Schedule 74. StuTS

The paper with the title "The Ruins of the Tower of Babel" explores the fascinating interplay between language, unity, and diversity by firstly examining the historical journey of artificial languages, focusing on Esperanto and Volapük, in light of the biblical Tower of Babel narrative. While the quest for a universal language has been driven by desires of global understanding and harmony, the complexities of this attempt are unveiled through the stories of these two languages.
Esperanto, conceived as a beacon of unity, faced challenges during its proposal for international adoption, clashing with Nazi ideologies and suffering suppression during that era. Volapük, despite an early international surge, eventually yielded ground to other artificial languages. These narratives reflect the intricate relationship between linguistic convergence and the diverse forces shaping human interactions.
Central to this exploration is the question of whether linguistic unity truly fosters peace or inadvertently accentuates differences. The potential of shared language to facilitate empathy and cross-cultural dialogue is compared against historical instances where shared languages did not preclude inter-group conflict. The study acknowledges the nuanced dynamics that influence these outcomes.
The paper considers contemporary implications, including the prevalent dominance of English and the endangered state of minority languages. Technological advancements, particularly in translation, emerge as pivotal in shaping the linguistic landscape. However, this progress introduces a dichotomy: while it enables seamless communication, it also necessitates reliance on intermediary platforms.
In closing, the text offers some ideas about the future of language unification. Will technological innovations, hybrid languages, or artificial languages achieve the sought-after linguistic unity? The enduring resonance of the Tower of Babel narrative prompts a reevaluation of humanity's intimate relationship with language, unity, and diversity, casting a critical light on the trajectory of our shared linguistic aspirations.

This talk will be streamed online and shown in the indicated room.

I will start my presentation with a main story, a story that probably all of us heard before, in which we once spoke the same language, but out of our greed we got seperated into different tribes and tongues. ( Genesis 11: 1-9)
In the further parts, I will connect the effort of mankind to get connected with one language with this story, showing this effort as a revenge for the tower of Babel.
In order to do so, first I will start with literary languages like Latin but also emphasizes the fact that they were only a bridge among scholars and clerks. Then I will continue with giving insights about constructed languages with the idea to learn one human-created language to understand everyone. When one talks about consructed languages, one must mention Esperanto, the most popular among constructed languages. I will tell what kind of vision L.L. Zamenhof had and how his vision has failed.
Our second and last stop on constructed languages is Volapük, not because it is an amazing constructed language but because the creator Johann Martin Schleyer, a german catholic priest started creating this language after the god told him in his dream to create a language for all humankind, a nice referance to our story in Genesis.

After giving historical information about the constructed languages, I would like to focus on contemporary success of English as world language and discuss further if other languages claim to be the lingua franca in the future.
And as a paramthese, I would like mention the future of endangered languages and how the way to one common language and maybe many hybrid languages would even worsen this sutiation.
Withour further judgement, I will move to my last part, the future of language in the scope of technology. I will give examples about how the technology may effect our process of understanding each other. I want to mention what is being improved right now and discuss what may happen in the close future.
And for the last part I am contacting Interprefy, an AI powered simultanous interpretation software to use the software for interpreting the last part of my speech(2-3 minutes) to German via a speaker.
And my point in this last part is going to be: It is very difficult for us to foresee whether the desire of humanity to unite in a single language will be realized by the innovations of technology, the formation of hybrid languages, the extinction of languages or the learning of an artificial language by everyone, but it seems that humanity's challenge to the Babylonian narrative will continue for many years to come.

Info

Day: 2023-10-26
Start time: 14:00
Duration: 00:25
Room: Hofburg Raum 1
Track: Sociolinguistics
Language: en

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