The most effective, easiest, clearest, and most universal human-natural language

[Bijo]

Which one? Methought English and maintain this thought until convinced otherwise.

[Watchman]

That linguistical chimera ? Surely you jest, sir.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Any of the Khoisan languages. Compared to their intricate sound system, the other 99.9% of humanity sounds like chimps uttering indistinguishable 'oomphs' and 'aahs'.

Clicky. ('Clicky' being a pun in this case)

Syntax, semantics etc. are very intricate and straightforward at once. For example, they distinguish between masculine and feminine inanimate nouns. Feminine is associated with short, broad, round objects. Masculine are objects that are long and narrow.

[master of the puppets]

Love

[Cataphract_Of_The_City]

Body language or mathematics...

[GeneralHankerchief]

Profanity.

[Kralizec]

Violence. Or maybe Esperanto?

[Watchman]

Only if it has enough explosive consonants.

A punch in the face certainly gets the message - albeit not a very complex one - across quite universally. As my brother likes to mangle a credit-card ad we saw in France, "il parle tout les langues".

[TevashSzat]

Music?

[Marshal Murat]

The most widely appreciated language would be facial and body language. It is universal. Grins indicate happiness. Frowns equal anger or sadness. A certain posture denotes feelings.

However, the easiest language would probably be a Far East Asian Language. Simple grammar structure, multiple symbols. You learn the grammar, the symbols then fall into place.

English is one of the most difficult languages because of words such as....
Phish and Fish

[Caius]

Spanish would be good. You speak it 'as it sounds', and you write it.

You write Now and you say Nou, but you write hola y sounds ola(because the h is not pronunceable).

[CountArach]

Actions, for they speak louder than words.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Esperanto, surely? That's what it's designed for after all.

[Fragony]

English. It's compact, consistant, easy to learn. Why do you think we all speak it here, and just about everywhere on the net.

[Andres]

Body language

[Rodion Romanovich]

Which one? Methought English and maintain this thought until convinced otherwise.

Body language - sometimes I think the whole Babel story of the bible is a metaphor for the universal body language being replaced by the non-universal spoken languages, and the development of new gestures that make parts of modern body language too non-universal. However, I think even today people can communicate unambigiously with a restricted body language free of culturally valued gestures - it is our only true universal language.

Other than that, English is the de facto holder of the position of "universal language", but I doubt it will remove other languages. It will be the main secondary language of most countries (that aren't already bilingual or trilingual, say Belgium, Switzerland and Finland), unless very large-scale historical events happen.

[Watchman]

English. It's compact, consistant, easy to learn. Why do you think we all speak it here, and just about everywhere on the net.

Quoth the Wiki:

Modern English is sometimes described as the global lingua franca.[7][8] English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment and diplomacy.[2] The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles.[9] Following World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the spread of the language.

Its inherent qualities matter little in this regard.

[doc_bean]

Esperanto, surely? That's what it's designed for after all.

Apperantly there's a horro movie where everyone speaks Esperanto because the director thought the language was scary

I studied it for a year, the concept was good, but language obviously lacks 'soul'.

[Bijo]

Yes, I thought body language, but of course I meant languages that are spoken, written, etc., etc.

[AntiochusIII]

Oh, body language can be hella misleading. Even the nodding and shaking of the head isn't as universally "yes" and "no" as you think it would be.

Not being a linguist, I'm in an impossible situation to judge. So far Esperanto is probably the only language (spoken and written, I'm not talking about the blind language and sign language or that stuff) constructed meticulously based on a common methodology rather than natural evolution...and from what I hear it isn't even that special, to me even the name itself sounds Spanish.

[doc_bean]

...and from what I hear it isn't even that special, to me even the name itself sounds Spanish.

It's hugely influenced by Latin, which of course has influenced pretty much any European language since the Roman times. I'm not sure how easy Esperanto would be for the Chinese.

[Louis VI the Fat]

English is one of the most difficult languages because of words such as....
Phish and Fish

I would maintain that 'fish' ought to be spelled as 'ghoti'. Tough, women, mention.

Its inherent qualities matter little in this regard.

