Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Response to Nicole's "Language Response"

I'd like to address a couple of points in your response before I move on to the new question.

In my post I stressed that I was not advocating for the destruction of any languages, as that would be a tragic cultural loss. The creation of a Standard language would be strictly for official communication. Each person would be taught their native language plus Standard so that they retain the artistry of their native language and gain the ability to communicate with anyone on Earth.
It would be madness for me to say that one language is superior to another. The problem with having each person learn many languages is that it would only improve their ability to communicate slightly. There are almost 7000 languages on Earth, if a person knows 4 or 5 languages then they are exceptional. When a person is educated in America they are taught English and then usually either French or Spanish, not because they are the most culturally rich languages. But because the idea is that the student will most likely encounter those languages in life. It is for communication.
I've known people to learn other languages just to appreciate art in those languages properly. I love this, I think it is one of the best things a person in pursuit of good art can do. I myself spent a good deal of time studying Middle English so that I could properly read the Canterbury Tales. But I'm never going to use that language for communication, just for art.

It's like the Catholic who speak their own native language, but mostly use Latin for their ceremonies. Or the Reform Jews, a sect a belong to, who speak mostly in English but use Hebrew for our own ceremonies. A language for communication, a language for religion, a language for art and culture.
The idea of Standard may not be beautiful, but it is efficient.

Now, I'd say that English is already evolving. It's constantly evolving, it's one of the hallmarks of the language. Urban American-English, Spanglish, Welsh-English, Scotch-English, these are all examples of the English language changing on it's own.

If we adopted a Standard language, do you believe that native languages would fall out of use?

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