this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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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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[–] missandry351@lemmings.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It never was 😹😹😹😹😹

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[–] sith@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Lojban! Though esperanto maybe is more reasonable.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] seeigel@feddit.org 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

It depends on what Europe wants to be. The language is in some ways connected to the culture. Would Europe get a more Mediterranean savoir vivre if everybody spoke Spanish or French? I think so.

An ambitious and interesting option for Europe could be Arabic as the lingua franca. If Europe commits, other countries like Iran or India could also be interested in joining. That could create a huge area with a single language as long as it doesn't splinter into dialects like the current Arabic.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

An ambitious and interesting option for Europe could be Arabic as the lingua franca.

There's Maltese, which is an official EU language, albeit probably not the most useful for interchange with the Arab world as a whole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language

Maltese (Maltese: Malti, also L-Ilsien Malti or Lingwa Maltija) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata. The only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of the European Union and the only Semitic language to use the Latin alphabet, and the only Afroasiatic language other than Somali to use a Latin script, it is spoken by the Maltese people and is the national language of Malta.

The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words, but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand less than a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic, which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between mainstream varieties of Arabic.

Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script.

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[–] moody@lemmings.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I propose Icelandic

[–] Kissaki@feddit.org 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Let's switch to (a) sign language.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

No more long-winded politicians. Their arms will get tired too fast. And, no more edgy podcasts, because no podcasts will be possible.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Anything but english or french. Yes, I'm willing to put up even with brainfuck as a spoken language

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[–] UnityDevice@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

What if it remained English, but with the change that a new phonetic spelling system is used instead of the clusterfuck that is regular English spelling?

Wat if it remejnd Inglish, bat wit de chejnđ dat a nju fonetik speling sistem iz juzed insted of de klasterfak dat iz de regjular Inglish speling.

[–] calavera@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Anas@feddit.dk 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Two views on what language to chose: The language most spoken in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_speakers_in_Europe The language most spoken worldwide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

So it looks like it might be either German, Spanish or French, depending on how you would assess it. No surprises there. Now to convert everybody, not so easy ;-)

[–] 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

As a German, I would not want German to become a language of communication within Europe. The comparative political power of Germany within the EU is already too high, smaller Eastern and Southeastern EU members already have had to form alliances like Visegrad.

Ireland being the only country with English as major language within the EU makes English actually a more neutral language than languages of the populous countries. One could call it European English.


Maybe Sámi languages, Basque and Maltese could come together and form the most distinct language that is most neutral? /s

[–] vesi@lemm.ee 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] atro_city@fedia.io 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

As long as nobody is forced to learn it with a tank pointed at their house.

[–] vesi@lemm.ee 0 points 3 weeks ago
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