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Will English kill off all other languages eventually?

English is already the global language of science and technology, and at least one non-Anglophone country (Netherlands) is moving toward using it as the main language of instruction at universities. Anyone with a desire to participate in the global economy seems to want to speak it. English is also the dominant language of the web, the medium that seems to be crowding out practically every other means of remote communication. I have even seen threads on Reddit in which non-native speakers have praised English for its versatility, ease of use, and wealth of vocabulary, and even said that they prefer it to their own languages!

I have seen people offer up Mandarin as a possible new lingua franca, given its massive number of speakers and the recent growth of China's economy, but I'm pretty skeptical of that, because native speakers of Chinese are learning English at a rate far greater than that of native Anglophones learning Chinese.

So, as the young people of the developed and developing world learn English in greater numbers and use it in more and more areas of their lives, will other languages dwindle in relevance and use -- first spoken only at home, then spoken only in remote rural areas, or with the elderly who never learned English, and finally not at all?

English is only a refinement of Deutsch.

Any clown can learn English.

P.S: I think Mandarin is the way of the future.

Won't happen.

in b4 Lira.

quote:

Originally posted by Lagrangian P.S: I think Mandarin is the way of the future.

Why? Something like 20% of China's population is currently learning English, and more will be in the future (see article above), while probably 1/500th of the Anglophone population is learning Mandarin, if that.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimney in b4 Lira.

Short answer: No.
English will remain one of the world's most importance languages, but it will never be the dominant one, nor will it "kill off other languages".

Long and thorough answer: Wait for Lira.

http://tranceaddict.com/forums/show...=2#.T5lj-sVXKZQ

We native English speakers really are full of ourselves, aren't we

quote:

Originally posted by Intellekshual Short answer: No. English will remain one of the world's most important languages, but it will never be the dominant one, nor will it "kill off other languages". Long and thorough answer: Wait for Lira.

^ This... I've read that because so many more non-native English speakers speak English than native speakers , the language itself will become corrupted, and eventually become some broken form which incorporates words, sounds, intonations, and phrases from other world languages a-la Blade Runner.



Oh, also Mandarin, after China wins the next big war...

i will contribute to this if i go back to teach tiny zipper heads american.

Hay guise

I find it really unlikely. As you can see in the Pie chart on the right, the world is a good place for the English language: roughly 1 out of 2 people in the world speak an Indo-European language (that's the language stock English belongs to), and these speakers are probably more receptive to English than Mandarin, for example. However, there are too many languages out there with an overwhelming number of speakers.

Here, let's take a look at the most spoken languages in the world:

• More than 100 million speakers: Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindustani, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Punjabi;
  
  
• Between 100 and 50 million speakers: German, Javanese, Wu, Marathi, Telugu, Vietnamese, French, Korean, Tamil, Yue, Turkish, Pashto, Italian;
  
  
• Between 50 and 10 million speakers: Min Nan, Gujarati, Polish, Persian, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Ukrainian, Malay, Xiang, Malayalam (NOT MALAY!), Kannada, Maithili, Sundanese, Burmese, Oriya, Marwari, Hakka, Thai, Hausa, Tagalog, Romanian, Dutch, Gan, Sindhi, Uzbek, Arzeibaijani, Rajasthani, Lao-Isan, Yoruba, Igbo, (Northern) Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Chhattisgarhi, Assamese, Kurdish, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhalese, Cebuano, Rangpury, Malagasy, Khmer, Sotho-Tswana, Nepali, Rwanda-Rundi, Somali, Madurese, Haryanvi, Mula, the language Meat hates the most, Magahi, Greek, Chittagonian, Deccan, Hungarian, Catalan, Shona, Min Bei, Zulu, Sylheti.

quote:

Originally posted by Blake the language itself will become corrupted, and eventually become some broken form which incorporates words, sounds, intonations, and phrases from other world languages a-la Blade Runner.

That has been the dynamic behind most languages and linguistics since transportation became a thing that people did. I know what you meant by "corruption", but I don't think it's the correct term... language in stasis is meaningless. It's like sound in a vacuum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office..._fran%C3%A7aise

This is how they try to "combat" the spread of english and other languages here. It is pretty draconian to be honest.

There is also a law that forbids kids from doing their primary and high school education in english if they do not have at least one birth parent that went to english school.

