One Language for the World

by Mario Andrew Pei

One Language for the World from Folkways RecordsOriginal Publication 1961 Language Instruction

291 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1958

About the author

Mario Pei was Professor of Romance Languages at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Stefanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if we had a common language that were spoken globally by every single human being? Naturally, a common means of communication would make many things easier, let alone avoid misunderstandings that occur on a daily basis in everyone's lives.
In his book, Mario Pei analyzes different languages that bear the potential to become a world language. English, French, Mandarin or even artificial languages such as Esperanto or Schleyer's attempt of Volapük are among these. One of the greatest obstacles, however, is the selection of this prime language. How can we choose a language that satisfies the needs and expectations of every human being? Pei tries to find an answer to this most essential question by providing the idea of mixed languages.
This is not a solution for our little language "problem", but an approach on how to solve it. Many critics who enjoy the diversity of cultures and thus languages do not see any problem with our world in respect to a "language chaos" at all.
Please note that this book is rather old: it was written in the 1960s and does thus include obsolete pieces of information. Still, Pei shows his cognizance of languages and gives many suggestions to encounter the clutter of our daily lives concerning communication.