Should Esperanto replace English as the global lingua franca?

[Paris-Brest]

Dutch should become the international lingua franca.

No thanks. I'd rather keep English then, at least English sounds nice...

[Dandelion]

I voted no? LOL. Amnesia. I rather abstain voting. I'm not warm for English neither. Esperanto is just a language I have problems finding beauty in it.

One question. How do you express negative meanings in Esperanto? I know the word for bad in Esperanto is 'malbona' but also 'mava'. I can see nuances here. Mava to emphasise something is really bad. Malbona to just say something is bad. Malmava to say 'good in an extremely humble way' (which I expect to be a very rare word). Bona for something good you genuinely appreciate. Does it work like that?

[Dandelion]

Just a quick test. Is this sentence I wrote experimenting with Esperanto on a YT comment grammatically correct?

Mi lernandas Esperanton tiumomente, tiel ke oni ne povas refuti al mi esti malprofunda menso. Ĉiuj estas kritikisto, min mem inkludas. Lerni dekses regulojn ne estas ke multe da laboro ĉiuokaze. Tial mi konscis kaj pensis: kial diable ne?

I tried avoiding unnatural staccato language I often hear on some videos about Esperanto.

[Óttar]

Dutch should become the international lingua franca. It's your favourite language.

I am C1 fluent in German and currently learning Dutch for a love-interest + I've always wanted to know a German dialect.

I wish the English hadn't completely dismantled the Dutch economically and had instead left a number of their colonies intact. All the better to speak Dutch in more places in the world. On the other hand, it's not the most euphonic language in the world, that's for sure. I laugh at words like Hoeveelheid, borstels, and wortels.

[Dandelion]

I am C1 fluent in German and currently learning Dutch for a love-interest + I've always wanted to know a German dialect.

I wish the English hadn't completely dismantled the Dutch economically and had instead left a number of their colonies intact. All the better to speak Dutch in more places in the world. On the other hand, it's not the most euphonic language in the world, that's for sure. I laugh at words like Hoeveelheid, borstels, and wortels.

I've been conditioned since birth to those words. So to me they just sound normal. I did notice many find Dutch the ugliest (familiar) language alive. Paris-Brest devoted at least three or four posts to it even and she hasn't posted often. Hence I gave her that 'proposal'.

German is my favourite Germanic language, by the way.

Funniest Dutch words would be purist words like 'wiskunde' (mathemathics), 'wijsbegeerte' (filosophy), scheikunde (chemistry), vermenigvuldigen (to multiply),...
Not sure how they sound to you. German also has such purisms like 'Wirtschaft' (economy), 'Rundfunk' (broadcasting), Fernseher (television), etc... But they have their charm to me. Pseudo-anglicisms like 'Handy' (mobile phone), however. The ugliest German word in my book.

[Óttar]

German is my favourite Germanic language, by the way.

I'd like to know Icelandic, but unfortunately there are only 300 000+ speakers and they all move to Denmark for work.

Funniest Dutch words would be purist words like 'wiskunde' (mathemathics), 'wijsbegeerte' (filosophy), scheikunde (chemistry), vermenigvuldigen (to multiply),...
Not sure how they sound to you.

Those sound like typical West Germanic words to me, perhaps the last word is a bit unwieldy.

German also has such purisms like 'Wirtschaft' (economy), 'Rundfunk' (broadcasting), Fernseher (television), etc... But they have their charm to me. Pseudo-anglicisms like 'Handy' (mobile phone), however. The ugliest German word in my book.

Those do not sound like purisms (i.e. over the top Verdeutscherei), but fairly common German words. I prefer them to their general European counterparts. I agree 'Handy' sounds infantile.

Is "monster" really the Dutch word for sample?

[Dandelion]

I'd like to know Icelandic, but unfortunately there are only 300 000+ speakers and they all move to Denmark for work.

You shouldn't let yourself be limited by that. Usefulness isn't really an argument. You live in the US and only truly need English in the end anyway. So if you are curious and have time, you should certainly indulge.

