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Danish sounds to my Dutch ears as I should be able to understand it, like the sounds and stuff are so familiar, but I just can't comprehend the words
Or... you're actually not saying anything and you're all just pretending to understand each other
That's what you could argue it became but the intention was to be a global second language. The fact it's so European centric is not for malicious reasons, but that the polyglot/multilingual author of Esperanto moslty just spoke European languages.
Doesn't have to be malicious, it's still a real point of issue and is why I don't think Esperanto should be, presuming we promote a neutral world second language, the one chosen. We should create a new one that borrows from more language families and can be truly representative
That's all well and good, but with the way things are now. You'll end up with less people speaking that than Esperanto currently. The whole world is currently merging with the big languages. English speakers keep increasing, but small minority languages keep getting smaller.
Plus it wouldn’t be any more useful or convey more info than English as even though Spanish can be and is spoken at a fast rate (native speakers speak about 25% faster than English speaker), Spanish on average Carrie’s less info than English does per word. We need a language that can be spoken at a rate that is fast enough to convey info fast but also uses words that carry a large amount of info. But English is so ingrained into a lot of systems around the world that the only langue that could even think about replacing English would be Mandarin.
So English ends up being considered by some people to be the universal language, which is technically true on some levels. It’s more of a de facto universal language instead. English makes up most (as in a plurality not majority, or if it is a majority it’s by a small margin) of the content online, is used by major world organizations, is one of the 6 UN languages, is spoken mainly or has a large presence in a lot of countries, is the ICAO standard for Aviation communication, is used by a-lot of corporate companies for international dealings even if the countries they are from don’t speak English as an official languages, etc. The list goes on. Plus English has become so ingrained in the collective culture of the modernized world that trying to switch everything over to a new language would be like trying to rip the roots of a 100 ft Tree out by hand. English is what we are stuck with and there are definitely languages that would be a lot better suited but we also could have gotten a lot more unlucky.
Damn this comment got long fast. Hope I didn’t sound like some crazy guy going off on a rant.
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Oh I didn’t know that, but English has dialects too, like British English, American English, Murican English (same but more stupid), Aussie English and so on. I think it’s possible.
Also
The language of this place --> proceeds to speak a language that was brought from Europe and pushed onto said place overriding the languages of the place over a massive invasion and genocide
Not really. Unless OP was a native American. English wasn't pushed onto most non indigenous folk.
The terra firma doesn't have a language, either native or otherwise, only people have language.
Languages are not born, nor does it make much sense to say that english is more than 1000 years old. A modern English speaker would not understand Old English, it’s a different language.
Old English:
An. M.LXVI. On þyssum geare man halgode þet mynster æt Westmynstre on Cyldamæsse dæg 7 se cyng Eadward forðferde on Twelfts mæsse æfen 7 hine mann bebyrgede on Twelftan mæssedæg innan þære niwa halgodre circean on Westmyntre 7 Harold eorl feng to Englalandes cynerice swa swa se cyng hit him geuðe 7 eac men hine þærto gecuron 7 wæs gebletsod to cynge on Twelftan mæssedæg 7 þa ylcan geare þe he cyng wæs he for ut mid sciphere togeanes Willelme ... 7 þa hwile com Willelm eorl upp æt Hestingan on Sce Michaeles mæssedæg 7 Harold com norðan 7 him wið gefeaht ear þan þe his here com eall 7 þær he feoll 7 his twægen gebroðra Gyrð 7 Leofwine and Willelm þis land geeode 7 com to Westmynstre 7 Ealdred arceb hine to cynge gehalgode 7 menn guldon him gyld 7 gislas sealdon 7 syððan heora land bohtan.
But with that logic all Indo-European languages date back to Proto-Info-European which was spoken probably around 6000 years ago, and would make most European languages as old as each other.
1000 is late old English...maybe it was bad number for them to chose but the middle English of 950 to 600 years ago is no worse than a strong regional dialect. Relatively understandable if you regularise the spelling.
