A language for all - Una lingua per tutti

Thorsten Pattberg: Knowledge is a Polyglot (Big Think, 2013)

A language for all - Una lingua per tutti

By Mario Schiani

Given that there are so many languages, living and dead languages, official languages and unofficial ones, and, of course, a plethora of dialects, it can be said that the world is not lacking communication codes. In fact, there are too many languages which often caused poor mutual understanding in our otherwise rich European history. Sometimes, language itself constitutes an obstacle, rather than the means to work around communication problems. Someone – in our case a German linguist with the improbable name of Thorsten Pattberg – proposes, or perhaps provides us with, a “global language” through which humanity can finally harmonize its differences... [READ MORE]

Posto che esistono lingue vive e lingue morte, lingue ufficiali e lingue ufficiose oltre, naturalmente, a una pletora di dialetti, si può affermare che, al mondo, i codici di comunicazione non mancano. Ce ne sono anche troppi, se vogliamo, e le lingue, anche nella nostra Europa così ricca di Storia e povera di reciproca comprensione, a volte costituiscono l’ostacolo e non il mezzo con cui aggirarlo.  Qualcuno - nel nostro caso un linguista tedesco dall’improbabile nome di Thorsten Pattberg - propone, o forse prevede, una “lingua globale” grazie alla quale l’umanità possa finalmente armonizzare le sue differenze... [READ MORE]

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Pattberg: How We Will Write in the Future (Video)

BEIJING - In order to preserve the full power and authenticity of any culture really we would have to preserve them their key terminologies -those words and concepts that are demonstrably difficult, if not impossible, to translate without infringing onto their culture's intellectual property rights. The English language has already adopted loads of foreign loanwords, but often in an arbitrary manner, more by chance and goodwill than by any disciplined, organized, and accountable methodology. In other words, for example Western translators, until now, practically could do whatever they wanted with Asian concepts; and Asian ideas, no matter how old and no matter how genuine, enjoyed little to no moral, scientific, or legal protection from being omitted, prohibited, or translated into convenient, often over-used European concepts. This has got to change some day, maybe not so distant a day in the near future...

Thorsten Pattberg advocates for a global language, and by that he has something very specific in mind. We need to continue to translate, of course, in order to communicate. But when it comes to the key terminologies of a culture, "we should not translate them but rather we should adopt them," Pattberg says. "The only way, as I see it, to create the global language is really to find a scientific way to adopt as many key terminologies as possible and to unite all the languages’ vocabularies into one."  [READ FULL TRANSCRIPT] [WATCH VIDEO]
Many thanks to Daniel Honan, Managing Editor, Big Think, and Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd, Producers, Big Think

The Confucian Way of Europe

BEIJING/SHANGHAI - Published first in China's flagship media Shanghai Daily on July 25, 2012, and China Daily as Europe's path to a new humanism on Dec 10, 2012, the article has gone viral on the internet. 

Thorsten Pattberg - Europe's Path to a New Humanism;
photo: Dong Guisheng

Here's a link to the uncensored piece entitled The East is a Promotion.

Thorsten Pattberg - The East is a Promotion Series;
photo: Dong Duisheng