Latin as the universal European language

[wolfigor]

I don't think that would work too well because the sentence structure and context of different words would make it too confusing.

That's true, it also depends on the fact that Chinese is a very contextual language.
However it works remarkably well within China (unifying the various languages) and even today it's possible to read documents from thousands of years ago (even if the language behind the original language changed drastically).

I mean, Chinese and Japanese largely use the same characters, or used to anyway before the PRC adopted simplified Chinese characters. Something written in Japanese can be understood a little by someone who is literate in Chinese but the understanding is limited.

That's also due to the fact that the Japanese did not adopted the Chinese script to have a common understanding with China but to have a good writing system.
At the same time they adopted it many centuries ago with a large "drift" in the meanings of the characters between China and Japan.

 

[Danielion]

Thats not really the case though is it? Latin influenced early French which then changed and morphed into it's own tongue and then it came to England and then it morphed with Anglo-Saxon language to form English. It's too far away, too far removed from my language, it's been filtered and funnelled through too many other languages to mark it out as substaintially effecting English. Spanish, French, Romanian and others have better claims to that.

I think the UK would end up entering some Anglo Commonwealth apart from the EU.

 

[Danielion]

But we should strive to maintain some sort of "high" English as our European lingua franca, so that the Brits don't have so much of a natural advantage over others (since their English is inexorably getting more and more decadent and ugly).

Some English that is different from their tongue, with forms like 'thou', 'thy', 'thine', 'ye'. It would work if it weren't a living language and you wouldn't be made fun of talking like that.
Personally I don't find English a beautiful language, except for few rare forms of it. Take for instance the English of the announcer voice at N:TW. Still, if English weren't so analytic.

P.S.: English used to be deemed an 'unmelodious' language in the French-speaking world of the 19th century. I think the language of the British lower classes has always been ugly-sounding, comparable to the chav jibber-jabber we hear from British tourists (I believe Prague receives many of such tourists in the Czech Republic).
I always must think at Picton's charge. English of another era.

 

[Quackers]

I think the UK would end up entering some Anglo Commonwealth apart from the EU.

don't get my hopes up

 

[Lillefix]

don't get my hopes up

I don't see the attraction of being the 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th state of the United States.

 

[Traitorfish]

P.S.: English used to be deemed an 'unmelodious' language in the French-speaking world of the 19th century. I think the language of the British lower classes has always been ugly-sounding, comparable to the chav jibber-jabber we hear from British tourists (I believe Prague receives many of such tourists in the Czech Republic).
I always must think at Picton's charge. English of another era.

Given what people of his sort got up to in that era, did you ever wonder we aren't all in love with its linguistic relics?

 

[G-Max]

Make Lojban the official language of the world.

 

[Quackers]

I don't see the attraction of being the 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th state of the United States.

Anglo-Commonwealth excludes the United States in my eyes.

 

[NovaKart]

Yes, actually I do. It was a recently forged nation after a 19th century ideal in a hostile environment. It's true, it would be nigh impossible to get the European population in such a state, unless you successfully apply methods of Stalinistic proportions (neither evident nor desired).
Still, making Latin the universal European language would have as advantage a link to the intellectual past of Europe. Once your get a young population able to think in Latin, people would be part of a culture with more than 2000 years of history.




Well, intellectually people used Latin as a medium for a very long period. It was the Roman Catholic Church that kind of forged a loose sense of unity in Europe in the past and through it the Latin language. In that regard it can be seen as 'an ancestral language' culturally. Still, neither likes the idea to abolish my Germanic Dutch-speaking roots, as neither I am exempt from nationalism.

It's an interesting idea that a widespread knowledge of Latin would give the masses a knowledge of Roman and Medieval literature in Latin. I'm not really sure it would work out that way though. Most people will want to learn a language to use it for practical purposes and not academically. There's a large body of literature in English from the past 400 or 500 years that is intelligible to the average university educated native English speaker but I think the average English speaker hasn't read much of it at all. It's true it would at least make the classics more accessible to people in the original language.

That's true, it also depends on the fact that Chinese is a very contextual language.
However it works remarkably well within China (unifying the various languages) and even today it's possible to read documents from thousands of years ago (even if the language behind the original language changed drastically).


That's also due to the fact that the Japanese did not adopted the Chinese script to have a common understanding with China but to have a good writing system.
At the same time they adopted it many centuries ago with a large "drift" in the meanings of the characters between China and Japan.

The different dialects of Chinese are at least dialects of the same language. This is also an interesting idea but I think it's not workable. In simple sentences I suppose it could but I don't think anything more complex would be possible.

 

[Angst]

Why not something practical in all European countries like, say, Arabic?

 

[gangleri2001]

Make Lojban the official language of the world.

This.

 

[Veles]

Link to video.

Though they sing some German variant of Latin.

 

[Winner]

Though they sing some German variant of Latin.

I actually fully support officially adopting the Latin lyrics. Having an anthem without lyrics is kinda awkward. I understand some people might have issues with the original German lyrics, plus the words aren't not exactly patriotic

 

[gangleri2001]

Ok, you' have convinced me Veles. Now I'm gonna open the Latin 101 thread.

PD: BTW, are you a Slavic neopagan?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Though they sing some German variant of Latin.

Isn't that the official one?

 

[Veles]

...are you a Slavic neopagan?

Nah, just particulary fond of Slavic (as well as any other European) history. It's interesting to see the kind of druidism/paganism/rodnovery revival (or reinvention?) in Europe, though. I like their (proclaimed) ethics towards nature.

Isn't that the official one?

Well, as the ancient Latin saying goes: Non 'Airopa', sed 'Europa' Latine pronuntiare debet

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I wouldn't even know what to debate. It just was my naive impression that the "German" version is the universally accepted version.

 

[Veles]

I wouldn't even know what to debate. It just was my naive impression that the "German" version is the universally accepted version.

Wiki says, that "...Due to the large number of languages used in the European Union, the anthem is purely instrumental, and the German lyrics Friedrich Schiller wrote and Beethoven based the melody upon have no official status."

German lyrics are good, but as Winner noted, not too statehood-related (other than 'Alle Menschen werden Brüder').

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Argh, I was still speaking in the context of the Latin language and its pronunciation. Oh nevermind...

 

[Veles]

'Airopa'? Seriously?

EDIT: Wiktionary says it's /euˈroː.pa/ for Classical Latin.