RE: Which language would be the best lingua franca?
March 4, 2022 at 12:30 pm
(This post was last modified: March 4, 2022 at 2:21 pm by Anomalocaris.)
I think the universal language should have only 0 and 1 as its alphabet and these are to be spoken as click sounds found in the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa.
There is no doubt that any “universal” language based on the language of particular ethnic, social political or economic groups will fall in and out of favor as fortunes of these groups wax and wane in the larger ebb and flow of economic and political development of the world.
Two other difficulty are:
1. Chinese is very context sensitive and relies heavily on a enormous collection of pithy Phases and idioms that relies on cultural historic understanding, This is an unsuitable trait for a universal language with many users from different cultural backgrounds who would not have the same culture understanding. So even if they have full grasp the grammar and diction of Chinese they may still have no idea what the native Chinese speaker using these pithy phrases are trying to say.
2. Spoken Chinese is tonal, different tone denoted different words. the tons are difficult for people who grew upon on atonal language. Without using the proper tones, spoken Chinese often have ambiguous meaning.
There is no doubt that any “universal” language based on the language of particular ethnic, social political or economic groups will fall in and out of favor as fortunes of these groups wax and wane in the larger ebb and flow of economic and political development of the world.
(March 4, 2022 at 11:15 am)polymath257 Wrote: Perhaps a form of pinyin simplified chinese.
Alphabetical, but with simple grammar. Also has a large population base.
English is, supposedly, one of the hardest languages to learn. The main difficulty with Chinese, I think, is the symbols. Making it pinyin helps with that (as well as helping typing).
Why restrict to European languages when Asia is going to be dominant in the next century?
Two other difficulty are:
1. Chinese is very context sensitive and relies heavily on a enormous collection of pithy Phases and idioms that relies on cultural historic understanding, This is an unsuitable trait for a universal language with many users from different cultural backgrounds who would not have the same culture understanding. So even if they have full grasp the grammar and diction of Chinese they may still have no idea what the native Chinese speaker using these pithy phrases are trying to say.
2. Spoken Chinese is tonal, different tone denoted different words. the tons are difficult for people who grew upon on atonal language. Without using the proper tones, spoken Chinese often have ambiguous meaning.
