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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 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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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[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Recognizeable for whom, is the question. The majority of IALs to date have had a highly eurocentric vocabulary, so they can't be recognizeable to even a plurality of the world.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Correct reasoning, incorrect facts.

46% of the world speak Indo-European languages as a mother tongue.

Can't do better than that. No other option comes close.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Aren't you Irish? You know the English colonizers did their best to wipe out the Irish language and replace it with the one you're advocating for right???

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

know the English colonizers did .... right???

Nooo I didn't actually know that and needed an enlightened person such as yourself to tell me 🙄🙄

Tá mé tinn de bheith ag glacadh comhairle stráinséara. Imagine some blan started lecturing you about haitian history and how it should affect your opinions, wouldn't you at least tell them to fuck off?

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Kind of wild that you use Haiti as an example here, considering the european genocide of the Taino people, as well as the european importation of african slaves, two groups that didn't speak european languages, and had their languages erased by the same process you're advocating for.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

w pa ayisyen?

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So why are you advocating for the displacement of the majority of the world's language families based on european languages popularity it gained through colonial displacement?

The majority of the world don't speak european languages.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

So why are you advocating for the displacement of the majority of the world’s language families based on european languages popularity it gained through colonial displacement?

Same reason you are advocating wife-beating (i.e. I never said anything like that)

The majority of the world don’t speak european languages.

Correct. That's was our starting point: there's no language that the majority of the world do speak.

Indo-European is spoken by a 46% minority.

About 19% of the world's population speak the Indo-Iranian branch alone. It's by far the largest of the 8 branches by number of speakers. By number of languages (which includes tiny languages) it comprises about ⅔ of the family –

For example there are 884 million speakers of Hindi/Urdu + Bengali + Marathi + Gujarati + Odia + Punjabi in India, and Pakistan is almost all Indo-European (Indo-Aryan and Iranic).

Agus in theannta sin, tá Gaeilge (teanga Ind-Eorpach/Ceiltís) ag 0.0002125% den daonra domhanda!

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

I never said anything approaching the words your putting in my mouth.