I mean, people would obviously propose English to be the world language, but its problematic since that is like telling the world that British Imperialism is somehow “okay”, which is not okay.

So we need another language.

But how could we possibly agree on one?

Do we just find the 100 rarest languages then use one of those?

Do we create a new one?

  • Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    The real, most simple answer is: you wouldn’t, at least not unless we shift into a world where there are significantly less languages.

    Any world government would have to contend with the reality that the world is full of multiple languages. So a number of lingua francas would be chosen as the “official languages” - either the most spoken or the most politically important (probably one and the same).

    The idea to create some sort of apolical, unproblematic just isn’t realistic. If it was, it would’ve already occurred on a mass scale. You could just as easily paint an artificial language in a negative light as you have with English: any artificial language would be taking up the place of a real, authentic language and imposing itself onto peoples who do not speak it (language imperialism of an artificial kind isn’t much better).

    Besides, translators are only getting better and better and we already have a number of multi-national institutions that function fine despite the number of languages at play (e.g the EU).

  • StClinton@lemmings.world
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    1 day ago

    The first thing one does is to remove the USA from being apart of choosing the language, as at least with its current leaders the USA would cry, lie and whine about it having to be English, and if not chosen it is going to put tariffs on other countries is they don’t make it any of the USA dialects. They will do what they came to make sure that the people of the country are not taught how to use it in any way.

    The next thing that needs to happen is after the rest of the world creates and uses the language, they make it clear to the USA that anything that comes from the rest of the world to the USA will be in that language, things like instructions for things. The should also inform the USA that ANY and ALL Passports MUST in only in the world’s language. Movies and TV shows that are from studios in the USA must be in the World Language, not Dubbed over.

    I know that some will down vote what I wrote, but we see how well the rest of the world got the USA to convert to the Metric system.

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website
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    2 days ago

    I don’t think speaking the language immediately condones the horrible acts of the people who spoke it in the past. German should’ve creased to exist 80 years ago.

    There are certainly situations where use of English could be considered offensive, say, at a memorial of an atrocity. Carve those situations out and have a plan B - there is no necessity to all speak the same language all the time. It’s enough if a good number of people in the right positions do. And consider that there already are English speakers in France, Iran, and North Korea (3 random examples that don’t all love English-speaking countries).

    English is already the lingua franca of the world and has displaced French as the language of diplomacy. In Europe before that were the Frankish tongue, Latin, Greek. Other places had other languages. It’s no shoe-in that English will remain at the top but in our lifetimes I don’t think it will change.

  • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    There were hundreds of attemps in the 20th century. You should learn the history of Esperanto to know why it can’t happen. That was the closest we ever got to a global second language.

  • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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    2 days ago

    but its problematic since that is like telling the world that British Imperialism is somehow “okay”

    …what?

    Obviously english would be the choice as it has the largest amount of speakers. I know it’s not the most common language spoken natively but there are more people in the world that knows atleast some english compared to languages like chinese or spanish.

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    I’m on board for people being required to learn some second language, but to take a way a people’s language is basically cultural genocide. There are so many things buried in the nuance of usage, the grammar, and other things that are lost if the target language doesn’t have those features. As a second language, this doesn’t so much matter, but as a forced primary language (such as in the schools many aboriginal peoples were forced into), it is devastating.