Babel: The English language and globalisation, Genesis, 11:1-9
Linguist David Crystal suggests that an overly simplistic reading of Babel has led to the popular belief that global English would bring universal communication, unity and peace and that the loss of the world’s other languages is desirable in achieving these goals. He counters this globalisation discourse:
‘It is, in short, a total myth that the sharing of a single language brings peace...It is difficult to see how...a global lingua franca could eliminate the pride that leads to ambition and conflict – any more than it did in the supposed unilingual pre-Babelian era’ (Crystal, 2000:27-8).
Reference
Genesis, 11:1-9
David Crystal (2000) Language Death. Cambridge:CUP.
Yes, but for those of us without the ability to speak other languages it would be handy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even a common language is not enough. Try discussing a turquoise object as a colour:you will find out that to some it is blue and others it is green. I say nothing about gender optical perception. See online articles. Ho, hum. Grace is a wonderful thing.