Hi,
Why do we discuss the issue whether english is the universal language or not.
Unicode stands not for english as the universal language but for all people on
this planet to talk in any language they like. Let the Chinese read the
internet in Chinese, the Iranians in Farsi and so on. I really dont know where
the problem is here.
regards
Darya
Peter_Constable@sil.org schrieb:
> On 12/31/2000 11:47:37 AM Alain LaBonté wrote:
>
> >À 05:40 2000-12-31 -0800, Darya Said-Akbari a écrit:
> >Hello Alain,
> >
> >Now think there would be one guy from Iran and this guy would say that not
>
> >english or french but farsi should be the real universal language. Think
> that
> >farsi is spoken in Iran,
> >Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, ... . What would be the difference
> for
> >you. I think it would make a big difference for you.
> >[Alain] The idea was to say that there is no such thing as a universal
> >language, I believe.
>
> (I've monitored this thread only sporadically, so forgive me if I repeat
> things already said, or if I have misunderstood any points previously
> made.)
>
> I think we could all agree that English is a very important language for
> communication around the world, and that it is likely the closest thing to
> a universal language. I agree with Alain, though, that it is not, and that
> there is no single universal language.
>
> I agree with Darya that English got to where it is more or less by accident
> of history and that, all other things being equal, Farsi or Mongolian could
> also have been candidates. But I don't think the issue that Alain was
> originally raising was whether English deserved to be the universal
> language, as opposed to any other language. I think the point he was
> wanting to get across, and a point I would want to support, is that we live
> in a very multilingual world (whether you understand that to mean people
> that speak more than one language or simply that many languages are
> spoken), that people want to communicate in *lots* of different languages,
> and therefore that we need to continue developing information technologies
> so as to better support the multilingual reality of the world we live in.
>
> - Peter
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Peter Constable
>
> Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
> 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
> Tel: +1 972 708 7485
> E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>
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