Here's the first chunk of the press release:
The General Assembly this afternoon, recognizing that genuine multilingualism promotes unity in diversity and international understanding, proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages. ...The Assembly, also recognizing that the United Nations pursues multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally, emphasized the paramount importance of the equality of the Organization's six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).... Further, the Assembly emphasized the importance of making appropriate use of all the official languages in all the activities of the Department of Public Information, with the aim of eliminating the disparity between the use of English and the use of the five other official languages.D: notice anything? Yep - designed languages have dropped off the radar.
This can summed up as a proposal to
1) learn more major languages
2) at least preserve minority ones.
The rhetoric is that of preserving species biodiversity.
My desire to discuss a 2045 world language for the UN is against the current trend.
Esperanto has been out of fashion for a century, at least in gov't circles.
My next 2 entries will be:
1) a review of Lojban
2) a critique of Ygyde.
1 comment:
Merkel just admitted 'mission failure' of multiculturalism. Forget melting pot, US style. If you cannot teach/ they don't learn/ they can't learn your national language, you end up with ethnic enclaves. Followed by police 'no-go zones' and all that. A well designed IAL has never been more relevant.
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