So, I just found this post about English becoming the lingua franca and it was very interesting!
http://rawlangs.com/2013/04/25/give-us-our-language-back/
I don't have time to comment on it now seeing as I should be working, but I will try to do it at some point.
I've got work to do too, but ...
ReplyDeleteI am one of many people who for decades have argued quietly that institutional support for Esperanto as a lingua franca could bring many benefits to Europe.
Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in about fifteen countries over recent years.
We should not overestimate the position of English. 3.7 billion people in the world do not speak it :(
ReplyDeleteI live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English” my answer is “Listen and look around you”. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.
Worldwide.
The promulgation of English as the world’s “lingua franca” is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!
Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.
Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is essential.
As a native English speaker, my vote is for Esperanto :)
Your readers may be interested in seeing http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations.
Their new online course http://www.lernu.net has 125 000 hits per day and Esperanto Wikipedia enjoys 400 000 hits per day. That can't be bad :