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What Language Will the World Speak In 2115?
An anonymous reader writes: Throughout human history, different languages have emerged and died, waxed and waned in relative importance, evolved, and spread to new locales. An article in the Wall Street Journal considers what languages the world will speak a hundred years from now. Quoting: "Science fiction often presents us with whole planets that speak a single language, but that fantasy seems more menacing here in real life on this planet we call home—that is, in a world where some worry that English might eradicate every other language. That humans can express themselves in several thousand languages is a delight in countless ways; few would welcome the loss of this variety.
Some may protest that it is not English but Mandarin Chinese that will eventually become the world's language, because of the size of the Chinese population and the increasing economic might of their nation. But that's unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort. We retain the QWERTY keyboard and AC current for similar reasons. ... Yet more to the point, by 2115, it's possible that only about 600 languages will be left on the planet as opposed to today's 6,000. Japanese will be fine, but languages spoken by smaller groups will have a hard time of it."
Some may protest that it is not English but Mandarin Chinese that will eventually become the world's language, because of the size of the Chinese population and the increasing economic might of their nation. But that's unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort. We retain the QWERTY keyboard and AC current for similar reasons. ... Yet more to the point, by 2115, it's possible that only about 600 languages will be left on the planet as opposed to today's 6,000. Japanese will be fine, but languages spoken by smaller groups will have a hard time of it."
Cardassian of course
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
No.
Wait a minute...
If a language grows to be dominate most likely it won't be one we currently have, more likely it will be a mish mash of existing languages, similar to what English has become.
The Quebec Language Police will maintain the purity of the French race in Quebec. Especially at salad bars.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
Meanwhile, /. will still not support Unicode characters outside of a very small whitelist. Historians look upon this as a major factor in why Chinese did not become the dominant world language during the 21st century.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
The phrase "We retain ... AC current for similar reasons." makes me believe the author doesn't know what (s)he is speaking about.
Go to the hippest clubs or most-expensive shopping malls in Shanghai or Hong Kong. You'll see elite Chinese and HK kids speaking English, not Chinese. More often than not, they're speaking English with an English accent too.
You don't see elite Western kids in New York or London hanging out and speaking Chinese.
The same goes for rich kids in Rio and Sao Paulo. The same goes for rich kids in Bangkok, Istanbul, Mexico City and Riyadh. The global elite speak English. They're not going to be learning Chinese any time soon.
(The exception is Japan, of course. But Japan is Japan. They're not going to be speaking English any time soon, elite or not).
The issue isn't population numbers. It's what the global 1% are doing. And they're learning English in increasing numbers.
Canadian of course and mukluks will be the shoe of choice unless those Wyld Stalyns have their way.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
The power loss for AC current is less than DC because the voltages are easily transformed reducing P = i^2R. Is there any expectation that will change (assuming the world will not all of a sudden convert to distributed energy...solar isn't that cheap nor is it able to supply baseload)?
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
In only 100 years' time? Nothing much will change, is my guess. Historically, we have seen that Latin(-ish) became dominant in much of Europe, then faded away again with the fading influence of the Roman church, but it held out for a very long time in academic circles - in fact, as a little anecdote, when the Flora Europaea was published from the '60es onwards, there was a debate over whether it should be published in Latin or English, according to the foreword.
English will be the trade language for a long while, but Chinese will grow in influence, no doubt, and may well be the second language in most of Europe. As for language loss - there seems to be a pattern where smaller language groups diminish, but then go through a revival when the speakers become wealthy enough to take an interest in their own, unique identity. Dialects too don't always disappear quickly, so perhaps we won't lose too much.
I personally see no reason why a single language, and particularly English, SHOULDN'T replace other languages eventually. Language barriers continue to be one of the causes of cultural conflict and the existence of many different languages, be it 6000 or 600 or even 6 serves absolutely no practical purpose other than as artificial barriers to communication. If a culture or place wishes to preserve its traditional/ancestral language for ritualistic or ceremonial purposes then so be it, but the official language of every country should absolutely be the same and every person on this planet would benefit from being able to understand every other person. There is simply no good argument against that. I personally hope that it takes less than 100 years to shrink the number of existent dialects, particularly those used by very few people for the purpose of maintaining some artificial sense of cultural independence. You do not have to speak a different language to preserve that different culture; it is only one part of the concept, and not necessarily an essential one.
