I often find it quite amusing that most science fiction set at least fifty years in the future, whenever it was written, shows a united world. It seems that World Unity is always something for the next generation to achieve. Naturally it cannot be done now, or in the immediate future, but it should and will be done. Star Trek, Star Wars, Brave New World; cheap pulp fiction and "literature" alike all anticipating a united future for the inhabitants of a single planet. But we never find out how this miracle is achieved. It looks as if we will have to draw up our own blueprints.
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Language and culture has got to be one mechanism. Some confused people still seem to think that some form of lowest common denominator language can do the job. Esperanto, a wonderful idea but fatally flawed. People need a real language in order to communicate, a rich and subtle language, and one they have a reason to learn. Languages have to live and grow organically. We do not learn real languages as children from schools, we absorb them. We drink in language and grammar. If the language children receive is poor in grammar they do not grow up with no grammar, they invent their own. Language is a natural instinct, children are born with an inbuilt hunger to learn language and use it. To remove all the real languages and replace them with an artificial language is certain to fail. The only example in history of an artificial language being imposed on a people comes from the Israeli experience with the resurrection of ancient Hebrew. Hebrew was deader than Latin but is now living again. But Hebrew was at least underneath a real language and it was spread in a country which had an obvious need for a common language, a country with too many languages and a real desire to create a new political reality. Earth is now a country with too many languages and it cannot expect to be united unless a common language is found. But we have an embryo of a common language, it is so obvious, it is staring you in the face. This is it. I am using world English, the language of the planet Earth. World English is English that is self consciously Internationalist. Mid Atlantic English. We need to formally adopt an international standard of language. It is obviously much easier to use English than to trash it and start again. English is the most powerful language ever created, because it has evolved. It has absorbed vocabulary from every language it has contacted. English has absorbed words from every continent. To prove my point just open your English dictionary on Z, most of those words are imported; zebra, Zen, zenith, zephyr, zeppelin, zero, Zion, zombie, Zulu and zygote. English speakers are quite cool about all this, we do not worry about our language being diluted or invaded, our language has been enriched by additions from other languages. In contrast if you open a French dictionary on W you get a hornet's nest of resented words; le weekend, le Walkman and le WC When English borrows a word it almost always gives it a narrower definition than it had in the original language. Salsa, for example, in Spanish this simply means sauce whereas in English it has a much more precise definition that certainly does not cover ketchup (another import) or custard. Similarly tempo simply means time for an Italian, for us it has a narrower and more useful definition. English has a much bigger vocabulary than any other language, and so is capable of greater accuracy. As English is already the International language of the Internet, the air traffic control system and the language of the sea it would seem logical to make it formally the language of man. In order to do that it must be standardized, or is that standardised? Spelling needs to be harmonized and English speakers from Britain, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand will have to learn which words and phrases that they consider to be part of the language of English are in fact peculiar to their own dialect. Unfortunately there is not just one English. Learning a new language is difficult, but so is unlearning a dialect. We can see that standard world English already exists as a real phenomenon. What language do you think The Venga Boys and Aqua are singing in? It is neither English nor American. Some of the best spoken English anywhere on the planet is heard when Swedes talk to the Dutch. When I travelled in a tour bus around Vienna our guide claimed he was bilingual, he was too modest, he actually spoke in four languages; German, Austrian-German, American-English and English-English, in every case with a soft Viennese accent. In asking everybody in the world to speak World-English we are all making sacrifices. We native English speakers must all learn that the language we currently use is just one dialect, and we must make a real effort to be inclusive in our language. That is probably best achieved by going back in time 300 years to the common roots of modern Englishes and then weave those threads back together again. The English have stopped using words that have continued into modern American-English, such as faucet and skillet, we must take them back. We must all learn a new inclusive language heritage that, in the finest traditions of the language, takes words from everywhere and blends a new synthesis that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Comment from a Canadian Comment from an Austrian |
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