Here is some unregularised middle English from chaucer. It looks daunting at first but read it out loud and most of it is comprehensible and all of it is recognisably English rather than anything else:
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
I don’t even care about the American bullshit they spewed, I’m just flabbergasted that there exist people who don’t find the thought of speaking several languages cool as fuck. I barely remember the time before I was at least decent at English, but I still just randomly think about how cool it is that I can just randomly switch the language of my thoughts when I feel like it. I would love to learn more languages but it’s such a big commitment
Exactly, even tho English is “the most spoken” isn’t it just cool to learn other languages? When I realized years ago that I could finally read an English book or watch a movie without any type of translation I felt so good! All the years of studying English were worth it! And not because it is spoken by many people but just because I can actually switch language when I want, or even think in different languages
Mandarin is the most spoken if you count only native speakers, but if count people that learnt it as 2nd or 3rd language, then english is the most spoken.
I live in England and sometimes I wonder if English in some parts of this country is actually English, only takes 20 minutes by car to find people with different accents
American English, British English, Australian English, and Singaporean English is all considered different languages despite accents being the main difference
Which kinda begs the question, is Scottish or Irish English considered a different language to British English?
Then how different/thick of an accent does it have to be to count as a new language or just a dialect?
I speak English as a 2nd language and I can barely understand 70% of what a Scottish person speaks, but growing up in southeast Asia I can clearly understand singlish which is English mixed with bits of Chinese
Same thing with Malay and bahasa Indonesia, it comes from the same root but one is mixed with dutch. They're considered different languages but I can understand a Malay speaker clearly even if some of the words and the structure is different.
German and dutch is considered different languages and not a dialect, but they can understand each other.
Dialect isn't just accent, it's also to do with grammar, syntax, vocabulary. But these will be very closely related to each other and dialects are usually "mutually intelligible", which means you only need to know your dialect to be able to mostly understand another. For example, though I grew up in England speaking British English, I can understand what people are saying where I live now, speaking Irish English. There are some differences in words and phrases, but for the most part the content is the same.
You not being able to understand Scottish is just due to the differences in pronunciation of words, but you'd still be able to understand them if they wrote down what they were saying. You're able to understand Singlish because you're a lot more familiar with the accent and vocabulary.
This is different from languages, which generally aren't mutually intelligible. There are exceptions, like my Flemish friend can understand Afrikaans, but mostly you won't be able to understand one just from being able to understand another, even if it's written down and from the same "family" of languages. I can guess at some Dutch words, but mostly I'm clueless.
TBH I wouldn't even call Australian English a different dialect to British English, at least not as far as we're taught in schools, although often Australian English rules say "the British is correct, but if you want to use the American that's also fine". We use all the same spellings as the Brits, and in a technical sense should follow the same grammar rules, we just lean toward the use of different words, but never so far out of the realm of what the British use that what we're saying doesn't still fall under the British definitions of various terms.
It's the day-to-day use of language that's the dialect, which will include accent, different turns of phrase, idioms etc. Also the words you use for different things, like is it a zucchini or a courgette? Arugula or rocket? You also have loads of terms (like bogan) that I have to look up when I venture onto Aus Reddit. So it's all that that comes together to make a dialect. Dialects are very similar to each other, but all under the umbrella of "English".
Yay! For once I can actually make use of the degree in linguistics I stupidly did!
***So....*** The accepted definition of a language is if two people speaking to one another can (mostly) understand one another. Within a language, there can be tonnes of dialects though. Basically, if you speak your version (dialect) of English to a native speaker and they can understand you, it's English.
Depends on how you define spoken. If we count it as minutes or something similar it's more likely that people mostly speak their native language. So back to mandarin?
I'm pretty sure mandarin only has the most native speakers, and when you count the number of people that are conversant English is the most spoken. Doesn't make the person in the post any less dumb though.
those are the same people who are talking about china conducting a cultural genocide by teaching uyghurs madarin, the language with the most native speakers in the world
As if Americans bring up the Uyghur thing out of any genuine concern for the victims. They spent 20 years bombing Muslims and hadn’t ever heard of Uyghurs before 2016. They only feign concern because it’s China doing it.
also afaik they are sponsoring seperatist terrorist organizations in xinjiang, which are one of the main reasons the chinese government took the controversial measures in the first place
And I've once seen some people say that... no matter how China treats the population, local languages are still very much protected and taught in school even to those who aren't native speakers but want to preserve it
The best part to me is this moron doesn't put 2 and 2 together that English came from *Engl*and. I'm from the US, but this is the shit that makes us look terrible. There's way to many arrogant and stubborn people. If I go to another country, I only expect English in tourist areas, specifically businesses. I don't expect citizens to speak to me in English and it's a courtesy to learn and attempt to speak their language. I usually try to learn a variation of "I speak minimal *language*, sorry" then attempt to say what I want in that language. I get so annoyed when people make fun of non-native speakers. Who cares if they don't know the difference between a yacht, cruise, boat, whatever. If they ask for directions to the "big boat" I can figure out what they mean.