Imagine an America where even the immigrants spoke fluent English... I know we'll never reach utopia, but I believe that would be a step in the right direction. I personally believe English is a perfectly acceptable candidate for the universal language because, quite frankly, it already is. Most other countries teach it in their school systems to the same degree they teach math and science, unlike in the US where schools offer some arbitrary European languages up to what generally amounts to an intermediate level of mastery. English is the language in which your ideas are most likely to be read and understood.
Cultural unification must eventually occur anyway. Stop fearing the future.
I honestly expect Mandarin/Cantonese to remain the dominant language on the planet, just as it is today.
English is difficult to learn, inefficient, ambiguous w.r.t. semantics and written syntax.
Mandarin/Cantonese have ambiguous semantics as well, but more from an audible comprehension (depending on your year) than structural semantics.
English, while popular in the west - simply isn't efficient, it's poorly designed, often as a result of being too flexible.
Cylon or Borg
Table-ized A.I.
with 600 pictures. ... and the cow goes, Moooooo!
Being able to understand other cultures to form my own opinions would be great! These awful language barriers feed all manner of stupidity (e.g. wars, distrust, etc.). As for culture transfer? Pshh, whatever man, we have art and poetry for that stuff. We shouldn't mourn progress on that account.
Even if China rose to #1 in everything and America/Britain/Canada/Australia completely receded... English will continue to be the lingua franca. There is no major reason to change. The commonwealth of nations is too widespread and cemented.
For many Asian languages, the logographic nature of their languages is a major handicap compared to a sound-it-out alphabet. Also, asian people already use English as a go-between when they don't share languages.
Esperanto would be grammatically nice, as english grammar and spelling often is inconsistent, but it doesn't have the benefit of native speakers.
But none of this is too interesting. The real question is when we get our universal translators.
Didn't you see Waterworld?
The same major languages as in the past (at least) 50 years: English, French and German.
That humans can express themselves in several thousand languages is a delight in countless ways; few would welcome the loss of this variety/p>
Ah yes, the old "Diversity is inherently awesome" chestnut beloved by liberals.
The moral of the fable of babel isn't that God blessed humanity for building the tower, it's that he was pissed and so **cursed** us to all speak different languages. It means the people of the world would always be in strife due to misunderstandings, and would never again be able to organize themselves to affront god. It was something to hobble mankind, not enlighten us or whatever hippie malarkey they're trying to peddle. That there are only going to be 600 languages a hundred years from now is fantastic - it means easier communication, a tighter knit community, less chance of errors or mistakes across populations.
.. everyone agrees on one and gets it in every single school NOW. it will take about two generations to achieve sufficient penetration and fluency worldwide to really matter. but it will never happen, not now and not in 100 years, because the fucking idiots that run our governments will never agree to a single common language, even if it is only as a global 'second language' and their native tongues are preserved.
that said, english is *already* the global language. it is the language of the sky (aviation), it is the language of the seas (maritime), and afaik the language of space (iis when housing a multinational staff). it is the most commonly taught second language. it is most commonly spoken language in the world when considering ALL speakers not just natives. but it will never be accepted by the prc, the dprk, russia, most of the middle east, or the french for that matter, as an 'official' language of any kind to be forced upon them.
Since most of the former civilized world will have turned into a shit caliphate.
As we will have destroyed the biosphere and will have had to retreat to the underside.
What about universal translators? In 100 years time, won't they be good enough for general use? :)
-> my bet is that the world will still speak lots of languages and use translators.
In many eastern nations, English is so widely used because it is seen as a neutral language. Many people in southern China who speak Yue Chinese (ie, Cantonese) dislike speaking Mandarin, which is a mutually intelligible language. Likewise in India where there are 7 major language groups comprising over 120 languages and over 1000 dialects and minor languages, many Indians (especially of the upper caste) prefer to use English as opposed to a non-local language. In these cases, English will thrive if only as a dominant second language.
India comes up again for another reason, which is the British Commonwealth. English is widely spoken in these member countries, which comprises a good chunk of the population in Africa and Asia.
I thought the population growth right now was in India, where they speak a lot of English. Of a sort.
And there's no way a closed-wall country like China could have their language exported to the world, no matter how many they are. Especially since the trade language, in China, is English. (Of another sort.)
But here's to hope that the regional languages lives on, because some sort of crippled international English with a vocabulary of 400 words should not be your primary language.
If a language grows to be dominate most likely it won't be one we currently have, more likely it will be a mish mash of existing languages, similar to what English has become.