Those sound like typical West Germanic words to me, perhaps the last word is a bit unwieldy.

Simon Stevin invented all those words in the 17th century. He was a purist versus Latin as the academic lingua franca.

Those do not sound like purisms (i.e. over the top Verdeutscherei), but fairly common German words. I prefer them to their general European counterparts. I agree 'Handy' sounds infantile.

They are common German words, but the German language is puristic relative to other European languages for those words. That's what I meant.

Is "monster" really the Dutch word for sample?

Yes. As well as for monster. We also use the word 'staal' for sample. Staal gets used more often, but monster has its use too. Used very interchangeably in chemical analysis.

[♥ Lily ♥]

I have tried on various occasions to learn Irish. I currently have Irish on Duolingo, but the app has its limitations. I am disappointed that more Irish people do not know Irish, same with the Welsh. I think that Irish, Scottish, and Manx Gaelic should combine into a single standardized Gaelic, agreed upon by committee, and that a board should be set up to produce audio, visual, and print media to disseminate the language. Prior to the incursions of English, Gaelic was considered a single language with the various forms merely considered different dialects.

I hate this video; it's a complete waste of time when you consider the points I have made above:



There has been conflict between the various local dialects of Irish Gaelic when deciding how to codify the Caidhean Oifigiul (~ pron. Cai-dawn Ofig-yool), the official standard Irish.

I believe that the first priority should be the survival and proliferation of Gaelic. If that means that there must be a mass simplification and standardization of phonology, orthography, and dialect leveling, so be it.

EVOLVE OR DIE!!!

I don't think whichever people who live in modern Wales today would want dominance of Gaelic over their own regional language and dialects - and the same with Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, etc.

Scottish culture isn't the same as Cornish, Welsh, Irish or Manx cultures... they're all unique and have their own cultural identity in the British Isles. Their populations are all very small compared to England's population, which is why there's not many people remaining who speak in the Celtic languages.

In India where there's 1.2 billion people, they have a total of 22 or so languages spoken within the different regions of India. English is used as their lingua franca as it's a neutral language that doesn't give dominance to one Indian language over all the rest of the Indian languages in India. India is currently the world's third largest English language book publishers. They also use English in law and in business too. India's Bollywood industry makes more annual revenue than Hollywood makes each year, because Bollywood has a larger audience with 1.2 billion Indian people.

1/4 of Indian people are said to be highly educated. 25% of their nation is more than the entire population of the US, which puts Indians at an advantage in international jobs. Western jobs have been shipped to India and China. Both of them have powerful militaries and India is spending more on its space rocket exploration than the US is currently spending.

I watched a documentary that showed Indian female students who were studying English, and the students said that every man in India wants his wife to be educated - which they said means being able to speak English to a high standard. The female students there said that learning English is seen as being 'high-class', (maybe that's from a legacy of the British Imperial past over India), and they said that learning English is a 'magical language' that gives them opportunities for travel to important and influential nations, and that it will enable them to be able to move around among high social circles in life.

That may change in another decade given that India and China are fast-rising superpower nations, as they both compete and race to the top of the world. Personally, I prefer having the US as the world superpower over China, Russia, or India, as I can culturally relate more to Americans.

If Welsh people like watching popular American and British blockbuster movies in English, and are reading popular literature in English, and are listening to lots of popular music bands singing in English, and communicate on the internet in English and watch popular media shows in English, etc - then they may not want to bother taking the time and effort to learn Welsh.

They may prefer using their time to travel and socialise or chat online, or studying the sciences instead, or studying music language, or perfecting their English to a higher level in order to give them opportunities for employment in international business meetings, or in aviation communication, and in science, engineering, and technology, etc.

Not many people in the world understand Welsh. They probably find that communicating in English takes them further in life, especially if they want to visit the US, Canada, Australia, NZ, HK, etc.

Surely it would be more beneficial for Welsh children to learn Chinese Mandarin so that they're not held back in life or disadvantaged from being able to have opportunities for work in the future?

