What language is the Common of our world?

[reanjr]

UTF-8 encoded XML is the universal language

 

[Azzy]

I, too, have to cast my vote for English. Listen to modern music from cros the globe... There are many European bands that sing primarily (or solely) in English--despite not being native English speakers, themselves. English is also commonly interpersed throughout a lot of Asian pop & rock. It's crazy.

But given how we are destroying our own language with street slang/text etc i think 'common' sums it up nicely

Not destroying--evolving. Language, like living creatures, must evolve or die. Even foregoing the assimilation of foreign words into English, Modern English is a far cry for the most part from Old English. Take my name for insatance (Kynewulf)--sure the "wulf" part is quite obvious, but how many of you could guess what the "kyne/cyne" means (without looking it up)? Here's a clue, there's a Modern English word derived from the same root that is commonly used in a D&D campaign.

 

[babomb]

English is the closest. Mandarin, Hindi, and Spanish may have more native speakers, but most people who learn a second language (or third, etc.) learn English. Further, English is much more widely-spread than Mandarin and Hindi; most of the people who speak Mandarin live in China, and most Hindi speakers are from India, but English has speakers almost everywhere. And English is a widely-used trade language.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Gamers should rejoice, as planet earths ‘common tongue’ is called ELFE

English as a lingua franca for Europe, also known by the abbreviation ELFE, is a concept promoted by some linguistics experts, which aims to standardize the use of the English language in the European Union. English, in some form or another, is already widely used and understood by people in EU countries, despite it only being spoken natively by a small percentage of those people. However, regional differences in English, as well as peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary and grammar shared with few other European languages, have made learning it more difficult for many Europeans; ELFE does not only aim at making English easier to learn (this is the main objective of other projects like for example "Simple English"): ELFE indicates the development of high level languages for a global society.

Actually ELFE is used worldwide as it is the common second tongue, businessmen who don’t know each others languages know enough English to converse with each other.

As a side note, it’s interesting that the term lingua franca has arabic/french/italian roots.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I think it's English for now...but won't be for much longer.....probably either Chinese or maybe even Indian will supplant it in time.

I'd like to point out that citizens of the indian sub-continent do not speak 'Indian,' they speak Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi/Sanskrit, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and probably other laguages. In fact the administrative language of India is English.

 

[Hussar]

As a side note, it’s interesting that the term lingua franca has arabic/french/italian roots.

Interesting, but hardly surprising considering the huge amount of movement and trade those three groups did throughout the past couple of thousand years. Silk road, merchant houses and the like.

 

[Illirion]

I voted that there is no common in our world. But, since almost everyone in the world who has something worthwile to say can say it in english, I think english makes the best candidate. Nah, not really of course, but because north-america and europe have the most high-educated people, if you want to be taken internationally serious in either science or politics, you need at least a rudimentary knowledge of the english language.

I'm dutch myself so I can comunicate with a lot of people, since we learn 4 languages at school (dutch, english, french and german). But if you'd really want to be able to make yourself clear to everyone in the world you'd have to learn a whole lot more, cause there are a whole lot of stubborn people out there and countries that simply don't have the need or the resources to communicate internationally. So in short: There is no common, but if I had to choose 1 language only, I'd choose english.

 

[Thanee]

There is no such language. English is the closest approximation, though.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Imruphel]

I work with a woman from China who says that although Mandarin is the most widely spoken language (as far as first languages) it's possible for two people fluent in Mandarin to not be able to communicate with each other at all. Technically, they both speak the same language, but the dialects are so different that the language becomes nearly unrecognizable. While it may be a very wide-spread language, it's so fractured as to be useless as a universal tongue. (snip)

It's a similar story for the Chinese in Singapore. Many speak a debased form of Mandarin (and a debased form of English) so that what should be a skill that provides them with a competitive advantage in doing business with China actually becomes a drawback. It's a big problem (as is the declining level of competency in English) that the government (aka "gahmint") is trying to fix.

Back to the original topic, as an Australian who lives, works and travels through Asia I can only say that English is the common tongue. The academic rebuttals are nonsense: try travelling and you will see how common English really is.

 

[Imruphel]

I think it's English for now...but won't be for much longer.....probably either Chinese or maybe even Indian will supplant it in time. (snip)

Respectfully disagree with your conclusion as English is used in both countries as a means of communication because of the multiple dialects that exist (particularly in India).