What is the most efficient language in the world?
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scherbchen
well that can´t be good
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as far as easy grammar goes: english. it has just so many things going against it. spelling, dissociated vocabulary, a truck-load of vocaublary to learn. on the plus side you have distribution, rather easy grammar.
contestant: spanish. big downside: subjuntivo. It is a concept that is very difficult to grasp for non-native speakers. once understood they will never get it right 90%+ of the time. the grammar is rather easy apart from that.
worst indogerman language ever: german. there is no language out there that has more exceptions to the rule (let's not even talk about the exceptions to the exceptions and let's discard the ones that apply when it is just moist instead of raining....). It is a fun language to grow up with because you will forever be able to make fun of foreigners trying to talk it. but that's about it.
spanish for starters. you will be understood after having had 5 hours worth of language classes. english for advanced speakers.
contestant: spanish. big downside: subjuntivo. It is a concept that is very difficult to grasp for non-native speakers. once understood they will never get it right 90%+ of the time. the grammar is rather easy apart from that.
worst indogerman language ever: german. there is no language out there that has more exceptions to the rule (let's not even talk about the exceptions to the exceptions and let's discard the ones that apply when it is just moist instead of raining....). It is a fun language to grow up with because you will forever be able to make fun of foreigners trying to talk it. but that's about it.
spanish for starters. you will be understood after having had 5 hours worth of language classes. english for advanced speakers.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Nowhere in the OP does it say that we can only use official languages of countries
I don't know much about Esperanto, but I bet it's way more efficient than English.
As an English-second-language speaker, let me tell you: English grammar is NOT easy.
But then again, compared to, say, German, English grammar seemed childishly easy.
I truly have no idea what the criteria for an efficient language would be, but I would assume English would not be it. It's very convoluted, has so many confusing archaic rules, and contains such a mish-mash of European languages that it wouldn't get my vote.
I don't speak Chinese, but to me the idea of a character per word seems kind of efficient, doesn't it? Although a phonetic language like English might have more flexibility.
As far as a world language, (not based on efficiency) my completely biased vote would still be for English due to it's popularity, and because I'm selfish.
I don't speak Chinese, but to me the idea of a character per word seems kind of efficient, doesn't it? Although a phonetic language like English might have more flexibility.
As far as a world language, (not based on efficiency) my completely biased vote would still be for English due to it's popularity, and because I'm selfish.
scherbchen
well that can´t be good
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second language english here as well.
the only references I have are german (which is borderline silly) and spanish (which is easier for the iniate than english until you get to subjuntivo). compared to those two (and, I guess, French... but I have forgotten all about that) English IS imho easy once you get past the point of "omg foreign language".
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Thing is, IMO a certain degree of redundancy and inefficiency in a language is actually good. Because it means you can still understand a person even if you mishear or don't quite catch some parts. Now consider Chinese, which has compared to western languages very few meaningful phonemes, many of which even resemble each other, which could be considered "efficient", but also has the consequence you can more easily hear something entirely different than the speaker intended.
MadScotsMan
The Ruler of Cattle
and lets not forget, just cause you can speak chinease, doesn't mean visiting will be a breeze. More dialects than America.
Icelandic would have to up there as the hardest, but I go with english with efficiency because it is so malleable
Icelandic would have to up there as the hardest, but I go with english with efficiency because it is so malleable
If you take "Chinese", you probably took Mandarin, which is known as pu tong hua or "everyday speak" for a reason.
Stormrage
Ever Present Taskmaster
Most efficient? Hmmm.. Sign language? Everyone, shut up! 
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
scherbchen
well that can´t be good
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Most efficient? Hmmm.. Sign language? Everyone, shut up!
*you*
*complete*
*me*
but it's actually a good point. I keep forgetting, however, if there is an international sign language or whether each language has one. yep, didn't wiki it. I don't want to smart-arse.
Elta
我不会把这种
most efficient? Some artificial and created language I am sure.
woody60707
Deity
Pretty much just what I was going to say. But I was going to say it nicely.
Even broken English can still be very easily understood.
lutzj
The Last Thing You See
Esperanto is the most adaptable and easy to learn as a second language.
English is the most diverse and complex and currently holds "most useful" status.
Mandarin Chinese the most spoken.
In terms of pure information transfer per second, the best way is to couple that African language that replaces consonants with clicks with Morse Code (by carefully timing the clicks). Yes, I'm quoting Dilbert here.
English is the most diverse and complex and currently holds "most useful" status.
Mandarin Chinese the most spoken.
In terms of pure information transfer per second, the best way is to couple that African language that replaces consonants with clicks with Morse Code (by carefully timing the clicks). Yes, I'm quoting Dilbert here.
Horsehockey. Outside of China, practically no one speaks it. Don't confuse number of speakers with global distribution. 90+% of Mandarin speakers will never travel more than 20 km from the hut they were born in.
MadScotsMan
The Ruler of Cattle
And as I said, less pauses too....
And I would laugh, but I failed my Dilbert History class
lutzj
The Last Thing You See
Changed to "most spoken". Happy? And Chinese people don't all live in huts. Many of them have very nice 9'x11' (approx 3mx4m) government-issue concrete living spaces.
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