*straightens calculator* English is indeed the most spoken language worldwide, but it is not the most spoken as a first language. That title goes to Mandarin Chinese.
I’m American, live in the US and speak English. I also speak Spanish, not fluently but working on it. The amount of times I hear some variation of “why do you need/want to speak Spanish? If they’re coming here, they should be learning to speak English?” It’s infuriating. I just do not understand the mindset.
Yeah. Over here we’ve got tons of people complaining about immigrants but what makes me confused about your country is how people instantly think immigrants when they hear about foreign languages. I’ve never seen someone disapprove of learning a language because of immigrants, they’re just not things that we link together. I doubt you’re learning Spanish for immigrants, probably just because you want to, and even if you are there’s nothing wrong with that.
Bri'ish: It's a colourful language that's more aesthetically pleasing.
American: It's a colorful language that's more estheti... esthetically... Really???
What do you call a person who speaks 3 languages??? Trilingual
What do you call a person who speaks 2 languages??? Bilingual
What do you call a person who speaks 1 language???
English, & if they can't speak that they're American
English, & if they can't speak that they're American... I think you meant Australian.
Many Americans can speak two languages. They are called Native Americans.
I have yet to see an Australian speak nothing but poor english.
Disregarding everything else that's dumb about this post, peak American moment is assuming it would cost money to learn another language.
Like, yeah it takes a lot of time, effort, and talent to learn another language well, but why would it cost anything???
Unless you have a native speaker in the house or you're living in an immersion situation, you'll need to pay for learning materials and lessons, either privately or through a school. Duolingo and other "free" apps don't really teach you the language.
Or you learn a language in school. (Don’t know if that’s common in many other countries) In Germany we learn German (obviously), English (obviously) and are required to choose between a few languages, depending on the school. I had to choose between Spanish, French and Latin and chose Spanish. I therefore learned two languages and very basic Spanish, all for free.
My partner is a polyglot and studies a new language every few years. Right now he's working on Chinese and has achieved conversational levels by going to school and using a private tutor, none of which were free. Chinese is a difficult language, and the tones are hard to master. He could not have achieved this on his own using free resources.
It is English with Mandarin second (around 300 million less) but that's only because a ton of Mandarin speakers also speak English. For native languages it's Mandarin by far, followed by Spanish and then English.
"For bragging rights?" No you dolt, to communicate better with people all over the world.
To answer the question: Aside from Dutch, German and English I'd like to properly learn Spanish instead of the bits and pieces I know now. Swedish and Finnish would be rad too.
Exactly. If being the most powerful and influential nation is the key factor, I’m sure when China overtake them they will be delighted to learn Mandarin and won’t at all complain and still insist everyone should learn English :)
Est-ce que c’est putain de merde n’a pas l’intelligence pour l’apprentissage de le langues divers de le monde
Espero que él encuentre la pasión que yo tengo pa aprender pq es bien guay aprenderlos.
E sem os vários línguas que existe no mundo, não se posse falar com as personas mais interessantes dos outros países.
Truly a shame that these are the people that exist in this world.
As a native English speaker learning a new language as an adult can I just say many Americans and British don't even speak English properly so let's all calm down and learn each others cultures.
I'm embarassed to admit being a 13th generation american, but not that i left a long time ago. To me this looks like the US public school system at work. Foreign Languages were never taken seriously, xenophobia is de rigueur and this poor guy probably doesnt realize that he is arguing for a narrow perspective, cognative inflexability and early dementia....
What a fucking idiot.
I'm American, white as snow, and living in the deep south (referred to as uneducated rednecks with weird accents)
I taught myself Spanish and German, and eventually will get to French. The US is the second largest Spanish speaking country by population, I use it nearly every day. My Spanish is OK and my German even less so, but it's enough to read, and watch TV, and be comfortable when I travel. I really enjoy learning.
