[yosito]

The thing is, languages are a whole lot more than systems for speaking and writing. They're cultural memes and make up a large portion of many people's identity. I speak two widely spoken languages and one that's a bit less common. Learning the less common language was like gaining membership in an exclusive cultural club, and was even a key to getting citizenship. But I had to learn more than just words for things. I had to learn about culture and history just to be able to socialize in the language. I learned things that simply can't be translated into other languages without long paragraphs of explanation that would actually require the reader to accept some knowledge of the language to understand them. And people who grew up speaking this language have their entire life experience wrapped up in it, and their entire family history wrapped up in it for thousands of years. It can't simply be replaced with a standardized system. Currently, the closest thing the world has to a global standardized language is English. English isn't the most logical or simple system, but it works because so many people already know it due to the global shared history it has. Languages can't be divorced from history and culture, even English.

[newsbinator]

> Learning the less common language was like gaining membership in an exclusive cultural club

This is the problem: every language is an exclusive cultural club. I want to have one that isn't an exclusive cultural club.

> I learned things that simply can't be translated into other languages without long paragraphs of explanation that would actually require the reader to accept some knowledge of the language to understand them

What would be an example of this? For example in Korean there's the concept of 정, which is a Korean-specific feeling of love/loyalty/bond with another person. You could write paragraphs about how it's subtly different from Japanese Jyo or English love/loyalty/bond, but at the end of the day either you need the concept and create a word for it in the global language, even "Jeong" or whatever, or you don't need the concept and don't create a word for it.

You don't build all of FORTRAN into CSS just because you want to borrow the concept of variables. You borrow what you need and make sure it fits nicely with what's already there.

> And people who grew up speaking this language have their entire life experience wrapped up in it, and their entire family history wrapped up in it for thousands of years.

You're saying that if over a generation they were to switch from one language to another their children and grandchildren would be without a history?

The children in our family don't speak the same language as their grandparents did. They don't know any of the culture-specific words. This doesn't seem to matter in any way that I've noticed, and certainly they themselves haven't.

[yosito]

> The children in our family don't speak the same language as their grandparents did ... This doesn't seem to matter in any way that I've noticed

Speaking as a grandchild who didn't have the fortune of being exposed to my grandparents' language growing up, I felt that I missed out on a wealth of cultural knowledge and experience, which is what drove me to learn the language as an adult. I very much wish that I would have been taught by my family as a child.

> What would be an example of this?

Azt a fűzfán fütyülő réz angyalát!

This is the first example that came to my mind. It's not even the best example. The literal translation is "Unto that copper angel whistling on the willow tree", and it could be substituted with "Wow!" but good luck figuring out why it means that and why people use it instead of "Hűha".

Another more recent example, "Szeretném elkérni Mészáros Lőrinc anyukájának lencsefőzelék receptjét". You simply won't be able to understand what that means or why someone would say it as a literal translation.

[newsbinator]

> You simply won't be able to understand what that means or why someone would say it as a literal translation.

This is a supporting argument for my point: it’s the equivalent of an in-joke that I simply wouldn’t be able to understand.

Lots of groups have in-jokes that I can’t understand. For example, 3/4ths of memes on gaming and sports subreddits. These are rich cultures I am not a part of and have no need to be a part of.

I want there to be a single, unifying baseline language that we can all understand. When a concept is relevant to us, we’ll create words for it. When it’s a historical or cultural curiosity and not relevant to us, we’ll leave it to be explored by hobbyists, academics and people who have some historical connection to it.

Not every in-joke in every culture needs to be preserved as a world heritage.

At some point we need to say: here are the words to know and here’s how we use them to do math, science, politics, and to debate social issues… everything that involves people who aren’t in one’s personal in-group, in one’s tribe or on one’s team.

Those words will evolve, but let them evolve globally, with off-shoots that are relevant to in-groups, but with a main branch that is relevant to everybody.

[yosito]

Hát, a lofasznak is van vége, ugyanúgy mint ennek a beszélgetésnek.

[nitrogen]

Your ideas are interesting and I wish you luck on your quixotic quest to switch this part of our world from PvP mode to PvE mode.