It is the language that we are able to communicate our feelings & thoughts so easily. Language is by far the most important element of any culture and civilization that exist on this planet. But what would be the world if everyone spoke the same language? What if there is one world one language?
As of today, there are over 7000 languages are spoken worldwide, but only around 30 of them are well recognized and account for more than half of the worldās population, in which English has a more global influence than any other. But despite, it cannot be considered a global language.
Let us suppose, what if the world had only one language to communicate? Wouldnāt it be better for all of us? or, is it even possible to have a global language? What would be the scenario then?
According to my opinion, there are a variety of reasons for how it would be better. If you look at the positive side, you find-
And there is one thing I can say that Itāll be much easier for us to write here without letting people misunderstand them. Because it happens a lot when English is not your first language.
Sometimes people misunderstood what we are trying to say, just because of language barriers and cultural differences. There is a direct correlation that exists here between Blog writers and communications.
Writers written work may not be coming out exactly as they mean, and English as the first language speaker may be taking it the wrong way.
Just for an example, calling someone āDearā might be a nice gesture from you but it might be extremely condescending in other parts of the world if you donāt know each other.
Calling women ādivasā might be normal in your society but it is also often used as an insult in various regions of the world.
It may look normal to you but have a huge impact on how someone is taking your words because the language barriers exist between you and them.
So, imagine if everyone spoke the same language (except accents) wouldnāt it be blessings for all of us?
Well, it has its pros thatāll bring a completely different picture of the world. But there would be some serious concerns also like:-
So, with global language, our World would become a boring place to live.
Many believe that perhaps English can be the global language of communication as it has more influence. But the truth is, no one wants to ever give up their Mother tongue or native language as itās a part of their culture.
Letās take my country, Iām from India, previously colonized by the British Empire. Therefore, despite Sanskrit as our deeply rooted language, English has more influence on our society. And, this is also because of the fact that the spread of the English language occurred parallel to the spread of the British Empire.
Many erroneously believe that Sanskrit is a dead language, but the fact is that it is very much alive.
And ironically, the British now have many universities which teach Sanskrit to every child for the first five years, Even Germany also has a number of colleges and universities teaching Sanskrit in Europe.
The ancient Indian scriptures are a window to the National soul of India, and most of the scriptures are in Sanskrit. Sanskrit can be called the āGrand Mother tongueā of every Indian and European.
In a country as diverse as India where there are 22 official languages, and English is among them. There is a huge linguistic ocean of 122 to 300 major languages and to around 1600 lesser know-ones. After every 15-20 Km language and accent change in my country.
As Kailash Kher said, āFor us Indians, I donāt think English can ever exclude that magic of emotions which our Mother tongue canā. Therefore, people would never want to leave their native language as it connects them to their roots.
Surprisingly, most of the language we spoke today was somewhere interdependent on each other in the past. You can easily find similarities among some oldest languages like Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, etc. Some words we spoke in our language have had origin on some others.
But, Despite this deep linguistic ocean around the world, expert agrees that there are fewer languages around today than yesterday.
The United Nation observed:-
āWhen language fade, so does the worldās richest tapestry of cultural diversityā
When a language dies, a whole culture dies. Losing a language is like losing an identity.
According to UNESCO, 230 languages already went extinct from 1950 to 2010. And as of now 1/3 rd of all the languages spoken today have less than 1000 speakers. And with the death of its last speaker, the language also dies.
Learning a language is not only learning the alphabets and meanings, and arrangement of words, but it also learning of the society and its cultural customs.
Other languages like English provides you wing to fly but your native language are the roots that are indispensable.
So, what do you think of the world where everyone spoke the same language? Let us know down below.
Mail:- Namaskar@theblogera.com
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230 languages got extinctšØšØšØ this is so bad, though having a global language can make a life lot easier but our language represents culture and heritage which can not be lost at any cost. Very well written and well-detailed post ššš kudos to you
Thankyou Vani.
And yes, It's actually bad losing a language. Languages are also the different colours of our World. Reports also even states that every two weeks language dies with it's last speaker.
Therefore, We should preserve our culture and heritage.
