|
|
|
 
Interlingua is Doomed
The dream of Interlingua-a common language that all the people of the
world speak-has long existed in many peoples minds. They and their
organizations have for many years tried to push this through, but the odds
are still against them.
The benefits of a common language on the planet are obvious, language
barriers would no longer exist, books and newspapers could be printed in a
single international edition distributed worldwide. In order to achieve
this however there are plenty of obstacles along the way. The first
question, which already throws us into a major snag, is which language do
we choose? To many of us English is the obvious answer, since its
expansion is enormous an it is the closest thing to a common language we
have today. But this is where the Interlingua enthusiasts pull the brake
saying, no, it must be a new constructed language everyone learns from
scratch, because if we use an already existing natural language, all its
native speakers would form an elite. The fact that the Interlingua
enthusiasts normally excel in the very constructed language they advocate
does not seem to strike them as unfair at all.
Not that the people of this planet have ever managed to fully agree on
anything, but let us just suppose that the world was to reform and decide
to teach its citizens an all new language. The nations that would learn it
the quickest would of course be the industrialized countries with the
resources for good public education, incidentally the very nations that
know and are learning, the international business language-English
An inevitable fact is that the English language is already in the process
of taking over the world through film, TV, popular music not to mention
the Internet. Even more important, English being the international
business language there is a lot of money invested in it and it therefore
has the full support of the commercial industry and right or wrong, money
rules this world!
Were we still to miraculously manage to teach the whole planet the very
same language, another problem would become painfully evident; maintaining
it. All languages form local dialects, new words and expressions,
especially in isolated and remote communities. Different people have
different needs for words dictated by their surroundings and their
professions. Based on the need of terminology the everyday vocabulary of a
fisherman in the North Atlantic is bound to be quite different from that
of a tobacco farmer in Turkey or a hot dog vendor in New York City. It is
hardly realistic to think that any organization or international board of
language would be able to map, keep track of and set standards for every
single entity in the world that someone feels there is a need to have a
word for.
We have not yet come close to teaching all the people of the world to read
and write their own native language that they are exposed to every day.
What makes us think that we can teach them an all new language, especially
with the economic interests of the world opposing it.
Word Count: 473
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
Grendel
is an unhappy soul in John Gardner's book "", because he feels useless in society and doesn't want to accept his given r
The English Patient
As followed by the big hit of Titanic’s great tragedy love story . It seems that love romantic stories are in favour to
Oedipus Rex
In the play , it tells of a man who is forced by fate to live a life of lies and deceet. He is hounded by prophecy and c
Beloved
Sethe, now free from slavery has become a slave again, but this time instead of being a slave to a white master she
Oedipus The King
by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, “” contains a tragic hero, a h
|
|
|
|