Aye, languages spread not because of their quality, but because of their cultural status, their Gross Linguistic Produc, their usefulness.
DOS and Windows aren't bigger than Mac's because of any inherent quality. Everybody simply uses them because everybody uses them. It's the same with languages.

So far Esperanto is probably the only language (spoken and written, I'm not talking about the blind language and sign language or that stuff) constructed meticulously based on a common methodology rather than natural evolution

Other artificial languages have been developed too, much improved versions of Esperanto. Esperanto is also not based on universal, but indo-European languages, borrowing heavily from Latin ones in particular.
Braille and sign languages are not universal, but regional.

Even the nodding and shaking of the head isn't as universally "yes" and "no" as you think it would be.

In Bulgaria yes and no are reversed. I was in Bulgaria two years ago, and even though I was aware of it, it still lead to a lot of confusion. Bulgarians are very aware of it, and will usually reverse their nodding and shaking when communicating with foreigners. But not always, and neither does the foreigner. Every conversation is like that famous one from the Princes Bride'. 'If I shake yes he'll think it's no so I should nod no but he might assume I'm aware of the reversal so I should rather shake yes etc'.

[Pannonian]

In Bulgaria yes and no are reversed. I was in Bulgaria two years ago, and even though I was aware of it, it still lead to a lot of confusion. Bulgarians are very aware of it, and will usually reverse their nodding and shaking when communicating with foreigners. But not always, and neither does the foreigner. Every conversation is like that famous one from the Princes Bride'. 'If I shake yes he'll think it's no so I should nod no but he might assume I'm aware of the reversal so I should rather shake yes etc'.

QFT. WIFOM.

[AntiochusIII]

It's hugely influenced by Latin, which of course has influenced pretty much any European language since the Roman times. I'm not sure how easy Esperanto would be for the Chinese.

Ah, so that explains it then. The Romance languages in general are pretty close as far as languages go.

Other artificial languages have been developed too, much improved versions of Esperanto. Esperanto is also not based on universal, but indo-European languages, borrowing heavily from Latin ones in particular.
Braille and sign languages are not universal, but regional.

I learn something new everyday.

Now I ought to google around for artificial and sign languages. Something to do for a boring day.

In Bulgaria yes and no are reversed. I was in Bulgaria two years ago, and even though I was aware of it, it still lead to a lot of confusion. Bulgarians are very aware of it, and will usually reverse their nodding and shaking when communicating with foreigners. But not always, and neither does the foreigner. Every conversation is like that famous one from the Princes Bride'. 'If I shake yes he'll think it's no so I should nod no but he might assume I'm aware of the reversal so I should rather shake yes etc'.

So it was Bulgaria. I vaguely remembered that this happens in an Eastern/Southeastern (do you Euros use the latter distinction?) European country but I was not sure which one.

[Don Corleone]

Navajo. Just because it sounds so damn cool. Besides, it's almost impossible to learn, so we'd all be starting from the same starting point.

In all seriousness, unless I'm mistaken, Malay is the easiest language to learn, according to linguists. I have no idea of it's ability to clearly impart meaning in a unique context (actually, I would argue this is one of English's inherent flaws.... it IS however a great language for double meanings).

What's wrong with sign language?

[Watchman]

You hold a phone conversation with it.

[Don Corleone]

Aaah, but now we have picture phones.

[Watchman]

*I* don't have one. And what would you have airliner pilots do during takeoffs and landings when they have to talk with the control tower ? Pilot with their toes ? Hmm, trained chimps ought to manage that mind you...

[Don Corleone]

You have a point.

Okay, in order to be a universal language:

-A language must be flexible to adopt new words and adapt to new speech patterns (French and German are out).

-But it must do so in a way that still has a systemic order of language rules that can be discerned by the non-native speaker (leaves English out).

-It must have the ability to be both nuanced enough to allow an intentional double-meaning, yet also be direct and clear enough that imprecise communication can be stripped away when required.

I think we're left with only one natural choice folks... ancient Greek. So the last 2500 years have been for nothing?

[Shaka_Khan]

Although English is my first language, I lament at all the trouble it has caused me. Different people have different assumptions to the rules in English, usually depending on where they're from. It's really difficult to be a respected English writer when I'm in this kind of situation.