My dear old mother long deceased, Brigid Conlan, taught me how the English in charge go about things. ‘Tanks mum’, as they used to say in Eire. I’m still saying my prayers, I promise. Rest easy! Hell, with French heritage in the male line, albeit from seven generations ago, this old Aussie recognizes Anglophilia. Too many notes in Mozart’s music becomes too many questions in an academic’s modus operandi when a hot potato appears. Keep ya hair shirt on, Brits. Just kidding! Question time is good for early risers Anna, but answer time is better for everyone. Wisely, your many questions start with ‘create’, and close with ‘belief’.

To ‘create a whole other set of political issues’ is exactly what is required as the Donald takes over leadership of the free world – tomorrow. OMG! A skeptic’s “I’ll believe it when I see it” becomes a religionist’s “You’ll see it when you believe.” BUT, by religion is meant that which is ascertained by investigation and not that which is based on mere imitation.

While it might be difficult to separate linguistic issues from political issues – and it is – I don’t believe that the creation of a new language would necessarily solve those issues. It might just create a whole other set of political issues. Mind you, I understand the effort in making a neutral language. But, for whom would the language(s) be neutral or even inclusive? How privileged would one need to be in order to learn it (or them)? We would all face the same situation. We try to understand each other in one way or another. In fairness, we even get that misaligned when we speak the apparent same language. I speak English, which English? In which version of world Englishes would any of us be best understood? I speak school German and French, and so on… but no one is going to entertain me in Les Grisons, really, are they. A common language is a lingua franca. I think the point we were trying to make here was a point about common understanding, given all the languages involved (and we’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg). Isn’t it fabulous that these languages can exist together?

Too true. Anna, but some civilizations did get their act together if only for a century or two. A little issue, if I may: The notion of a ‘universal’ language understandably puts lots of people off but an auxiliary language (auxlang) for every school kid in the world (in addition to their mother tongue) as was proffered officially in favor of Esperanto at the League of Nations in 1919, and looked like a shoo-in after the carnage of WW1 until the French delegate vetoed it, is a different kettle of fish. Wikipedia’s article * alludes to the role of Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein in the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (UNESCO’s forerunner) and how they corruptly, if not venally, ensured the Resolution’s demise. * Top photos of those two stars just as they became really famous feature therein. I’ve chronicled gratis the whole unsavory saga bilingually under the rubric:

DIPLOMACY IS IMPOTENT
WHAT WENT SO WRONG AT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN THE EARLY 1920’S
MIRRORS WHAT IS STILL GOING WRONG AT THE UNITED NATIONS TODAY!
LANGUAGE IS THE KEY!