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submitted 1 day ago by atro_city@fedia.io to c/europe@feddit.org

There were many lingua francas of which French was supposedly the first global lingua franca. That changed and it became English (from what I understand). We will probably see another language become the lingua franca, so my question is: should it be English? Are there better candidates out there? Why / why not?

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[-] Vernal@lemm.ee 14 points 1 day ago

English is mostly used in commercial now, changing it would be costly and you would need the commitment of many others people to accept a new change in how to approach the world or just Europe, it's a tipe of commitment I doubt people would be willingly to accept.

[-] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 day ago

No, most people are pragmatic in this case and eastern countries changed from Russian ~30 years ago so another change isn't coming any time soon.

As my parents saw the change from "it is really appreciated that you can speak English" to "it is expected that you can use it". I can tell that it is so engrained in our multinational exchange that it won't be even desirable.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago

I'll laugh my ass off if it's French, I'll really have had the bilingual easy mode languages if that happens.

[-] kbal@fedia.io 10 points 1 day ago

let's all switch to Sumerian.

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[-] RichieRich@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

Ja, warum nicht Deutsch? Deutsch ist in Europa sehr weit verbreitet und wird von vielen Sprechern auch als Zweitsprache gesprochen. 😉

So, why is it English and not German? Because immigrants in the US decided to speak English. And there are so many people who can understand at least a few words in English. But as a German I'd prefer German, too. It is spoken by many Europeans.

Je suis désolé, chers Français, mon français est trop mauvais pour que je recommande que cela soit recommandé comme la principale chose européenne. 😂

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[-] Lemmist@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

Esperanto is a nice variant: it is much more adequate that any of those chaotically evolved "natural" languages plus nobody would have an unfair advantage just because of being lucky to be born in the English speaking country.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 7 points 1 day ago

I like the idea. My only issue with esperanto are its heavy influence by romance languages

A substantial majority of its vocabulary (approximately 80%) derives from Romance languages, but it also contains elements derived from Germanic, Greek, and Slavic languages

That gives Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and probably a few other countries quite a leg up. But, with influence from other languages, it would probably diversify its vocabulary (at least I hope so).

[-] vesi@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

Almost all languages have a very big number of words derived from Latin or French. For example Polish, which is a slavic language, has so many of Latin or French rooted words.

Esperanto apart, I think that German should be the language od Europe, because is it simply the biggest language of the EU. It is also precise. Ofc it could get simplified, because for many der/die/das is too complicated or it is too much of a hustle to remember. German could get more logical with them and then it should be no problem for everyone.

We could also think about regianal lingua-francas. For example, it could be this way that in the region of romance languages, everyone would speak French, in the region of germanic - German and in the region of slavic - Polish. Simply the biggest languages in a given region.

The funniest one but also kind of interesting would be Latin. #useLatin

[-] zloubida@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Latino sine flexione was an interesting proposition.

[-] warm@kbin.earth 5 points 1 day ago

English is Germanic, so it's a pointless change. Latin would be cool I guess, but English is mostly derived from it anyway, just simplified.

English isn't going anywhere. It's too embedded now.

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[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We will probably see another language become the lingua franca

That's gonna take a while. Chinese is an unlikely candidate due to how difficult it is to learn to speak and especially read and write, despite the rising international influence of the Chinese state. And I rather doubt that Europe's Germanic-speaking countries will stop using English as a lingua franca anytime soon, it's just too easy to learn for them compared to any other possible candidate.

Let's hope it's not going to be Russian anytime soon.

Something like Esperanto would be a nice alternative for the EU, though. Maybe there's other artificial languages that are even better? I'm not well-versed in this topic.

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[-] remon@ani.social 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes. It's easy and already established. There is no reason to change it.

[-] adamhepner@szmer.info 8 points 1 day ago

But what instead? Spanish? German? Esperanto?

[-] idefix@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

I root for Spanish! Creating a bridge with my Latino friends and thus upsetting the US at the same time.

[-] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago

Would be great to switch to mandarin. /s for all you humourless.

[-] circledot@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago

English is good for the reasons pointed out. Also: It's no language of the EU (at least for now) so no country gets an edge over the others which should be considered too. (I'm a native German speaker)

[-] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 day ago

It's no language of the EU (at least for now)

Ireland.

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[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago
[-] calavera@lemm.ee 1 points 21 hours ago
[-] Kissaki@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Let's switch to (a) sign language.

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this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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