Immigrants are made to do mandatory french classes.

quote:

Originally posted by Lagrangian English is only a refinement of Deutsch.

That's like saying Deutsch is a refinement of íslenska.

quote:

Originally posted by Lagrangian Any clown can learn English.

If that's true for English, this should be true for any language.

Try being a Vietnamese clown and learning English without the headstart Europeans (and the offspring of their emigrants) have

quote:

Originally posted by Lagrangian P.S: I think Mandarin is the way of the future.

Maybe, in a distant future.

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On That has been the dynamic behind most languages and linguistics since transportation became a thing that people did. I know what you meant by "corruption", but I don't think it's the correct term...

True. The term he's looking for is probably "Pidgin language".

quote:

In an average year, the OQLF receives between 3000 and 4000 complaints from citizens. Forty to fifty percent of these complaints have to do with commercial products for which there is no available French manual or packaging, 25% have to do with signage in stores, 10% with websites and 5% with the language of service.

I love hearing my most unfortunate countrymen complain about signs or products that have a by-line en Espa�ol. People act soooooo fucking slighted that a product ISN'T 100% MARKETED SPECIFICALLY TO THEM! Oh, WOE!

quote:

Originally posted by Lira True. The term he's looking for is probably "Pidgin language".

Coo!

Its insane. As a native english speaker in Quebec it can be hilarious to see the way they try and curb us. I speak great french too, but really if i don't have to i won't. My cats only answer to french...i did my part. My kids are going to english school. The education is better because the level of linguistic studies is of a higher calibre due to a certain level of french being mandatory. The english taught in french high school is the equivalent to the english i would teach to 3rd graders in south korea.

here lira i'm sure you'll fin d this a bit interesting. quebec is such a weird place language wise. not many like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langua...phics_of_Quebec

quote:

Originally posted by Lira

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I can easily imagine a future in which English (or maybe Mandarin in the far future) is the universal language for business + science, but people use other languages for everything else.

Sorry for the shitty chop, I only have paint and did it in 1 minute.

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On That has been the dynamic behind most languages and linguistics since transportation became a thing that people did. I know what you meant by "corruption", but I don't think it's the correct term... language in stasis is meaningless. It's like sound in a vacuum.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira True. The term he's looking for is probably "Pidgin language".

Goddamn sophisticated TAs makin' us city folk look like simple country folk!

It's a shame about so many of the world's languages surviving for as long as they have. I was really looking forward to at least seeing the beginnings of a Type I Civilization within my lifetime. Talk about setting my hopes too high .

Dammit, Fleisch

quote:

Originally posted by Vector A Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I can easily imagine a future in which English (or maybe Mandarin in the far future) is the universal language for business + science, but people use other languages for everything else.

That's more like it, and I believe it would be awesome if scientists everywhere did their research on the same language, so we could all know what everyone else is up to.

Unfortunately, however, we still need to deal with politics before we reach this point. Most scientists I know in Brazil would rather write in Portuguese and have other people learn their language, because they won't bow down to American imperialism and all the clusterbollocks that ensues from this kind of prejudice.

quote:

Originally posted by zyklon-jay here lira i'm sure you'll fin d this a bit interesting. quebec is such a weird place language wise. not many like it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langua...phics_of_Quebec

Nice

I remember the French usually complain Quebecois is too Anglicised, but can you notice the influence from other languages as well? Given how multicultural Canada is, I wonder if Koreans didn't kimchi it up a notch

quote:

Originally posted by Blake Goddamn sophisticated TAs makin' us city folk look like simple country folk! It's a shame about so many of the world's languages surviving for as long as they have. I was really looking forward to at least seeing the beginnings of a Type I Civilization within my lifetime. Talk about setting my hopes too high .

Humans are much, much more clever than we take ourselves to be. There are three ways people circumvent language shocks:

• Lingua franca: that's the use of a common language throughout a vast area where people don't necessarily speak this language with their kin. When I was in Japan, people would speak in English all the time with me, because they assumed I didn't speak their language (a great source of amusement on my part) and they didn't speak Portuguese. Yet it wasn't my mother language, nor theirs. This is quite common in human history.
  