"English doesn’t borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”
First of all do not confuse language and dialects. People around here speak Basque, one of those tiny languages which are gong to disappear according to some. But young people here are becoming more and more interested by their cultural heritage and more and more are learning Basque. That is because there is a unification of the several Basque dialects into a single language understood and spoken by all. Dialects have disappeared or are disappearing but the language is reinforced
English is my mother tongue but where I live I had to learn another language, French, in which I am fully bilingual. Right now I am learning Spanish because I live 11 km from the border and it is quite handy. My girlfriend speaks French, Spanish and Basque and has decided to learn some English. Many Europeans speak several languages and it doesn't seem to be an issue for them.
realkiwi
As I have been saying for many years, the most common language on this planed is Bad English. That is likely to remain so for at least another 100 years.
I'm afraid 100 years is rather short time for languages to develop. Let's compare 100 years backwards to today. Was the combo platter that much different in 1915?
2015 is only 100 years away, John Backus designed FORTRAN 57 years ago, so it is 1/3 of the way there and still going strong. I suspect that C will still be in use.
Oh, what do you mean spoken ?
Variations of English are the most widely used language in the world at the moment and as so many non-English speaking countries teach English as a second language the trend is likely to continue even if it is not the most appropriate language. One of the key features of English is that it absorbs parts of other languages as it evolves. You can see how english from England has adopted French, German and Gallic words for example and how American English has dropped many of these Anglo French influences and replaced them with other influences such as Italian. Because Mandarin Chinese is difficult for westerners to learn and to be honest we have become quite lazy when it comes to learning languages a large proportion of Chinese people learn English and other languages so they can have more opportunities in business. As greater numbers of Chinese people join in with the English speakers the language will inevitably pick up influences from the Chinese. Just as today you would hardly recognise Ye Olde English from 500 years ago, in another 500 years nobody will recognise the English we speak today.
. . . as long as they don't have to worry that it's their children who will be denied opportunities by being locked into a boutique language that gives them poorer access to employment, education, and even entertainment.
...AC power is used because AC is easy to step up/down. If the power network were to be DC, the transmission lines would have to be much thicker, since power would have to be transmitted at the standard 240V, but at massive currents. The only alternative would be huge inverters all over the place, instead of huge transformers, which would just be wasteful.
now bow to the your robot overlords
As the rise of English is the result of a series of historical accidents, I expect that by 2115 we will look back on English in the same manner as we look back on a bad hair style in an old photograph. It's a bastardization of French whose syntax native speakers don't even bother to learn correctly and whose character is fundamentally incoherent with an academic quest for science. The Industrial Revolution was a lucky fluke, and it's only because of geopolitical reasons that the US gained momentum during and after WWII. There's nothing that indicates to me that they will be able to carry this momentum forward rather than coming to a slow halt.
English is doing fine in international trade for the moment, but that doesn't give much to hold on to, since it's only a very superficial attachment to the language. When someone with more wealth comes along everyone will have forgotten about English, certainly as English-speaking nations aren't particularly good at making friends. Take the way in which they are trying to keep a stranglehold on their position for instance, by an ubiquitous slander campaign against the country which poses them the biggest threat, spreading all sorts of misinformation, mainstreaming radicals/crazies and diverting actual conversation for the sake of what exactly, I'm not sure. One day ordinary people will see through their guise and want nothing more to do with their shenanigans, and English will fall into to a position comparable to Russian today.
I expect in coming years the academic community to fragment, and by 2115 to have unified over a new common language. It's hard to predict which school will win out as previous academic languages have been decided primarily by warfare, but Mandarin will definitely be in the running and is a suitable language for academics due to its simple yet expressively powerful structure, high information density and simple pronunciation.
French and Latin came before. German was pretty much the language of philosophy and science before the world wars. Spanish might well be next in line, perhaps moreso than Mandarin. For it really isn't so much the number of speakers, as the total influence. Yes, number of speakers helps. But for a long time there were a lot more English speakers than French speakers in England, and also many more Russian speakers than French speakers in Russia, yet the people that mattered all spoke French.
So who will matter in a century? Both Great Britain and the US are on the way out. Next to obviously China it might well be Russia. But there's also Latin America, notably Brasil with their version of Portuguese. If darkest Africa manages to do a "wirtschaftswunder", French again or possibly some African language has a shot at fame. And if the Islamists win, it'll be Mad Arabic.
The language in 2115 will be the language of the first aliens that land on earth and colonize us because they're a million times more advanced than we are.
no, I don't have a sig
And that will never change. (Think!)
Aren't they supposed to be extinct around then?