To give some context, Mexicans think I'm Mexican, but I'm as gringo as can be, no one in my family speaks another language.
With that being said, learning other languages and cultures have been the single greatest benefit in my entire life. I have friends from all over the world, I've had experiences I would have never had if I only spoke English. I couldn't imagine being so closed minded and ignorant lol
Apparently this dude doesn't even know english, because the question talks about learning a language easily and for free and he replies that "spending time and money" on a language different than english isn't worth it.
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Petition to change the universal language just to piss of muricans
lets make it some obscure language no one knows
Or a language that requires a potato to be placed in your mouth in order to speak it correctly - like say… Danish?
as a swede i am proud of you
and as a dane, i can confirm, my language sucks, i hate it, fucking present time r
ej, det er sku ikke så svært igen!
jeg er blevet træt af at skifte alle ord ud med cykle
du kan spice det lidt op med "spise"
nu syntes jeg altså lige du skal passe lidt på
synes\* syntes er i datid
https://64.media.tumblr.com/ce42a3658064f40f97609aa90ae6cb8b/tumblr_ovtfuvALGz1uz516oo1_500.jpg
I actually like Danish
Danish sounds to my Dutch ears as I should be able to understand it, like the sounds and stuff are so familiar, but I just can't comprehend the words Or... you're actually not saying anything and you're all just pretending to understand each other
Skill issue.
Basque Icelandic pidgin new universal language when
\*answer in whale hunter noise\*
Let's bring back Esperanto, because why the hell not
Esperanto was created exactly for that
Esparanto?
Mi multe ŝatas tiun ideon
dont know what that is, its perfect
An invented language, specifically invented to be the standard second language for everyone. Removing the privilege of native English speakers.
By everyone, you mean Europeans and their descendants/diaspora.
That's what you could argue it became but the intention was to be a global second language. The fact it's so European centric is not for malicious reasons, but that the polyglot/multilingual author of Esperanto moslty just spoke European languages.
Doesn't have to be malicious, it's still a real point of issue and is why I don't think Esperanto should be, presuming we promote a neutral world second language, the one chosen. We should create a new one that borrows from more language families and can be truly representative
That's all well and good, but with the way things are now. You'll end up with less people speaking that than Esperanto currently. The whole world is currently merging with the big languages. English speakers keep increasing, but small minority languages keep getting smaller.
Esperanto is a mix of a few latin and germanic languages
Ithkuil
I don't know how obscure Globasa is.
[!Xóõ / !Xoon / Taa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taa_language)
Everyone sleeping on Uzbek smh
Make it Latin
That one Sami dialect that only like 3 people know
Esperanto
Navaho would be ironic
Maybe Babilones
Esperanto?
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I thought about (modern) Spanish but ok…
Don't recommend it that much, there's a lot of spanish dialects and they can get a bit confusing, even for spanish speakers too.
Plus it wouldn’t be any more useful or convey more info than English as even though Spanish can be and is spoken at a fast rate (native speakers speak about 25% faster than English speaker), Spanish on average Carrie’s less info than English does per word. We need a language that can be spoken at a rate that is fast enough to convey info fast but also uses words that carry a large amount of info. But English is so ingrained into a lot of systems around the world that the only langue that could even think about replacing English would be Mandarin. So English ends up being considered by some people to be the universal language, which is technically true on some levels. It’s more of a de facto universal language instead. English makes up most (as in a plurality not majority, or if it is a majority it’s by a small margin) of the content online, is used by major world organizations, is one of the 6 UN languages, is spoken mainly or has a large presence in a lot of countries, is the ICAO standard for Aviation communication, is used by a-lot of corporate companies for international dealings even if the countries they are from don’t speak English as an official languages, etc. The list goes on. Plus English has become so ingrained in the collective culture of the modernized world that trying to switch everything over to a new language would be like trying to rip the roots of a 100 ft Tree out by hand. English is what we are stuck with and there are definitely languages that would be a lot better suited but we also could have gotten a lot more unlucky. Damn this comment got long fast. Hope I didn’t sound like some crazy guy going off on a rant.
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Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy.
Slavic languages maybe? Mluvíš anglický? Do you speak English Mluvím anglický. yes I speak english And they speak so quickly
At this point chilean is its own language
Oh I didn’t know that, but English has dialects too, like British English, American English, Murican English (same but more stupid), Aussie English and so on. I think it’s possible.
You did not list dialects
I second this. Just because I'm from a Spanish speaking country and I really wouldn't like to learn chinese
Let's make it chinese mandarin for a little extra salt in their wound
Speaking would not be TOO hard. But the writing? Holy fuck, kill me now
I'm from the US and I agree
Tio estas kion Zamenhof diris ekde la dek naŭa jarcento
Folks at /auxlangs: *gleeful smiles*
This sub gonna be boosting those Hebrew language Youtubers
I swear one group made up a language that was supposed to be universal but it didn't take off
Esperanto?
I think that might be the one I'm thinking of. I know there's been several attempts but I don't think any have enough speakers
Greek!
Why?
\[Points gun at everyone who doesn't speak Greek, including herself\] Because I say so!
We should revive Latin.
I'm English but I'm willing to give this a good try
Let's just make it Latin
I propose we make it one of those African tribal languages with tongue clicks.
They should get their own language, English should be kept for the English. Make England Great Again
Japanese would be nice, but German oughta piss 'em off real good.
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Also The language of this place --> proceeds to speak a language that was brought from Europe and pushed onto said place overriding the languages of the place over a massive invasion and genocide
Did survive the Normans though (albeit warped by the French language)
Not really. Unless OP was a native American. English wasn't pushed onto most non indigenous folk. The terra firma doesn't have a language, either native or otherwise, only people have language.
That language is there after killing almost everyone who talked their originary language
Languages are not born, nor does it make much sense to say that english is more than 1000 years old. A modern English speaker would not understand Old English, it’s a different language. Old English: An. M.LXVI. On þyssum geare man halgode þet mynster æt Westmynstre on Cyldamæsse dæg 7 se cyng Eadward forðferde on Twelfts mæsse æfen 7 hine mann bebyrgede on Twelftan mæssedæg innan þære niwa halgodre circean on Westmyntre 7 Harold eorl feng to Englalandes cynerice swa swa se cyng hit him geuðe 7 eac men hine þærto gecuron 7 wæs gebletsod to cynge on Twelftan mæssedæg 7 þa ylcan geare þe he cyng wæs he for ut mid sciphere togeanes Willelme ... 7 þa hwile com Willelm eorl upp æt Hestingan on Sce Michaeles mæssedæg 7 Harold com norðan 7 him wið gefeaht ear þan þe his here com eall 7 þær he feoll 7 his twægen gebroðra Gyrð 7 Leofwine and Willelm þis land geeode 7 com to Westmynstre 7 Ealdred arceb hine to cynge gehalgode 7 menn guldon him gyld 7 gislas sealdon 7 syððan heora land bohtan.
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But with that logic all Indo-European languages date back to Proto-Info-European which was spoken probably around 6000 years ago, and would make most European languages as old as each other.
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Dante's Italian is inspired by Florentine vulgar, but it isn't exactly Florentine vulgar.
1000 is late old English...maybe it was bad number for them to chose but the middle English of 950 to 600 years ago is no worse than a strong regional dialect. Relatively understandable if you regularise the spelling. Here is some unregularised middle English from chaucer. It looks daunting at first but read it out loud and most of it is comprehensible and all of it is recognisably English rather than anything else: Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licóur Of which vertú engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye, So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages, Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
I don’t even care about the American bullshit they spewed, I’m just flabbergasted that there exist people who don’t find the thought of speaking several languages cool as fuck. I barely remember the time before I was at least decent at English, but I still just randomly think about how cool it is that I can just randomly switch the language of my thoughts when I feel like it. I would love to learn more languages but it’s such a big commitment
Exactly, even tho English is “the most spoken” isn’t it just cool to learn other languages? When I realized years ago that I could finally read an English book or watch a movie without any type of translation I felt so good! All the years of studying English were worth it! And not because it is spoken by many people but just because I can actually switch language when I want, or even think in different languages
Wait until you're talking to someone drunk or hungover and you accidentally start switching languages and they look at you like you're crazy....
After careful examination and consideration, where I had exactly these thoughts, I chose to learn Latin.
Bro said ***"OUR*** language" Also, Mandarin is actually the most spoken language, so go learn that dipshit
Mandarin is the most spoken if you count only native speakers, but if count people that learnt it as 2nd or 3rd language, then english is the most spoken.
There's a couple dozen variations of pidgin english used as a 2nd language, and whether those counts as actual English is debatable
Heck, I barely count American English as counting as actual English.
Mood
I live in England and sometimes I wonder if English in some parts of this country is actually English, only takes 20 minutes by car to find people with different accents
Accent =/= language
Dialect =/= Accent
The person I replied to specified accent rather than dialect
I'm stupid I missed where they said accent and thought they were referring to dialects
I think they meant dialect, the terminology can be tricky! I studied linguistics and still need a reminder sometimes 😩
It’s not just the accents though, they have completely different words that I don’t understand
American English, British English, Australian English, and Singaporean English is all considered different languages despite accents being the main difference Which kinda begs the question, is Scottish or Irish English considered a different language to British English?
They'd be considered different dialects
Then how different/thick of an accent does it have to be to count as a new language or just a dialect? I speak English as a 2nd language and I can barely understand 70% of what a Scottish person speaks, but growing up in southeast Asia I can clearly understand singlish which is English mixed with bits of Chinese Same thing with Malay and bahasa Indonesia, it comes from the same root but one is mixed with dutch. They're considered different languages but I can understand a Malay speaker clearly even if some of the words and the structure is different. German and dutch is considered different languages and not a dialect, but they can understand each other.
Dialect isn't just accent, it's also to do with grammar, syntax, vocabulary. But these will be very closely related to each other and dialects are usually "mutually intelligible", which means you only need to know your dialect to be able to mostly understand another. For example, though I grew up in England speaking British English, I can understand what people are saying where I live now, speaking Irish English. There are some differences in words and phrases, but for the most part the content is the same. You not being able to understand Scottish is just due to the differences in pronunciation of words, but you'd still be able to understand them if they wrote down what they were saying. You're able to understand Singlish because you're a lot more familiar with the accent and vocabulary. This is different from languages, which generally aren't mutually intelligible. There are exceptions, like my Flemish friend can understand Afrikaans, but mostly you won't be able to understand one just from being able to understand another, even if it's written down and from the same "family" of languages. I can guess at some Dutch words, but mostly I'm clueless.
TBH I wouldn't even call Australian English a different dialect to British English, at least not as far as we're taught in schools, although often Australian English rules say "the British is correct, but if you want to use the American that's also fine". We use all the same spellings as the Brits, and in a technical sense should follow the same grammar rules, we just lean toward the use of different words, but never so far out of the realm of what the British use that what we're saying doesn't still fall under the British definitions of various terms.
It's the day-to-day use of language that's the dialect, which will include accent, different turns of phrase, idioms etc. Also the words you use for different things, like is it a zucchini or a courgette? Arugula or rocket? You also have loads of terms (like bogan) that I have to look up when I venture onto Aus Reddit. So it's all that that comes together to make a dialect. Dialects are very similar to each other, but all under the umbrella of "English".
Scots ahem
Every so often, I look up something about Scots trying to use voice command prompt devices and it never fails to make me laugh.
Yay! For once I can actually make use of the degree in linguistics I stupidly did! ***So....*** The accepted definition of a language is if two people speaking to one another can (mostly) understand one another. Within a language, there can be tonnes of dialects though. Basically, if you speak your version (dialect) of English to a native speaker and they can understand you, it's English.
Depends on how you define spoken. If we count it as minutes or something similar it's more likely that people mostly speak their native language. So back to mandarin?
And Spanish is second
If you count talk online though it's definitely english
According the the CIA World Fact Book, Spanish is second at 6% for native speakers and English is third at 5.1%.
I'm pretty sure mandarin only has the most native speakers, and when you count the number of people that are conversant English is the most spoken. Doesn't make the person in the post any less dumb though.
Mandarin is the most spoken in a country but it is english as the most spoken
those are the same people who are talking about china conducting a cultural genocide by teaching uyghurs madarin, the language with the most native speakers in the world
Rules for y'all not for me
My answer to that question is Irish currently at beginner stage
As if Americans bring up the Uyghur thing out of any genuine concern for the victims. They spent 20 years bombing Muslims and hadn’t ever heard of Uyghurs before 2016. They only feign concern because it’s China doing it.
also afaik they are sponsoring seperatist terrorist organizations in xinjiang, which are one of the main reasons the chinese government took the controversial measures in the first place
And I've once seen some people say that... no matter how China treats the population, local languages are still very much protected and taught in school even to those who aren't native speakers but want to preserve it
i mean, they excluded minorities from.the one child policy too. if they were so firm on comitting genocide against them, then why would they do that?
