By Tiffany Au
Edited by Marina Yan
Why doesn’t the whole world just speak the same language? Most of you have probably entertained this thought at some point in your lives. It would be far easier for communication, resolve misunderstandings quickly, and assist international relations as well. Yet the fact that we have over 7,100 spoken languages today suggests that we don’t have any intention of creating a monolingual world anytime soon. And that raises the question: should we?
In the biblical origin story of the Tower of Babel, a unified human race speaking one language decides to build a city with a tower tall enough to reach the sky. However, God, noting their pride and presumptuousness in deigning to reach the heavens, disperses these people by mixing up their speech and causing them to no longer understand one another, as well as scattering them around the world. Thus, the city is left unfinished, with humankind spread all over the face of the earth and speaking different languages. The parable offers an interesting potential explanation as to how different languages and cultures came into existence, while also providing a moral warning on the dangers of hubris, something that we should perhaps take into account when considering whether a monolingual world is truly necessary.
Regardless, people have already made several attempts to develop languages which transcend borders. Esperanto, for example, is an artificially constructed language created in 1887 with the intention of serving as an international second language, but although it is the most successful of the artificial international languages which have been created, and a very easy language to learn overall, it has never been properly adopted into mainstream society. This may have come as a result of its lack of history or culture compared to other languages, as well as its primary basis in Romance languages, causing concern over Eurocentric bias and a lack of neutrality—concerns which an international language should not have. It was also repressed by several authoritarian regimes during the 20th century, further reducing its influence. Moreover, there is simply a general lack of interest in learning another language which not many people currently speak, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and preventing Esperanto from being able to prosper or attain a sufficiently large user base.
On the other hand, English has successfully cemented itself as the world’s primary lingua franca (a language used for communication between people with different native languages). In fact, it has become the most spoken language globally. Compared to Esperanto, English has a deep history and culture. In the 1900s, the British Empire was at its peak, governing roughly a quarter of the world’s landmass and population. This greatly helped spread the English language and culture, bolstering its relevance. Other events such as the Industrial Revolutions, the two World Wars, and the growth of the USA as a global superpower furthermore served to help, as they shone the spotlight on the UK and USA, increasing their global influence. However, despite English’s status as an official language of 86 territories, it is certainly and clearly not the only language spoken worldwide, and comes with its own downsides as well, which involve the concerning background of its dissemination, imposed imperialistically, forcefully with the military, and through colonisation. Furthermore, choosing to make this language the official language of the world would yield a lack of neutrality far worse than Esperanto’s, creating a power imbalance between native English speakers and populations who have to then learn English. Not to mention, the language itself is notoriously unpredictable with vocabulary from all sorts of languages and inconsistent rules, leading to even more difficulties acquiring the language, forming a higher barrier for non-native speakers.
So, if not Esperanto and not English, what other alternatives could serve as the chosen language for our hypothetical monolingual world? Other modern notable lingua francas include Arabic, French, and Spanish, but all of these languages come with their own challenges for learners, and just like English, raise the problem of favouring native speakers over non-natives. This shows how simply agreeing on an existing language would be near impossible, as each country would have its own motives for promoting their language as the chosen one, and profiting from the influence that it would bring. Creating a language that would be equally accessible to learners from all linguistic backgrounds would also be virtually unattainable, as the language families that exist can become greatly distinct, with completely different grammatical rules, vocabulary, etc. One must also account for the various language learning and processing related disabilities that exist, which would mean that the language would have to be straightforward, easily conveyed through visual, auditory, and tactile mediums, while not being too reliant on any of the three. In the end, having to take into account all of the points mentioned above would prove a highly impractical endeavour, and this demonstrates the futility of attempting to create a monolingual world.
It should also be noted that even if we managed to construct a perfect language following the aforementioned constraints, and implemented it to create our monolingual world, this language would still be subject to evolution and linguistic drift which inevitably occur over time as it is passed down through generations. The concept of linguistic drift can also be compared to genetic mutations, which occur subtly and randomly, but may accumulate over time, and just as genes are passed down vertically through reproduction, language is also passed down vertically through learning and communication, though language has the additional alternative of being transmitted horizontally through contact and interaction with other languages. Exemplified through dialects, physical, social, and geographic environments shape language, and they would likely eventually diverge so much that we would end up with wholly distinct languages once again. Assuming that this monolingual world would directly supersede our current one, each culture would also likely pronounce words differently, based on the sounds that their own previous language had, and this would lead to phonological drift (how sounds gradually shift over time).
However, should that be insufficient evidence, another consideration to take into account is the vast culture, identity, and history that comes with each language currently spoken in the world. If we were to erase all these languages, we would effectively be erasing thousands of years of history and cultural heritage, as well as removing forms of expression and diverse perspectives from speakers of different languages, as each language allows for a distinct understanding of the world it exists in. Additionally, studies have shown that bilinguals and multilinguals receive cognitive advantages that monolinguals do not, such as increased problem solving, multitasking, and cognitive reserve (the brain’s ability to resist cognitive decline with age, as well as maintain function, which can help protect against illnesses such as Alzheimer’s). This proves that we as a global society would benefit from maintaining our many distinct languages.
Ultimately, despite its allure, the concept of a monolingual world is fractured at best, and downright impossible at worst. The signs seem to indicate that it is highly unlikely for us to wipe out all of our existing languages for a new one, and as George Steiner said, “when a language dies, a way of understanding the world dies with it, a way of looking at the world.” So, maybe our multilingual world isn’t so bad after all.
Bibliography
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Bible. New Revised Standard Version. oremus Bible Browser, 30 June 2021, bible.oremus.org/?passage=Genesis%2011:1%E2%80%939&version=nrsv. Accessed 16 July 2026.
Britannica Editors. "Esperanto". Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Apr. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Esperanto. Accessed 16 July 2026.
"How the English Language Became the Global Lingua Franca." Language Connections, www.languageconnections.com/blog/how-the-english-language-became-the-global-lingua-franca/. Accessed 16 July 2026.
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