The difference between English today and earlier examples like French, German, Latin, Arabic, Greek, Aramaic, etc., is the vast bulk of written material available in English, and increasingly audio and video digital formats, plus the fact that while English is as difficult as any other language to speak well, it is easier than most to speak, and especially to read, passably.
Technology for translation will make that reality less relevant but is unlikely to change the relative positions of the big languages. English, Mandarin, Spanish, and Russian will still have a lot of wealth associated with them.
It is a loss for the world because when a language becomes widespread, it loses a lot of its distinctiveness. English has the grammar that it does largely because the English language community went through several iterations of that process.
Even the phrase "English as the lingua franca" is ironic, since "lingua franca" originally meant a loose version of French, so this phrase really means eg "English is the New French", which of course implies that French was once the obvious final world language that everyone wanted to learn (about a hundred to a hundred fifty years ago) - although it wouldn't have helped them understand the phrase "lingua franca" itself, since that is Latin, the other final world language that everybody wanted to learn - in Roman times.
Languages in societies evolve slowly and inexorably, as most people here know, eg consider the previous meanings of words like hacker or gay etc. This evolution is not always to promote communication, it is often to impede communication among groups as well (which is why the best tool for the job argument fails).
Simple examples where language evolution is intended to make communication more difficult is where teenagers invent their own dialects, eg in school, as a way to exclude grown ups or other undesirables.
When England was invaded by the Norman French in the Middle Ages, the rulers spoke French and expected the subjects to learn the language or suffer the consequences, since the laws were now in French too. There was no concept of trying to improve communication among all people, instead it was a good way of keeping benefits and privileges among a certain group. The English language as the language of the ruling class was later reinstated of course, again as a result of politics, to exclude certain undesirables, and include others. Similar examples exist in other countries, eg when the Mongols invaded China and Mongolian became fashionable as a result.
There's no reason to think that, when China takes over economic leadership from the US, there won't be a wholesale change of the dominant language, with English playing a backwater role after that. This kind of thing has happened several times in the past. Moreover, even if it wasn't necessary, China would benefit more if the world is forced to adapt to its culture - eg its economic dictates, its laws, and its language - rather than if it adapts to world culture. So the ultimate question isn't so much will it happen (I guess there's a small chance China will implode and not become dominant), but when (it will take a generation or two after China becomes dominant for the language to spread universally) .
But that's unlikely. For one, Latin happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort. We retain the QWERTY keyboard... the Chinese do not use QWERTY, either.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
At least 500 million people know the term 'People Mountain People Sea'
All the four words that made up that term English words, and yet, native English people may be scratching their heads thinking 'what the hell is that ?'
Things like that is happening, not only inside China, but all over the world ... Chinese people are 'borrowing' English words to spice up their communications
And the interesting thing is, the use of English words by the Chinese is by no mean a zero-sum game. The Chinese are not giving up their own Chinese language. The English language to them is yet-another-tool that they can use to talk to others
Automatic translation tools are progressing fast. Within a few years, computers will be able to translate spoken language in real time with a relatively few errors. There are already working prototypes.
It is difficult to see how this will affect the spoken languages over time. If those systems become very efficient then there will be little reasons to learn English or any other major languages. On the other hand, preserving or learning small languages will become less important.
I have no idea how the Chinese learn their hanzi characters though. A quick search indicates the answer is probably a crapload of study and rote memorization ...
So everything that got to do with the Chinese must be "crapload" of whatever stuffs?
Have you really search for the answer or you are talking out of your ass, again?
Do you know how hard is it for the Chinese speakers to learn the alphabetical languages like English?
Do you know how confusing is it when the word "greener" means 'more green' but "corner" does not mean 'more corn'?
At least for the Chinese speaker the words can easily be decipher by taking apart the 'parts' that make up the whole character
Languages doesn't work like that ... languages are destroyed by governs, always. In united states english can be replaced to native american language if governs wants, takes long time but it could be done ... there is no evolucions but decisions politics.
Which is why some country are using QWERTZ and AZERTY. And also why some electricity transportation and usage are DC.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Fact is that most Chinese do not speak English, as I have experienced first hand. In fact 30% of the Chinese do not have Mandrin (including local dialects) as their first language: see this list of languages spoken in China. English is now taught at highschool, but not all Chinese do attend highschool. I have noticed that they are usually beter at reading the language than speaking it. I have met Chinese who published scientific papers in English, but could not keep a normal conversation.
... a lot of people don't want it to be English.
