The idea of a universal language has been debated for centuries, but no language has achieved universality. Some believe a universal language existed in prehistoric times, while others have attempted to create their own. English is currently considered the universal language, but other languages like Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and Spanish are gaining popularity. The US Pentagon is developing a super translation computer that could potentially be the solution to a universal language.
Some say love is the universal language; others insist it’s math. So far in recorded human history, however, no universal language has been achieved. Some theorize that there was one a few hundred thousand years ago, in the early days of Homo sapiens, from which all the various modern languages have evolved. The other side of that debate insists that one must emerge organically, as English is doing, through a shared interest in global understanding and business.
The idea of a universal language has been the subject of linguistic research and literary reflection for centuries. However, it can be said that these languages exist “universally” only in some areas of the globe. For example, in countries like China, or entire regions like the Middle East, a single language is observed, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic, respectively. Visitors to even these homogenized regions, however, still notice differences in dialect and syntax that keep the languages away from universality.
Some religious traditions contain stories relating to a belief in a universal language that existed in prehistoric times. The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, for example, describes how the world’s conflicting tongues, or “confusion of tongues,” came from the original language begun by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the Brahmanic tradition of India, as in the Judeo-Christian creed, there was a dispersion of tongues as an act of a punishing god. The ancient Greeks insist that Hermes created the different languages as a boon for mortal diversity and amusement.
Several centuries ago, the idea of a universal language was conceived, primarily in the interest of commerce and scientific discovery. The German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz and his French contemporary, René Descartes, both thought long and hard about what Leibniz described as a “characteristica universalis” – a mathematical means of expressing ideas across linguistic boundaries. While modern calculus and analytic geometry have come a long way in standardizing complex ideas into a “universal language,” these topics are hardly universally understood.
Some have attempted to formulate their own universal languages, such as Esperanto in the late 19th century and Lojban in the late 20th century. Both languages still exist, propagated by language groups that are slowly growing in membership. While the intent is to create what is called an international auxiliary language, none have come close to achieving global acceptance.
Many consider English to be the universal language of the near future, largely due to the spread of British- and American-dominated capitalism across the globe. But in 2011, more people are being taught Chinese as a first language than English, and by 2050, according to National Geographic news, just as many people will be learning Arabic, Hindi and Spanish. Perhaps the best chance the human race has at a universal language is epitomized by the US Pentagon’s development of a super translation computer that speaks any language the user needs to understand.
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