What If Everyone on Earth Spoke the Same Language

Posted byVanya Wryter ConsultingPosted inEducation, LifestyleTags:, , , , , ,

Let’s imagine for a minute that we aren’t in a sci-fi movie. When you woke up this morning, everyone understood each other because we all spoke the same language. Convenient, right?

We could travel from country to country without language barriers and easily communicate with people on other continents. Seems ideal at first. But when you examine the situation more closely, you’ll see why this reality may not come true. 

Language is Culture

Language is so complex that it’s not easy to create a language that is spoken worldwide. Every language tells you something about the people that speak it.

For example, look at the number of words we have to express colors in English. The color red has over 20 synonyms for red (vermillion, scarlet, cherry, cerise, wine, ruby, crimson, coral, rose, auburn, bloody, blush, ruddy, coral, sanguine, maroon, florid, poppy, rusty, rouge). These words allow for beautiful imagery and poetry when we describe the rainbow.

In contrast, colors in Chinese are expressed as the color (red) with modifiers (light red, dark red). There isn’t as much variation. But the Chinese value family, so the words to describe family are far more descriptive and precise than in English. It is not enough to say sister, brother, aunt, and uncle. They need to be exact. So if you ask how to say “aunt” in Chinese, you need to be specific and say, “How do you say aunt if she is your mom’s older sister”?

People around the world have different cultures and cultural values. How could we have a universal language that captures all the world’s cultural values?

Language is a Bunch of Concepts

Often, we hear someone say, “I don’t know how to say it in English,” and they don’t mean they don’t know how to translate it into English. They’re saying that English doesn’t have such a concept. 

Counting in French involves math, for example. Learning to count to twenty is useful because eighty is quatre-vingts (four twenties) and ninety-seven is quatre-vingt-dix-sept (four-twenty-seventeen).

The Japanese language has different ways of counting items, depending on what the object is. For example, “one” when counting animals is ippiki, but “one” when counting umbrellas is ippon, and “one” for one drink is ippai. You can’t just say the same word to mean “one” cat and “one” pencil.

In Cantonese, they classify food as “hot” or “cold,” but this concept doesn’t refer to temperature. Instead, it refers to yin and yang properties of food. So spicy food, mangos, chicken and lobster, for example, are “heaty” while pork, watermelon and crab, for example, are “cool.”

It would be a challenge to capture all these concepts for all the languages of the world into one international language. 

Language is History

Language is a record of our history. English baffles people with its inconsistent spelling and pronunciation. For example, “through” and “threw” sound the same. But the “ough” sounds different when you say “bought” and “thought.” And “ough” changes its sound again when you say “though” and “sew.” 

One reason for this inconsistency is how English evolved. “Knight” and “night” sound the same in modern English. But long ago, we did pronounce the “k” and the “g” in knight.

English is continuing to evolve to be more inclusive. Instead of actor and actress, you can say actor for male and female actors. “Waiter” and “waitress” are evolving into “server.”

Technology is also influencing language. American Sign Language (ASL) uses both hands to communicate concepts. As the popularity of the mobile phone and face-to-face calls became commonplace, ASL has evolved so it is possible to communicate while signing with one hand and holding the phone with the other hand.

Key Takeaways

What if everyone on earth spoke the same language? It would make communication a lot easier. But is it possible to have one universal language? Can one language capture all the nuances and cultures of all the peoples of the world? And can one language suffice to say everything we want to say as we continue into the future? What do you think?

37 thoughts on “What If Everyone on Earth Spoke the Same Language”

  1. Hi! This blog post was so interesting and definitely opened up my eyes to how diverse languages can be. If it were possible for one language to be spoken universally, I feel as though it would ruin so much history and uniqueness within the world. Even if having a universal language would be an addition to a native language, there is beauty in trying to learn another countries language. Having a universal language would make communication amongst all easier, but it would take away from the uniqueness and beauty of having different languages. For example, if I went to a different country that spoke a different language, but I knew the “universal language” I would not have any problems speaking with others, therefore, I wouldn’t even try to learn their native language. I would miss out on the opportunity to learn a new language, and opportunity to communicate with the natives in their own tone. There is so much beauty in communicating with others in their own language, and I predict that if there was a universal language – that that beauty would be taken away.

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  2. Pingback: What If Everyone on Earth Spoke the Same Language – M

  3. True!!

    Language represent culture, uniqueness, place, person and a lot of things!!

    In India, we have so many languages and each language represent that place.

    I know 2 more languages, other than English, so that represent something.
    Plus, mother tongue bring people closer.

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  4. English as a language is really the global winner, because it has the capacity to assimilate other language expressions far more than any other. That said, one’s mother-tongue always strikes a close emotional chord. Which is why the 21st of February is declared by the UN as International Mother Language Day, though a public holiday only in the country that initiated it.

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  11. I’m in the sad group. Having lived over 20 years in Asia and travelled a bit, I find a lot of pleasure and enjoyment in communicating with other language people. It may seem daft, but for me at least, it makes me work harder, think deeper. Once can’t fall back on stereotypical clichés.
    And as others have pointed out, cultures have a huge impact on language development, to add to the for examples, I believe Arabic has several dozen more words for camel than English.
    Vive les différences

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    2. C’est exact! Bien dit! It is through French, with its cordial (or at least apparently mutually beneficial and aware) relations with many former colonies as well as other cultures, that some lucky Americans (otherwise isolated in a broadly English-speaking continent) have been able to encounter myriad other cultures. Learning another language does indeed force one to reckon with other choices of words, other voices…a beautiful experience that I hope the younger generation will also manage to have!

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  13. I think it would be really sad if everyone spoke the same language because it’s really not possible to capture the beauty and uniqueness of each language that exists and create just on language. I think a lot would be lost and that would suck. Plus, I think our differences are what make us unique and uniformity is not really great for humanity. Really interesting post, got me thinking.

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  14. You have already used marvelous examples of why this isn’t possible because of cultural differences. I’m reminded that native Alaskans have over a dozen words for snow. People in the tropics wouldn’t need that.

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    1. Yes, I remember a coworker saw snow for the first time and wanted to make a snowball. I’ve seen snow since I was little and just by looking at the snow, I knew it wouldn’t stick. So, yes, if you’re around snow a lot, you need the right number of words to describe powder snow vs wet snow, etc.

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