Our Prime Minister's have stated that Chinese Mandarin will replace French and German as the second language taught in UK secondary schools in the future. This will enable future generations to have advantages and economic opportunities for trade and jobs in life.

China is a massive and rising superpower and has enormous spending power for trade and commerce and tourism, etc. Chinese tourists spend the most and so it's important for businesses and services to be able to communicate and cater to them. The average Chinese tourist spends four times as much than the average American tourist spends abroad.

Chinese Mandarin is already being taught in private classes in western schools and in business schools to students in the US and UK, to put them ahead of other competitors in international careers and to give them advantages in life.

I wouldn't want to go backwards in time in bothering to learn to speak in Olde Anglo Saxon. Few people would understand it anyway, so it wouldn't be very practical.

China owns much of the world as they bought and took over a lot of western companies and hotels, etc, that would've otherwise have gone bankrupt. They already have twice as many skyscrapers in Chinese cities than in NYC and business and work opportunities are booming there.

China is the place to go for trade deals and opportunities for work, etc. The UK government signed a massive trade deal between the UK & China and a lot of countries look to China in global trade due to their spending power. China bought and took over the ownership of a lot of the companies in Canada, Australia, the US, and Europe. Such a fast rising superpower nation is buying-up the world. A lot of tourist souvenirs that are sold and bought in European cities such as in Venice have 'Made In China' written on it, along with a lot of items that people buy in stores today.

The Roman Empire once ruled over much of Europe and their language influenced other cultures as a result. Great Britain was the world superpower up until the end of WW2 and English started to take over as the global language. The US then took over after WW2 to the become the world's superpower... and they also had an impact on English being a powerful language.

The US has an astronomical level of debt that they owe to China. Overspending in the US beyond their budget happened during the Bush administration, hence all the debt. I read that the US military expenditure is currently being funded on debt-ridden credit cards and by yet more loans from China. It looks like China will be the next superpower of the 21st century - which means learning their language could become more important than learning English in the future.

Spoiler!

[Autrigón]

Naaah English is ok, simple structure, simple grammar, no genders, easy plurals, short words, easy insults...

No way I'm going to study another language now...I haf niidid a lot off yiars tu spiik a bery god ingliss.

[Melki]

I voted no? LOL. Amnesia. I rather abstain voting. I'm not warm for English neither. Esperanto is just a language I have problems finding beauty in it.

One question. How do you express negative meanings in Esperanto? I know the word for bad in Esperanto is 'malbona' but also 'mava'. I can see nuances here. Mava to emphasise something is really bad. Malbona to just say something is bad. Malmava to say 'good in an extremely humble way' (which I expect to be a very rare word). Bona for something good you genuinely appreciate. Does it work like that?

You just put "ne" in front of a verb, for example "mi ne pravas" (I'm wrong)
If you want to emphasize something, you need to add the adverb "tre" before a verb, another adverb or an adjective (ex: mi tre ŝatas "I very much like"; tre bone "very good"). Or you can also add the suffix "ege" "ega" (bonege! "very good!", la bonega vino "the excellent wine")

Just a quick test. Is this sentence I wrote experimenting with Esperanto on a YT comment grammatically correct?

Mi lernandas Esperanton tiumomente, tiel ke oni ne povas refuti al mi esti malprofunda menso. Ĉiuj estas kritikisto, min mem inkludas. Lerni dekses regulojn ne estas ke multe da laboro ĉiuokaze. Tial mi konscis kaj pensis: kial diable ne?

I tried avoiding unnatural staccato language I often hear on some videos about Esperanto.

I'm not an expert myself, I study through passive learning (I read Tintin ). It would be better to ask Segatta Sanshiro or whatever her name is, the only one here who speaks fluent Esperanto (for as much as I know).
But I would have simply written "mi lernas" or "mi studas" , and removed the "ke" ("tiel oni ne povas", "ne estas multa laboro.)