A Global Community-Building Language?

Abstract

Although long championed, a global language has not come to fruition despite considerable efforts. Many fear that such a language would undermine the particularistic, identity-constituting primary languages of local and national communities. These concerns can be addressed at least in part by utilizing a two-tiered approach in which efforts to protect primary languages are intensified at the same time that a global language is adopted as an additional language and not as a substitutive one. Although the U.N. or some other such global organization could, theoretically, choose a language to serve as the global language, English is already (and increasingly) occupying this position as a result of the colonial period and post-colonial developments. In this respect, English is compared to the development of the railroad system in the United States, which although introduced at considerable human costs by overpowering corporations, later became an integral part of the economy and society. Whether English should be adopted as a second language, or as a third or fourth one, is heavily influenced by the level of difficulty involved-the labor to fluency ratio-in acquiring a new language.

Community and Language in the Information Age

“…AmitaiEtzioni, for example, argues for adopting English as a shared, secondary global language in the information age. [13] As Etzioni points out: "a key element of building a global community atop local communities requires that the various nations involved choose the same second language." [14] This second language, of course, does not replace the particularistic, identity constituting primary languages of local and national communities, rather it is best considered as an additional language.…”

“…[13] As Etzioni points out: "a key element of building a global community atop local communities requires that the various nations involved choose the same second language." [14] This second language, of course, does not replace the particularistic, identity constituting primary languages of local and national communities, rather it is best considered as an additional language. Nevertheless an opposition can be experienced to adopting such an additional language in many nations.…”

“…According to Etzioni, "this opposition often conflates preventing English penetration into the primary language with resisting it as second language". [15] Whereas this opposition, as Etzioni writes, " delays overcoming the "babel" effects at great cost to the transparency of global laws, the promotion of shared understandings, and the efficiency of economic transactions". [16] In my view, as a global process, the appearance of pictorial characteristics of primary communal languages can contribute to the adoption of an additional global language, because this process, as we have seen, creates the foundations of the convergences of different usages and languages.…”

“…[15] Whereas this opposition, as Etzioni writes, " delays overcoming the "babel" effects at great cost to the transparency of global laws, the promotion of shared understandings, and the efficiency of economic transactions". [16] In my view, as a global process, the appearance of pictorial characteristics of primary communal languages can contribute to the adoption of an additional global language, because this process, as we have seen, creates the foundations of the convergences of different usages and languages. The global expansion of the pictorial language of electronic communication can be regarded as the basis of the idea of a global information community in which the communication attitudes of a person are determined by his impression of his self as a permanently available person whose communicative acts are embedded in a global information net.…”

Babel Fish Democracy? Prospects for Addressing Democratic Language Barriers through Machine Translation and Interpretation

“…Models proposed or enacted to address democratic language barriers (see Bonotti and Stojanović 2022) have included monolingual ones focused on the use of a single official language (Kymlicka 2001, 212-20) or on the promotion of a common second language at the national, regional, or global levels (Van Parijs 2011a, Chap. 1; see also Archibugi 2005Etzioni 2008). They also have included various multilingual models focused on the use of multiple shared languages, or on the more widespread provision of human interpretation (Bonotti and Stojanović 2022;Doerr 2012;Isernia and Fishkin 2014).…”