Agreedšš
Great question and excellent post Ritish. I think ultimately it would be a bad thing. The things that make life easier - like globalisation - dilute the cultural differences that make different walks of life so interesting. What if we all had the same colour skin? All ate the same kind of food? Held the same beliefs? What a boring world that would be.
Thankyou so much
And well said.
Diversity in language is incredibly beautiful. We need them because we need beauty, we need cinemas, we need poetries, Symphonies, we need different cultures.
World without all this will surely be a very boring place to live.
Unfortunately, some languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. And only future knows..What will happen next?
I absolutely agree!:)
Wery well argued for the diversity in everything, not only in languages. Excellent post.
Thank you.
Joanna
Thankyou Joanna. Iām glad you liked it.
Ofcourse, Diversity is the variety of perspectives.
I have left a comment, I hope it is not lost!
Joanna
This is a great question! I try to write in three languages and but have become aware that more and more bloggers just write in English, which I consider a great pity! Vielen Dank e cari saluti
Danke. Ich bin froh, dass es dir gefƤllt.
And yes majority of bloggers write in English and majority of readers have their first language English as I said it has more global influence than any other languages. (Even if we try to write, people simply won't understand unless we provide them translation button, but that too works weird)
But still the true emotions lies in our mother tongue only.
You are certainly right with what you say, but I have a doubt concerning your last sentence. Personally I prefer to read in English!!
I mean to say that learning both native language and languages like English well enough would be great.
They both works like wings and roots.
:):)
You may be interested to know that Operation X https://operationxblog.wordpress.com/mission-statement/ attempts to salvage minority languages.
Wow, I didn't know abou Frisian tongue. I'm amazed to see that Europe actually has a this much Language diversity.
The work they are doing and their enthusiasm is highly commendable.
I'll be glad to share this with one of my professor, He is a linguaphile. He would love to know more about it.
We already have such a universal language: it's called 'math'. That's why it's the language of real world knowledge. But there is a rich tapestry of meaning that some languages excel at capturing while others have great difficulty. (Consider the emotional appeal and release of music, for example.)
Anyone who 'speaks' multiple languages fluently grasps (not just the grammar but the phonemes and pragmatics and so has) the understanding of this important aspect regarding nuanced meaning and we know from neuroscience how different languages access and/or utilize very different parts of the brain. But at the root, the point of language is to facilitate communication between people. Having a common tongue is a very practical net benefit for this purpose but there is no reason at all not to recognize and appreciate that having access to a depth of refined and nuanced languages is also a net benefit. English, for example is an excellent compilation of many languages that is flexible enough to keep on growing and changing over time but has zero ability to catch the nuance of object gender that shapes a French understanding. These examples are many.
Anyway, it's a very interesting topic. Thanks for presenting it for consideration.
This is a very elaborating comment. Thankyou for this.
Yes, mathematics is same all over the world and I do believe that English is often seen as a Lingua Franca for national and international communication, is also considered a necessity and excel at capturing.
But as you said, has a zero ability to catch the nuance of object gender that shapes a French understanding.
Thankyou so much for reading.
Just to draw your attention to the fact that I am Joanna, Gaby is a hedgehog.
Joanna
Oh yes, my bad..š Just skip from my mind while writing reply.
Thankyou Joanna and Iām sorry.
(And it's corrected now)
I really enjoyed reading this post Ritish. I'm English, born in England and have English ancestry, and so I'm more than happy that English is a universal language - but the world would be a much poorer place without all these other languages - and in this context, the word 'poorer' means poor from a cultural point of view, not financially.
I welcome your views.
Absolutely, as it is said Education gives both wings and roots to the person.
While learning both native language and English well enough will be great.
Thankyou so much for sharing your views. Have a great day.
Ritish it is really great work of yours. I appreciate such kind of which talks about everyone and proud of what they are & their culture. You are inspiring many people. I am proud of my mother tongue and my culture.
ā¤ļøLove it.
Thankyou for your kind words Lokesh.
Representing ones culture is surely a proud feeling.
But the beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.
Yes, here we are representing the beauty of the world under the same roof.
Absolutely, we are
Good discussion. Many languages express great subtly in areas that are important to their culture. One language can't substitute for those aspects. It's so sad that many indigenous languages are being lost today.
