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How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

washingtonpost.com

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Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#31

Post by pavel_lishin »

Nux wrote: post #8
mullingitover wrote: post #6

Another way of titling this would be, "How the internet is uniting humanity." Languages are tools for communication, and while it's sad from an anthropological/historical perspective to be losing languages, from a humanist perspective it's fantastic news. The more people can communicate without barriers, the better it makes the world for everyone.

Can't upvote this enough. A united world needs to speak the same language. Down with the borders, of any kind.

Should we all use the same programming language as well?

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#32

Post by tsuyoshi »

nostromo wrote: post #25

This happened before the internet with Arabic numerals. There was a time when each culture had their own method for transcribing numbers. (My favorite is Egyptian Numerals that denoted 10,000 with a drawing of a bent finger.) Today, I imagine (but I'm not sure) that I can travel almost anywhere in the world and the number 123 would mean the exact same thing. And that seems to be a good thing.

Sort of. There are two other numeral systems I know of that are still being used: Chinese (used in Chinese, Japanese, and to a lesser extent Korean) and Khmer (used in Khmer/Cambodian, Thai, and Lao). Literate people in places that use those numeral systems know and use Arabic numerals too, but the Chinese and Khmer numerals are in no danger of dying out anytime soon. And even in the English-speaking world, we still use Roman numerals in certain contexts.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#33

Post by rmk2 »

mullingitover wrote: post #6

Another way of titling this would be, "How the internet is uniting humanity." Languages are tools for communication, and while it's sad from an anthropological/historical perspective to be losing languages, from a humanist perspective it's fantastic news. The more people can communicate without barriers, the better it makes the world for everyone.

> Languages are tools for communication

Exactly, that's why different languages can spawn different communication. Certain things cannot be translated, whether they are idioms or grammatical constructions. It's not just "sad", it means a unifying and, in some case, simplification of thought. Now, with English becoming more dominant, I guess it depends on your background and ideas whether this reduction to "things that can be expressed in English" is a good thing or not. I pick English here, because it is the most obvious example given international trade, travel and the internet, though the same applies for various big, hegemonic languages in their surroundings, and the same happens with dialects even within a technically mono-lingual environment.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#34

Post by mullingitover »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #23
mullingitover wrote: post #6

Another way of titling this would be, "How the internet is uniting humanity." Languages are tools for communication, and while it's sad from an anthropological/historical perspective to be losing languages, from a humanist perspective it's fantastic news. The more people can communicate without barriers, the better it makes the world for everyone.

On the one hand, I'm very much inclined to agree with you. On the other hand, I'm a monolingual English-speaker. I personally gain much and lose nothing in this scenario, I have no real conception of what it feels like for the hundreds of millions of people who do speak minority languages; so I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge.

> I personally gain much and lose nothing in this scenario

You gain a great deal if you have the ability to communicate with millions (billions?) of people that you otherwise couldn't.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#35

Post by DanAndersen »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #31
Nux wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't upvote this enough. A united world needs to speak the same language. Down with the borders, of any kind.

Should we all use the same programming language as well?

I think a more apt analogy wouldn't be the use of the same programming languages (which is more of a private action between the programmer and the computer), but more like using common protocols, APIs, and standards that allow interoperability.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#36

Post by spodek »

The internet doesn't "kill" languages.

People choose what language to speak. If they -- rather, we -- have a choice of languages, why do we choose common ones instead of uncommon ones? We are actively choosing to speak common languages, not some abstract network of computers is killing something.

If linguists or anyone else says we're doing something wrong and losing something valuable, why do we keep doing it?

Is it possible they're missing something, that maybe we gain more in choosing to understand each other than we're losing in ... in what, being able to read books that we haven't translated yet? In having a different set of nuances? Do any languages have a greater ability to describe thoughts than others? I suspect different languages have different nuances, but I doubt any has greater total ability to communicate.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#37

Post by pasquinelli »

mullingitover wrote: post #6

Another way of titling this would be, "How the internet is uniting humanity." Languages are tools for communication, and while it's sad from an anthropological/historical perspective to be losing languages, from a humanist perspective it's fantastic news. The more people can communicate without barriers, the better it makes the world for everyone.

or maybe: The "World" in "World Wide Web" is an Overstatement

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#38

Post by [deleted] »

nostromo wrote: post #25

This happened before the internet with Arabic numerals. There was a time when each culture had their own method for transcribing numbers. (My favorite is Egyptian Numerals that denoted 10,000 with a drawing of a bent finger.) Today, I imagine (but I'm not sure) that I can travel almost anywhere in the world and the number 123 would mean the exact same thing. And that seems to be a good thing.

[deleted]

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#39

Post by plaid_hatter »

The measure used here is a little suspect. Looking at words used in webpages is a pretty poor measure when many languages have little handwritten language to start with. I just returned from a remote tribal group (The Khasi) in India last month and although their web page penetration may be low, they all facebook or text in their local language. I doubt these social aspects are measured and thus miss widespread use of many languages. Public webpages are often wanted to grow beyond your small group and if a writer knows a more common language, then he would rightly use that to grow the sphere of understanding.

Re: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages

#40

Post by ronaldx »

Nux wrote: post #8
mullingitover wrote: post #6

Another way of titling this would be, "How the internet is uniting humanity." Languages are tools for communication, and while it's sad from an anthropological/historical perspective to be losing languages, from a humanist perspective it's fantastic news. The more people can communicate without barriers, the better it makes the world for everyone.

Can't upvote this enough. A united world needs to speak the same language. Down with the borders, of any kind.

I understand the sentiment but I disagree.

I think language is a clear representation of culture - your first language directly informs how you see the world.

The world would be a lesser place if everybody grew up with the same linguistic experience.

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