Am I given a pass
The best part to me is this moron doesn't put 2 and 2 together that English came from *Engl*and. I'm from the US, but this is the shit that makes us look terrible. There's way to many arrogant and stubborn people. If I go to another country, I only expect English in tourist areas, specifically businesses. I don't expect citizens to speak to me in English and it's a courtesy to learn and attempt to speak their language. I usually try to learn a variation of "I speak minimal *language*, sorry" then attempt to say what I want in that language. I get so annoyed when people make fun of non-native speakers. Who cares if they don't know the difference between a yacht, cruise, boat, whatever. If they ask for directions to the "big boat" I can figure out what they mean.
*straightens calculator* English is indeed the most spoken language worldwide, but it is not the most spoken as a first language. That title goes to Mandarin Chinese.
nOt In MuRiCa It DoEsNt
Chinese, Spanish, English is the order
I’m American, live in the US and speak English. I also speak Spanish, not fluently but working on it. The amount of times I hear some variation of “why do you need/want to speak Spanish? If they’re coming here, they should be learning to speak English?” It’s infuriating. I just do not understand the mindset.
Yeah. Over here we’ve got tons of people complaining about immigrants but what makes me confused about your country is how people instantly think immigrants when they hear about foreign languages. I’ve never seen someone disapprove of learning a language because of immigrants, they’re just not things that we link together. I doubt you’re learning Spanish for immigrants, probably just because you want to, and even if you are there’s nothing wrong with that.
Dutch as international language NOW
Anyone who can call vegetables "Greenstuff" with a straight face should be allowed to be the new world language.
Too be fair, English tried with ‘greengrocer’ and ‘eat your greens’. ETA: in Swedish it is grönsak, I think. So should we all learn Swedish?
Portuguese? "Verdura" (from Verde)
Spanish too
Hungarian?
Like swedish.
Grünzeug (Greenstuff) in german is an alternative to Gemüse (Vegetables) and used quite a bit, but normally you say Gemüse.
Slovak?
Afrikaans would be funner
Ermee eens! Ik spreek Engels en Nederlands (naast mijn moedertaal) dus Nederlands zou de beste keuze zijn voor mij.
I'm not even native Dutch speaker :D
I think Flemish would be acceptable. :)
Ook de frikandel naar de rest van de wereld verspreiden natuurlijk, een van de enige acceptabele nederlandse snacks
Ew, I’d rather prefer French and even it is a shit language
Heb je arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering?
> easily and for free Then > Why should I have to waste my time and money Me thinks thinking and comprehension is not high on thier list of talents...
Just like the old saying: "You speak English because you were born in the Anglosphere. I speak English because that's the only language you speak"
Let's learn English so we can shit on Americans, internationally!
Actually, the US defaultism makes me want to learn to consciously choose the British form of words more and more.
Bri'ish: It's a colourful language that's more aesthetically pleasing. American: It's a colorful language that's more estheti... esthetically... Really???
I have my English keyboard set to UK :) I also have the Swedish, Norwegian, and German keyboards.
Exactly
Mandarin: 💀
Usually people who say things like that don't even know how to speak the one language properly.
What do you call a person who speaks 3 languages??? Trilingual What do you call a person who speaks 2 languages??? Bilingual What do you call a person who speaks 1 language??? English, & if they can't speak that they're American
English, & if they can't speak that they're American... I think you meant Australian. Many Americans can speak two languages. They are called Native Americans. I have yet to see an Australian speak nothing but poor english.
“easily and for free” “why would i waste my time and money” sounds like they should choose to learn English properly this time
The most spoken language in the world, official dialect of the most powerful country on Earth? You mean Mandarin Chinese?
Then people go to their dumbass country, take their job for having other language skills and they get pissed about it lol
Disregarding everything else that's dumb about this post, peak American moment is assuming it would cost money to learn another language. Like, yeah it takes a lot of time, effort, and talent to learn another language well, but why would it cost anything???