Well put,
Native languages are the deeply rooted element of any culture that can't be substituted.
But sadly some indigenous languages speakers seeks to learn more prestigious languages to gain social advantage and to avoid discrimination.
And end up losing their identity.
Congrats on 50! Nice ! ! !
The idea of one language is at first glance a great, sweeping, romantic idea.
But then on second glance....yeah, a lot would be lost for the sake of homogenization. Boring and bland would just be the tip of the iceberg. I don't think mere convenience would outweigh the cons.
Wasn't Esperanto created as a language that everyone could supposedly learn and would be spoken everywhere? I have a vague memory of this. Maybe they had an idea of oneness that could be a go-to while everyone still maintained their languages and identities..........
Thankyou so much Seliza,
And so true, world would be a boring place if there is no diversity.
You right, an attempt was made by L.L Zamenhof in 1887 to create a global langauge i.e., Esperanto. But as of now it only has around 2 million speakers, therefore it can't be recognised as an international auxillary langauge.
And this also seems to suggest that people was & would never give up their native languages as it is deeply integrated to their culture.
Just as the beauty of a garden comes from different types of flowers in it, similarly the beauty of the world is from different languages, culture. There may not be a universal language or culture, but this is not a problem, better means of movement, progress of science, and technology will continue to make valuable contribution in establishing coordination among different languages. Thinking of a universal language is destructive like, one religion, (THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD)one idea (COMMUNISM)
I agree that diversity is the beauty of the world. But this is just an What if? Scenario.
āThinking of a universal language is destructiveā then why English is considered to be?
And sadly, even the reports shows that indigenous languages are dying at an extreme rate.
Isn't its those 'withering flowers'?
If everyone starts following one religion, will the religious conflict come to an end.
How many Chinese people know English? How many Japanese, Germans, Jews, Russians, French know English? How can English be a universal language. Does the world mean only England? ( thinking of well). The mother tongue of America is not English, the official language of the US government is English. If many regional languages āāare dying, then we are responsible for that.
You are certainly right.
But I do believe that Learning both Native or regional language and English well enough to get into the spirit of the literature in both these languages will be great.
Btw I'm proud of my Mother tongue and our 'Grand Mother Tongue'
I think differences such as language make us who we are and make the world a more diverse and beautiful place to live in.
You are right Pooja.
Without diversity life would be very boring.
Thanks for looking that up, Ritish. I had NO IDEA Esperanto was conceived of so long ago!! 1887!!!
Wow. Yeah, I guess it didn't take, huh? lol
Haha, You know That according to Judeo-Christian scriptures there was a time long ago when everyone on this planet spoke the same language. And there was some story about 'Tower of Babel'. It may be a religious story but it's really interesting to know about it.
Ritish, I enjoyed reading this post and many of the interesting comments. I have studied both French and Spanish, but never became fluent in either. Ideally, it would be great if Americans spoke a second language, but most of us don't. I think part of the reason is because we start to learn other languages too late-- in high school-- and also because most of us don't hear languages other than English in our daily lives.
I think technology may be of some help here as automated translations improve. Some of them are awful, especially when it comes to poetry!
Have a great week!
Ritish, Very interesting topic and very well-written post! <3 I have enjoyed reading this and many of the excellent comments.
I very much admire multilingual people. I have studied both French and Spanish, but never became fluent in either of them. Most Americans speak only English. I think one reason for that is that most start very late to learn a second language, in high school. Before age seven it is easier. Another reason is that most of us don't often hear other languages spoken in daily life.
I think technology holds much promise. Some current translators are awful, especially when it comes to poetry! I think they will improve over time.
Have a great week!
Thankyou Cheryl
You are certainly right, and even the further research shows that multilingual have a better mental development, and when they grow old, they are less likely to get Alzheimer's disease.
Thank you for sharing your views. Have a great day.
(Im replying late, because for some reason I'm not getting the new comment notification)
Please delete duplicate comment. Sorry! I am having technical difficulties. :)
Yes, don't worry.
It happens to me a lot too. :-)
WoW you things very deeply Outstanding post š
Thankyou for your kind comment Sudarshan.
Pleasure is all mine š
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