[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

[John Reaves]

On Jan 23, 2008 11:25 AM, <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:

>
> In a message dated 1/23/2008 11:08:56 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> gmaxwell at gmail.com writes:
>
> What is  the minimum number of languages must you write in to
> effectively  communicate with 99.9999% of all the world's  literate
> people?
>
>
>
>
>
> Well, the first thing to do would be to count the number of monolinguals,
> not necessarily the number of languages spoken. For instance, in the US,
> Canada,
>  Australia, there are a lot of tiny indigenous languages, but most of the
> speakers communicate effectively in other languages, for better or for
> worse.
>
> Danny
>
>
>
>
Yes, in term of language preservation, this kind of language shift can be
fairly detrimental.  We should incorporate other languages as best we can
(staying within reason of course).

--John Reaves