The japanese prof who invented Vocaloid singing tech (~ Hatsune Miku) while in Spain, has been into experimental history-lingustics in the last few years. Essentially his group is trying to recreate or approximate "ursprache" a.k.a primordial (pre-stone age) human language, by mixing theory of internal reconstruction, etc. with massive distributed listening tests which are cheap, because the voices are computer-generated.
Essentially, the working theory is, ursprache is somehow encoded in the common neuro-genetical heritage of mankind, thus if you reconstruct it well enough, everybody will suddenly mostly understand what you say. Of course nobody will be discussing quantum-electrodynamics in ursprache, but simple experiences of environment and human relations could be communicated. If mankind makes in to 2020 without WW3, expect to be suprised at the Tokyo Summer Olympics opening ceremony!
We will be fortunate to even exist if WW3 has not taken place or a NEO has hit earth or gamma rays from a super novae or GRB found its way to our planet. My bet is on the former considering the shitty international relations and peace talks happening everywhere.
All communications between pilots and air traffic control are in English the world over. This is a point that was missed in the original post. It is one way that English is already the most accepted international language.
Why no one is mentioning classic (vedic) Sanskrit? It is having a massive, officiall supported revival in India right now and being the root of about 70% of all languages currently spoken around the world, seems uniquely suited to become the One Language of future. Furthermore, we could use it to communicate with the alien engineers, whenever they arrive.
"
But that's unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort.
"
This is relevant because?
History has shown that just because you got there "first" doesn't mean you are going to "win".
I don't see many people writing in hieroglyphics, do you?
English is also only "deeply entrenched" in English speaking countries, and those where the economy is based on tourism.
Look at the Beijing Olympics for an example of how "entrenched" English is in China. I think everyone remembers the pictures of "500 server error" restaurant.
"Mandarin" didnt become the "default" language of China overnight. It came via conquests of smaller states and then converting them to mandarin. This is why China's official language is mandarin, but you often find people who speak another dialect as well.
Case in point, my wife is a native mandarin speaker. She comes from a province that only speaks mandarin. Her cousin speaks mandarin and fuzhou, when he speaks mandarin she understands what he says and this is not true when he speaks fuzhou.
Whatever the "default" language of the future is, it will be done over time and by having a lot of people speaking two (or more) languages.
We'll all be speaking machine language, you insensitive clod!
"English becoming the defacto global lingua franca"
That sentence suggests why. The English language is proven very adapt at including words and phrases from a whole host of other Languages.
e.g
German: Blitz, Bratwurst, Delicatessen, Ersatz, Flak, Frankfurter, Larger, kaput, Muesli, Spritzer, Zeitgeist,
French: au-fait, belle, blase, brunette, cafe, critique, de-rigueur, deja-vue.
Spanish: Amigo, banana, barbecue, breeze, cannibal, cargo.
Japanese: Bonsai, haiku, karaoke, origami, manga, satsuma, tycoon.
Chinese: char, chow, Ketchup
size doesn't matter!
Google will invent a new language with no synonyms to improve searching. Also, every word will have one form. Past tense and future tense will have adverbs. Plural and possessive will have adjectives.
This comment is covered by the Popeye standard disclaimer.
also known as Parseltongue.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
100 years from now the Japanese population will be so small, due to their current birth rates, that Japan will slowly start to become another English speaking country...
Buzzwords will become more common, no doubt.
Mostly, to allow the people who dont understand the correct wording/terminology, fall for yet more marketing adverts aimed at the sub 80 iq population. Buzzwords are essentially a language made up by people who failed English at school, for people who failed English at school.
1. NEWSPEAK - pessimistic option
2. LOLWOWWTF - optimistic option
Chinese isn't a single spoken language. There is a single written language, but the spoken variations have drifted apart.
"I'm sorry but I don't speak your Booga Booga language" says people all of the world when they encounter a frustrating situation with a person speaking a miss-matched dialect
It is time for the SciFi language of "standard/common" to get out there. We already have the communicators and they are finally getting close to flying cars. Standard would probably just be English, but people object to English purely for marking reasons. (Western culture coming to destroy our local one.) Call it something else and clean up the last of the junk letters/rules and make it a purely phonetic language and it'll be truly global in 20 years.
People can still have their local lingo, but it's time we moved on.
chinese won't take over for 2 reasons:
- the writing isn't even close to phonetic. older people can't learn it, there's really no such thing as "sounding out"
- the language is tonal. western rhetoric is tonal. if you try to get into an argument in chinese using western rhetoric no one will understand you.
... "Firefly"; watch and learn.
