheless, since we are headed to a world of blurry borders and dissolving identities (...), it is probable we end up speaking only one language in a 100 years.

I wouldn't expect this to happen in just 100 years, even though within such a timespan a lot can change.
Perhaps due to climate change Russian may become a more important language, or perhaps Mandarin? Who knows, thought personally I'd prefer English if only because English is already something of a mixed language already and currently the infrastructure for English is there already 😜

And a lot of the smaller countries have populations that are usually profound at several languages. Here in The Netherlands, even though almost everybody here can speak and understand English, in our day to day lives it's all Dutch that we speak here (except maybe excluding the occasional hipster or something that tries to make a cocktail out of English and Dutch which doesn't sound for a meter 😜 )