Teeth, language and racial origins

Originally posted by Parsifal: ↑

I agree with Wibbo though - at present English is the go to language and that shows no signs of abating. introducing another hybrid language to communicate would add another level of complexity. esperanto was always touted as the simple answer to cross country communication but never took on. we cant all communicate with each other for a range of reasons - lack of exposure, lack of practice, lack of interest, lack of ability. esperanto taught us that and now you'd be fighting the decades of adoption of english as the common business language. it's taught in schools across the world and tutors are employed across the world for that purpose.

i had a really interesting experience the other day - based on the rumour of a deadly pneumonia in kazakhstan i range a friend there. he lived at my place for a year some 20 plus years ago and is a native russian speaker (with a bit of tribal tartar thrown in) he speaks english only rarely but with his children. his english s pretty good and i ended up speaking to his 15 year old daughter - her english is good. his oldest daughter is studying in prague - business management - and the course is in english!!!! i have another friend in germany - his wife is brazilian, he is german, their common language is english, their children speak german and portuguese and dutch (they went to school there for a while) and english.

I've probably hosted over 100 students at my place and while they often struggle at the start they learn english because its immersion and they retain it for the most part.

i think when people think about language they forget that there are many things at work - the ability to listen. to learn a language you need to listen - to the sound of it, the tempo and the intonation. you also need to listen to the structure - you can tell the structure from the sound i think. but - language conveys much about culture and environment. That's why some languages have multiple words to distinguish particular concepts. in other words linguistic diversity reflects diversity in how the world is perceived and experienced and social expectations. so it is a useful insight into how different cultures perceive and express their culture. (why is it that so many asian languages do not have separate pronouns for he and she?)

there is also a view that the shape of the teeth, palate and lips has an impact on the ability to produce certain sounds so that in itself may produce some challenges. language structure is useful for tracking migration patterns and even if it will be replaced by genetic tracking it provides another way of understanding migration and relationships

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Indeed and I take your point. I guess I was suggesting that it's about time that some global, consultative body, (maybe we need one of these first) might begin to formalise the adoption of an auxiliary language. Sure one is creeping in, but these are dangerously volatile times and any measure that might offer further understanding of each other may help save us from ourselves.