01100001 01110010 01111001
I suspect it's far more likely we'll have something close to a "universal translator" that will make it possible to speak with anybody else in the language of their choice in real time. Thus, there won't be nearly as much incentive to learn one particular language in order to communicate in whatever happens to be the lingua franca of the day.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
A mix of Spanish and Mandarin with, oddly, a hint of Innuit. That due to global warming melting the permafrost and revealing The Artifact in 2044.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I predict that in 100 years, that the same amount of homogenization will occur as has occurred in the last 100 years. In other words, none. The top 3 languages will be Mandarin, Spanish, English. The next 3 in possibly changed order will be Hindi, Bengali and Arabic. Then Portugese, Russian, Japanese. Either Punjabi or German will be next, then Javanese or Wu. After that, a smattering of languages in no particular order: Malay/Indonesian, Telugug, Vietnamese, Korean, French, Marathi. Then Tamil, then Urdu or Persian, Turkish. And here is a big upset, I think Cantonese first, then Italian.
Well, that is a top 25. I figure that will do for now.
Will we have one language? No. A few hundred years ago, we had an estimated 7,000 languages. Now we have an estimated 5,000 to 6,500 languages. In 100 years, I would guess we would have perhaps 1,000 fewer languages than today.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
English is the language of science, and as one commentor said above it has also become the primary language of doing international business whether that's in tech, law, the service industry, or a host of other sectors. That's not going to change in 100 years. I cannot believe that no one else commented on that fact before me! WTF has happened to /.
I'm mainly a lurker, but ....
... only ONE person has said anything or looked at us funny.
(rant on)
If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on the continued devolution of English, but it stays dominant due to mass media (music, video, etc). Yes it apparently continues to add new words every few minutes, but the spoken word had devolved to the point that I can hardly stand to listen to some people.
"Ummm, like, you know, we need to do something about that problem, right?"
"Yea, I was, like, gonna say something dude, but you were all..."
"Right. Like, I mean when I heard about it, it made me angry, you know?"
"An then she was, like, you know"
True stories: I was in a meeting with a guy that used "I mean" and "you know" over 100 times in 15 minutes. One stops listening to the message after being bombarded by those fillers. I have another co-worker that uses the word "essentially" as if he has to hit a quota. I'm not a perfect speaker or snobby by any means (I have my share of umms), but damn.... try to keep it simple and say what you have to say without the filler. Make your 2015 resolution to remove "like (unless comparing two things), you know, right, I mean, you know and stupid ass sayings such as "it is what it is" from your lexicon, unless the phrase is essential (damn... I used it) to the conversation. You'll be a better communicator and people may actually listen to you.
(rant off)
On the lighter side: I have a couple of like minded fellows I work with (with respect to frustrations of verbal English annoyances), and we have a game of reverse bingo going on. Bingo is if you hear a word on your corporate-speak bingo board, you mark it off. Reverse bingo is using an unusual or seldom used word (from a list of mutually agreed upon words) properly in a meeting with witnesses (at least one of the "like minded fellows"). The trick is to have it be a natural part of the conversation as if the word was the right word for the moment. Often the word is a bit obscure/seldom used and sometimes is hard to pronounce (and you catch hell if you screw it up). The funny thing is that though we've busted out words such as tenacious, juxtapose, superfluous, equivocate, analogous (an alternative to using 'like'),surreptitiously and deleterious
As the experiment goes on, we think folks either aren't listening or don't want to say anything to show that they don't understand us. I can say that my listening skills have improved and as such, I still shake my head at what people say versus what they wanted to communicate. One fellow told me he wanted to secularize the data (he meant segregate). Another said they were going to socialize a procedure (socialize isn't used that way). Anyhow, I'll do my part to improve the language in my small land of cubicles.
Have a happy new year, sorry for the long post and happy communicating.
Single world language is a great thing, and I don't care if it's Spanish, Chinese or (most likely) broken English. We will get much better science when everyone can instantly read everyone else's research. With that come huge tangible improvements to our lifestyle, like clean energy, high yield/nutrition crops and cure for cancer. Next, wide access to world news and entertainment will reduce armed conflict and increase people's demands on their own governments. Even non-political soap operas invite the question of "why the frak can't we live like this".
Once we are done with language, I think we will end racial conflict by ending race. This is well underway in SF Bay Area. Nobody under the age of 30 really cares. After a few generations of gene mixing, there will be no large homogenous groups that can gang up against others.
