Why is there no global language that at least nearly half the world speaks (3.5 billion, I'm talkin', including non-native speakers) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Hextubewontallowme@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Is the Tower of Babel still affecting us or something?

Edit:

We have 8 billion people, yet the best we could muster for the most total speakers of a language is under 2 billion, including non-natives...

English (1,452 million speakers) First language: 372.9 million Total speakers: 1.4+ billion According to Ethnologue, English is the most-spoken language in the world including native and non-native speakers.

https://www.berlitz.com/blog/most-spoken-languages-world#:~:text=1.,English%20(1%2C452%20million%20speakers)&text=According%20to%20Ethnologue%2C%20English%20is,native%20and%20non%2Dnative%20speakers.

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[-] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago

Is that the default situation is it??

You dreamed up a scenario and now are asking why it is not the case.

[-] Hextubewontallowme@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Tell me, where is this global language where it has 3.5 billion speakers, if not half? You've indicated it's not the case...?

Do you think I ask in bad faith, or do you ask in bad faith?

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago

It is a somewhat naïvely-framed question, but also you could have just clicked downvote and moved on with your day.

this post was submitted on 14 May 2024

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