Editing Universal language (section)

{{short description|Hypothetical language that is supposed to have been spoken by all or most of the world's population}}
{{About|a universally used language|a widespread language|World language}}
{{other uses}}
{{Refimprove|date=April 2010}}
'''Universal language''' may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's people.  In some contexts, it refers to a means of communication said to be understood by all humans.  It may be the idea of an [[international auxiliary language]] for communication between groups speaking different primary languages. A similar concept can be found in [[pidgin language]], which is actually used to facilitate understanding between two or more people with no common language. 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. The written [[Classical Chinese|Classical Chinese language]] 
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|''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]]) and [[Old Tamil]] in [[South India]] and [[Sri Lanka]], were literary languages for many for whom they were not their [[mother tongue]].

Comparably, the [[Latin|Latin language]] (''qua'' [[Medieval Latin]]) was in effect a universal language of [[Intellectual|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 Europe]] and [[Central Europe]].

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 (linguistics)|monogenesis]] refers to the idea that all spoken human languages are descended from a single ancestral language spoken many thousands of years ago.