Oh sure, there will be holdouts. I envision pure Caucasian villages in Wyoming where conservatives can, with full public support and protection, practice their indigenous hunting, armed self protection, petrol-based lifestyle, "traditional family" culture and religion. They will probably refuse government-provided healthcare in favor of homeopathy mixed in whisky and enjoy booming trade with Amish.
Quoting: "Science fiction often presents us with whole planets that speak a single language, but that fantasy seems more menacing here in real life on this planet we call home—that is, in a world where some worry that English might eradicate every other language. That humans can express themselves in several thousand languages is a delight in countless ways; few would welcome the loss of this variety.
Question: what would be so wrong with a world with just one language? Why is that so menacing (to some)? Other than nostalgia, I can't think of a reason to stop this "terrifying" eradication of the other languages of the world. The truth is that people use languages to communicate with each other. In some instances, people want a common language to unify a large group of people. Other times, certain subgroups come up with their own (semi-)secret language to exclude others outside the in-group. It has always been thus.
Quebec is a weird case.
KFC is KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in France.
KFC is PFK (Poulet Frite Kentucky) in Quebec.
Because laws.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
The question is therefore moot.
There's more French than German in the English language.
You are comparing apples with oranges. Our common, everyday words are far more like German than French: bruder=brother (vs. frere), Ich war = I was (vs. j'étais) etc. However our more complex words are largely from French e.g. economics=economiques (vs. Wirtschaft).
One of the things which makes French so much easier than German to speak for an Englishman is that if you don't know the word (which usually means rarer vocabulary) you can often get away by picking a suitable English word and saying it with a French pronunciation (it does not always work but it is worth a try). With German you cannot do that since the overlap is with the simple, everyday words that you learn when you learn the language. This makes it far harder to both speak and to understand since you have to relearn every word in German whereas with French not so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
(and the TV show it is in reference to of course).
And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
Regardless of the language, hopefully by 2115 they will stop using variations of the word "own" to mean "defeat".
it wont be Murikan because your shitty 3rd world backwater states will be speaking Spanish then.
I'm betting on a mix of Python and APL with a little Engrish thrown in for good measure.
Real-time audio translation is just taking off. By 2115 everyone should be able to speak and hear others speak in whatever language they like, including perhaps one that they and their personal AI made up as they were growing up.
By most trends, India, Nigeria and a bunch of English speaking African nations will have most of the world's population at that point. These countries already speak some specialization of English thanks to their former British overlords. So, my money is on English all the way. Anyways, the language seems to get a makeover every couple of 100 years - so, what we call English today may start to sound quaint ("old fashioned") a 100 years from now. ;-)
BTW, even China is making a push towards English now and I suspect this trend will only accelerate once the Engish speaking bunch has critical mass. What makes a language succeed seems to be mostly critical mass or huge government investment
It's kinda cool that we can witness this process in real time, as populations in Singapore, India, etc. gradually adopt more English vocabulary, norms, and syntax. Singapore is a great example of this phenomenon... say a Cantonese-speaking guy marries a Malay-speaking girl. Neither one of them speaks "native" English; they both have an accent. But they also can't speak each others' native tongue. Their only shared language is "broken" English... and that's what their kids grow up with as their native language.
Living in Taiwan all these years, I find myself confronted with a host of different accents and dialects that I would never have encountered back home in Iowa. I've heard all manner of "English" from Kiwis, Ozzies, Scousers, Paddies, etc... not to mention folks from other language families altogether.
Even as the old divisions fade away, you can see the new divisions emerge...
To quote Mr. Spock... Fascinating!
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
Moisture vaporator binary.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Soulskill, when the walls fell. Bennett, his arms wide. Bennett and APK at Slashdot.
Esperanto is far easier to learn, and should truly be the International Language it was intended to be.
"We retain the QWERTY keyboard and AC current for similar reasons". QWERTY absolutely. AC current absolutely not. AC is far more efficient for transferring crrent over large distances. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/alternating-current-ac-vs-direct-current-dc
How about none? I doubt that the human race will survive this century.
Where did this guy go to school... the old scandinavian language was Norse you even have remnants of it in english streetnames etc..... and people speaking and writing Faroese or Icelandic will still today to a wide extent be able to read and understand Norse.... English as a world language in the Scandinavian and other Nordic countries has by no means suppleanted any of the languages spoken there...
Where did this guy go to school... the old Scandinavian language was Norse you even have remnants of it in english streetnames etc..... and people speaking and writing Faroese or Icelandic will still today to a wide extent be able to read and understand Norse.... English as a world language in the Scandinavian and other Nordic countries has by no means suppleanted any of the languages spoken there...
