> Modernization is largely to blame
I'd replace "blame" with "thank": the simpler languages can become, and the fewer of them in daily use we can get to globally, the better for the entire species.
I'd love an expressive and terse baseline human language.
No problem if people still use other languages too, for cultural or historical reasons.
more language diversity is more fun. common languages are boring. folks should learn more languages, rather than less. its good for your brain too. here's to another babel moment!
But having a multilingual globe comes at a massive, immeasurable cost.
One of the greatest forces to improve economic opportunity and equality in the history of the world would be if everybody suddenly agreed on one simple, terse, expressive human language and switched to it, in all contexts except home life and shared spiritual or community services.
No more IELTS tests, no more spelling bees, no more "why is 'wherefore art thou' not about Romeo's location?", no more notarized translation costs everywhere in the world... everybody gets equal access to all media created in all places (although of course there'll still be place-specific references in that media), etc
If you were designing an ideal human world, the last thing you'd want to do is build a Tower of Babel on it.