Philosophy
Language is the main form of communication between people. Effective transmission of information would be impracticable without it. Such a "talent" appeared from immemorial time and allows groups of people to communicate, exchange news, ideas and feelings. However, before the onset of globalization, this communication was limited to the level of individual nations and peoples. Contact with other people is difficult without the common means of communication, which will certainly lead to isolation. This problem is partially solved with the help of translators. It is necessary to choose a single international language - lingua franca, since neither the worldwide use of a few languages nor the development of new communicational technologies and language techniques are likely to be as effective as one common language (Prague Manifesto). The universal language is able to solve certain cultural and political problems of humanity and erase the boundary between nations of the world.
Language shapes the mentality. A person from an early age learns to think in a certain language, which forms the basis of its conceptual apparatus. After all, every language has a different form of expression, and therefore everyone has the conceptual apparatus inseparably linked with the language of his people. In addition to politics and religion, language is one of the determining factors of every nation’s worldview. Folklore, proverbs, and sound associations are some examples. Some languages sound soft like Italian, some rough like German. Russian proverbs praise the hard work, Chinese - praise wisdom. Some language is better at explaining complex phenomena and some is better for writing poetry. This creates a significant difference between nations and peoples over centuries even if they are located next to each other. Let us consider another example that was given in the Prague Manifesto. Children that learn English as a first language learn culture and geography of the English-speaking world. This also applies to most of the colonial languages.
Speaking of colonial languages, many peoples and cultures of the New World were lost because of European colonization. A thin layer of the local elite usually ruled a traditional colony. The official language was the language of the colonizers and occasionally the language of the native population. Natives had to learn a new language, which was brought to them by the colonizers; their mentality has changed with the assimilation of a new language in their culture and daily life. The main reasons for language death in modern times are considered to be globalization and migration. People are leaving the countryside and move to the cities therefore losing the native language.
The English language became dominant because of the former influence of the British Empire and modern economic and political influence of the United States. English is not the first lingua franca. Before it, another colonial language has held a strong position as an international language - French. In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, this role was played by Greek and Latin, respectively. However, there were significant disadvantages in each of these cases. All these languages imposed the mentality of their original speakers, changing the worldview and culture of other nations and causing them to lose their own. Egyptian culture, for example, has changed dramatically after the Arab conquest resulted in replacing Coptic language with Egyptian Arabic. Moreover, carriers of such a language have a distinct advantage because they learned it since childhood. In order to have the opportunity of international communication, other people have to put more effort to learn this language. This creates communicational inequality between the English-speaking world and the rest of people that needs to learn it as a second language.
Therefore, foreign languages impose their own culture and create inequality. Utopian option in the choice of a universal language is the creation of a new language instead of choosing the existing one. The idea of creating an artificial language originated back in the XVII century with the decrease of Latin influence. Currently there are more than a thousand artificial languages. The most famous artificial language is considered to be the creation of Ludwig Zamenhof called Esperanto, which means “one who hopes”. Just take a look at the following numbers: Esperanto is spoken by two million people worldwide including up to 2000 of native speakers that learned it from birth, Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 227000 articles. Esperanto is designed to be a simple language, not to say the simplest. Inclusion of Esperanto in the curriculum of schools will allow people around the world to know one common language at the high communicative level. Everyone is able to learn this language in a short time and to communicate with others without losing their native language.
Moreover, there would be no language inequality, because no nation would have a dominant position and nobody will have to learn the language of another country for international communication. Languages have different degrees of importance and influence in world politics, such as the signing of treaties. Esperanto is able to equate all countries, eliminating the possibility of any country to dominate over the others in terms of language. All people in the world can meet on absolutely equal terms. Learning Esperanto provides knowledge about a world without borders, where every country is home. Furthermore, Esperanto does not oppress other cultures and does not lead to the disappearance of languages. At this point, all the people who know Esperanto are either bilingual or multilingual. Esperanto promotes linguistic diversity. Prague Manifesto states that language diversity is a constant and indispensable source of riches.
Supporters of Marxist ideas were known for their utopism and the pursuit of the perfect society. Marxist wing of communism sought to change society in accordance with these ideals, among which are productivism, militant atheism and radical language reform. There are many similarities between socialist ideology and the principle of the international language. As an example, internationalism and scientific approach to the planning of society, emancipation of the workers and the pursuit to overcome the chauvinism. Nevertheless, the problem of linguistic oppression has not been resolved in the Soviet Union resulting in the chauvinism of the Russian language. In the end, and after the Second World War, the idea of an international artificial language found no place in existing communist states.
In case of a successful set of circumstances for Esperanto, it can certainly allow the workers of the world to communicate with each other without hindrance. The world will no longer be divided into separate closed political systems owing to the artificial international language. Importantly, Esperanto or any other artificial language can overcome the linguistic imperialism of the English language, in which learning the language of a certain nation is necessary for international communication even between two non-English-speakers.
The universal language is able to solve certain cultural and political problems of humanity and erase the boundary between nations of the world. Esperanto perfectly suits this purpose and many people can already speak it. It takes only two to six months to become fluent in Esperanto. An artificial language does not oppress other languages, as the person who speaks Esperanto is bilingual or multilingual. No nation will be politically dominant because of language. Every person will be able to speak to another on a completely equal basis.
Works cited
Manifesto De Prago: De La Movado Por La Internacia Lingvo Esperanto. Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, 2000. Print.
