> Japan is a major economic power but 99% of native Japanese speakers
> are Japanese. How many countries do you know have Japanese as official
> language besides Japan ?
Yes, that also limits the influence of Japanese in the world. But I think the fact that those kanji scare off the faint-hearted is more important. If it were an Indo-European language and used an alphabet, preferably the Roman one, it would have a lot more foreign students.
> Besides, Japanese language is the first translated language in the
> comics market in France now. Chances it must be the same in a lot of
> "western" countries.
Manga and anime are certainly popular these days, yes, but I'm talking about non-illustrated, "serious" literature. The fact is, unfortunately, that Americans are reading less and less serious literature by *American* authors, much less foreign-derived stuff.
>> The practical solution, of course, which is totally politically
>> incorrect but is already in operation, is to use English as the basic
>> world language. Completely unfair, I would
>
> Already in operation ? Where ? Basic world language ? For what ? Is it
> because the only language you use on LBO is a dialect of English that
> you propose that ?
I think you'll find that not only global capitalism, but the world-wide anti-capitalist movement, tends to use English as a fall-back medium of communication, at least when it has to. If you were a group putting up a web site today and you wanted to get the maximum number of visitors world-wide to understand your message, what language would you use?
And what dialect of English does LBO use? It looks like fairly standard English to me.
> As I wrote about Japan it probably is not a factor of "world economic
> importance". Chinese has already a sphere of economic and cultural
> influence,
And has had for centuries, but only around its periphery. Now that it is entering the world stage for fair, we shall see what happens.
> your "Indo-European" centered opinion fails to see that the "world
> basic english" you mention is a 200 words sub dialect that has not
> much to do with what is needed to actually transfer complex
> information.
I'm not "Indo-European-centered" at all. I said that I realized it was quite unfair for English to have gotten the dominant position it has now, piggy-backing on the British, and now the U.S., empires. It wouldn't bother me at all to see Chinese, for example, become the dominant world language, but I'm not sure that it will.
When I refer to English as a global language, I'm not talking about "Basic English," which was a project launched after WW II (as I recall), to help non-English speakers learn at least some rudimentary English by using a very limited vocabulary and limited grammar rules. Like Esperanto, it never really took off, probably because it wasn't necessary. As anyone who has taught English to non-English-speakers knows, it's not by any means an easy language to master, but a very large number of people throughout the world have managed to pick up enough of it to "transfer complex information" pretty well, even if they are not fluent.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. -- Attr. to Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile