Wikipedia
Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some contexts, it refers to a means of communication said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be the idea of an international auxiliary language for communication between groups speaking different primary languages. In other conceptions, it may be the primary language of all speakers, or the only existing language. Some religious and mythological traditions state that there was once a single universal language among all people, or shared by humans and supernatural beings.
In other traditions, there is less interest in or a general deflection of the question. For example in Islam the Arabic language is the language of the Qur'an, and so universal for Muslims. The written Classical Chinese language was and is still read widely but pronounced differently by readers in China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan; for centuries it was a de facto universal literary language for a broad-based culture. In something of the same way Sanskrit in India and Nepal, and Pali in Sri Lanka and in Theravada countries of South-East Asia ( Burma, Thailand, Cambodia), were literary languages for many for whom they were not their mother tongue.
Comparably, the Latin language (qua Medieval Latin) was in effect a universal language of literati in the Middle Ages, and the language of the Vulgate Bible in the area of Catholicism, which covered most of Western Europe and parts of Northern and Central Europe also.
In a more practical fashion, trade languages, such as ancient Koine Greek, may be seen as a kind of real universal language, that was used for commerce.
In historical linguistics, monogenesis refers to the idea that all spoken human languages are descended from a single ancestral language spoken many thousands of years ago.
Universal Language is a 1977 album by the Southern soul band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The album was recorded for Asylum Records, following the demise of Stax Records, of which the M.G.'s were an integral element, in 1975.
The album was dedicated to M.G.'s drummer Al Jackson, Jr. who was murdered in 1975; the remaining members recruited Willie Hall to replace him on this album. The group would not record another album for seventeen years, returning in 1994 with That's the Way It Should Be.
Universal Language is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded in 1992 and released on the Blue Note label.
Universal Language may refer to:
- Universal Language
- Universal Language (Booker T album), a 1977 album by Booker T & the MGs
- Universal Language (Joe Lovano album), a 1992 album by jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano
Or:
- The Universal Language, a comedic play
- The Universal Language (film), a 2011 film