  
• Pidgin languages: What I mentioned above. The really cool thing about it is that children brought up in an area where a pidgin is spoken turn it into a full-blown language (a Creole). So the "Me Jane, You Tarzan" phase doesn't last more than a generation
  
  
• The universal language of love: Oh, the couples I've seen who didn't share a common language! When the hormones are up, people always find a way to get down
  
  (the kids usually then learn the mother's language, from what I've heard, but don't quote me on that)

quote:

Originally posted by Lira I remember the French usually complain Quebecois is too Anglicised, but can you notice the influence from other languages as well? Given how multicultural Canada is, I wonder if Koreans didn't kimchi it up a notch

The French here reflects the French spoken during colonial times and is actually just an older version of the french spoken in france today. There are a lot of anglicisms used in Montreal, leave the city and they diminish. If you look at that list i would venture that 90% of the non native french speakers live in the Montreal area.

A lot of tourists and non francophones are suprised at how little french they need to get by (aka none) in Montreal. Its like a weird little island, because once you leave it's surroundings not too many people speak anything but french or native tongues...unless they are living near the US border of course. Some even live in the states and drive to work in canada.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Dammit, Fleisch

Jeez, how many flippin' languages are you proficient in!? I should've gone the linguist route, rather than having taken the math/science path I currently find myself on. Things like learning languages come much more natural to me than the rigidities of formulas & such.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira And, of course, we can always learn a new language.

It's certainly something I'd like to get back into, once I'm done with my formal studies. Years of Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and German, all down the drain, due to lack of immersion.

In reference to your thread about how we think to ourselves, I realized last week, after hopping into a cab with a Spanish speaking driver, that now whenever I try to formulate sentences in my head in a particular foreign language (in this case, Spanish), it always ends up being a mixture of words from at least two additional languages. If I can't think of a word in one language, my brain defaults to the next most familiar foreign language. The end result: me keeping my mouth shut . Ah well... for now I'll stick to stick to leisure language learning. Next up, Hindi!

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Monolingualism is reported to be quite rare, actually.

Oy! Keep your anti-American comments to yourself!

quote:

Originally posted by Blake Jeez, how many flippin' languages are you proficient in!? I should've gone the linguist route, rather than having taken the math/science path I currently find myself on. Things like learning languages come much more natural to me than the rigidities of formulas & such.

Not many, actually. Meat knows my German sucks, and although I can go through the basics without much difficulty, I butcher the language all the time, and I wouldn't ever be able to talk about Wittgenstein in his original language (much to Meat's amusement, I'm sure ).

quote:

Originally posted by Blake It's certainly something I'd like to get back into, once I'm done with my formal studies. Years of Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and German, all down the drain, due to lack of immersion.

I feel your pain. Spanish simply destroyed my Italian (I lived in Turin for a couple of years as a kid), and after a decade or so not speaking Spanish, I've got a good pronunciation, but I just can't remember the damn words (Woscar can confirm I often slip to Portuñol when I'm tired or in a hurry).

My Japanese is about to go down the same route, even though I try to make sure I speak it every day in my office

quote:

Originally posted by Blake In reference to your thread about how we think to ourselves, I realized last week, after hopping into a cab with a Spanish speaking driver, that now whenever I try to formulate sentences in my head in a particular foreign language (in this case, Spanish), it always ends up being a mixture of words from at least two additional languages. If I can't think of a word in one language, my brain defaults to the next most familiar foreign language. The end result: me keeping my mouth shut . Ah well... for now I'll stick to stick to leisure language learning. Next up, Hindi!

Hahaha, that's awesome!

Hindi is a kick ass language too, I must say

quote:

Originally posted by Blake Oy! Keep your anti-American comments to yourself!

Actually, that goes to pretty much all major English-speaking countries, with the possible exception of South Africa. And the bit of Canada Jay happens to live in

I'm willing to bet most Brazilians are monolingual as well... reason why you definitely SHOULDN'T come here and try to survive with basic Spanish, a mistake too many a tourist have made

quote:

Originally posted by zyklon-jay The French here reflects the French spoken during colonial times and is actually just an older version of the french spoken in france today. There are a lot of anglicisms used in Montreal, leave the city and they diminish. If you look at that list i would venture that 90% of the non native french speakers live in the Montreal area. A lot of tourists and non francophones are suprised at how little french they need to get by (aka none) in Montreal. Its like a weird little island, because once you leave it's surroundings not too many people speak anything but french or native tongues...unless they are living near the US border of course. Some even live in the states and drive to work in canada.

That's interesting

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