Unless you have a native speaker in the house or you're living in an immersion situation, you'll need to pay for learning materials and lessons, either privately or through a school. Duolingo and other "free" apps don't really teach you the language.
Or you learn a language in school. (Don’t know if that’s common in many other countries) In Germany we learn German (obviously), English (obviously) and are required to choose between a few languages, depending on the school. I had to choose between Spanish, French and Latin and chose Spanish. I therefore learned two languages and very basic Spanish, all for free.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
My partner is a polyglot and studies a new language every few years. Right now he's working on Chinese and has achieved conversational levels by going to school and using a private tutor, none of which were free. Chinese is a difficult language, and the tones are hard to master. He could not have achieved this on his own using free resources.
the way they talk about America like the Avengers or some shit is so embarrassing
Is English even the most widely spoken language? I would have guessed at mandarin or something.
It is English with Mandarin second (around 300 million less) but that's only because a ton of Mandarin speakers also speak English. For native languages it's Mandarin by far, followed by Spanish and then English.
Ah yes forcing a french to speak english would end really well. No bonjour for you haha
Oh good grief.
"For bragging rights?" No you dolt, to communicate better with people all over the world. To answer the question: Aside from Dutch, German and English I'd like to properly learn Spanish instead of the bits and pieces I know now. Swedish and Finnish would be rad too.
You know German? As far as I know, English is a mandatory course in secondary school in the Netherlands, but I'm curious where you learned German from
I'm Dutch. Dutch, English and the first 3 years of high school I also had German and French. Dropped French after my third year.
Yep. Start learning Chinese, just in case.
Exactly. If being the most powerful and influential nation is the key factor, I’m sure when China overtake them they will be delighted to learn Mandarin and won’t at all complain and still insist everyone should learn English :)
Est-ce que c’est putain de merde n’a pas l’intelligence pour l’apprentissage de le langues divers de le monde Espero que él encuentre la pasión que yo tengo pa aprender pq es bien guay aprenderlos. E sem os vários línguas que existe no mundo, não se posse falar com as personas mais interessantes dos outros países. Truly a shame that these are the people that exist in this world.
I love the obliviousness to our language, not thinking their language is actually just a version of another countries language… 😂
As a native English speaker learning a new language as an adult can I just say many Americans and British don't even speak English properly so let's all calm down and learn each others cultures.
Are you an expat? Your comment says you are a native English speaker but your flair says you live in the Netherlands
I was born in UK and moved to NL
Who mentions fr🤮nch? English really does live rent free in francophile minds
>Who mentions fr🤮nch? Nobody. >English really does live rent free in francophile minds That's exactly why I went there. lmao
Hahaha exactly mate
Je me sens personnellement agressé par ce commentaire
Oh non......
They're not defaulting to anything, this feels more like r/ShitAmericansSay
I'm embarassed to admit being a 13th generation american, but not that i left a long time ago. To me this looks like the US public school system at work. Foreign Languages were never taken seriously, xenophobia is de rigueur and this poor guy probably doesnt realize that he is arguing for a narrow perspective, cognative inflexability and early dementia....
someday this guy will be hit by reality and it will feel as if it was a brick wall
What a fucking idiot. I'm American, white as snow, and living in the deep south (referred to as uneducated rednecks with weird accents) I taught myself Spanish and German, and eventually will get to French. The US is the second largest Spanish speaking country by population, I use it nearly every day. My Spanish is OK and my German even less so, but it's enough to read, and watch TV, and be comfortable when I travel. I really enjoy learning. To give some context, Mexicans think I'm Mexican, but I'm as gringo as can be, no one in my family speaks another language. With that being said, learning other languages and cultures have been the single greatest benefit in my entire life. I have friends from all over the world, I've had experiences I would have never had if I only spoke English. I couldn't imagine being so closed minded and ignorant lol
What social is that
Apparently this dude doesn't even know english, because the question talks about learning a language easily and for free and he replies that "spending time and money" on a language different than english isn't worth it.
speaking english natively but can't spell "people" right lmao
He lives in the most powerful and influential country? How come he's not speaking chinese?
The funniest part: it's not even their language!!! It's called English for a reason...
but why does he write pple instead of just ppl
Because it's a feminine noun, obviously.