MS, ALS, Aphasia ? http://globability.org - Me http://einarpetersen.com
At the rate we are going we will all be speaking emoji.
At the rate we are going we will all be speaking emoji.
I don't know about the world, but my descendants will probably speak the same language that my ancestors spoke 3500 years ago...
It's not just that the French have an Academie that defines the language rules. It's also that the French Kings and later Parisian governments spent centuries imposing their language on the rest of France, banning the use of Provencal and Breton and Basque and all the other regional languages, whether Romance or Celtic or other.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
English is at its core a Germanic language. The grammar's descended from German versions of Indo-European, not Romance or Celtic versions, and if you take the basic vocabulary it's Anglo-Saxon. (For instance, the 1000-2000-word Basic English subsets are almost all Germanic.) There's a lot of French layered on top of it, from the Norman conquest, but it's mostly vocabulary and fancier words, not the core language. (And technical jargon being derived from Latin and Greek doesn't count; that's an artifact of Latin being the lingua franca of educated people for centuries.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
When will you ever learn? Size doesn't matter.
01010100 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100001
It could be a language that doesn't even exist yet.
Japan has a low birthrate and not that much adoption outside the home country, and a difficult writing system, so I wouldn't be too optimistic about its future. (I was stationed in Japan as a serviceman and learned some of it. The grammar is pretty cool IMHO. It might stick around just for that reason.)
Some relatively minor language, like Hawaiian say, could suddenly become fashionable or have some currently unrealized virtue.
I'm thinking that spoken language will merge with written (or texted/typed/twitted/ /keyboarded/ X...; interweb/Internet banter. With pronounciation adapted to those with access...) Has anybody ever tried talking with an American speaking German to an Italian that speaks German with German being the second language for both? Challenging at best.
Some online language will eventually take over due to it's increasing exposure.
China already is #1... more people, more power, more technology, and more people speaking chinese dialects than people speaking english on this planet.
You seem biased by your government sponsored education.
The question is communication among children, scholars, scientist, government and so on. English was introduced about 150 years ago or so in India. All higher education is in English. The problem was no one wrote a text book on phonetics showing the articulatory factors – tongue, part of the tongue active, lips and their protrusion, tip of the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth and other. So Indians modified the vowels and consonants to mimic the pronunciation of their mother tongue. Like Japanese they can read and write well in English. But they lost Sanskrit which was used for more than 1500 years, because the Sanskrit scholars were adamant in preserving the purity of the language rather than allowing dynamism to take hold. So, excepting for a few hundred speakers, Sanskrit is gone from day to day use. The pity is thousands and thousands of manuscript in Sanskrit language have not been edited and translated thus the wisdom of those scholars are almost gone. So, it is going to be a global language of learning, research, commerce etc., together will decide English to be "the language". Chinese have a categorical way of creating and writing things – like a pictogram. Also they China will not allow large scale immigration. So million or so people may learn it to work with them, but Chinese will not replace English. The life of English has no parallel in the history as it is pervasive without any political boundary. Those who learn move around for survival, others suffer. People around the world slowly by steadily moving toward English. English is dynamic, is assimilating words where ever it can find in business and is almost the language for near future. Indians easily migrate to the west because of their English knowledge even they speak with their native phonetics.
It'll be a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner city slang, and various grunts. If you speak normally it will sound all pompous and faggy.
You've obviously never watched Firefly.
The one who has the go,d makes the rules.
In other words, since most of the money being made is in English entertainment, English will be the language that stays on top.
Japan and India also have large amounts of domestic entertainment that makes it to overseas markets relatively undamaged. China though? Jackie Chan films.
But in terms of who is actually profiting, I'm going to say that Hollywood and Tokyo have such a huge time advantage, that it is unlikely that any other language will leap ahead without some substantial change In how communication happens. (VR,AR, and various SCIFI ideas along the lines of brain interfaces.)
Really? What is this comment based on? The opinion of a linguist! While having different languages may be "neat" it serves no social function except division. In a world where everybody speaks the same language, the information "playing field" is level, and nobody is condemned to a life of ignorance because their parents' language didn't have a word for "independent thought" or "freedom." I for one welcome the cultural imperialism of the English language.
The article is based on three huge false premises: 1. That languages become simpler as they're spread by adult learners. This is false because the simplifications (say, loss of Old English case endings) trigger new complexities (in this instance, new word order rules). 2. That tonal languages are especially hard for learners. Actually, many features of English are equally hard if your language doesn't have them: consonant clusters, tenses, stress timing etc. 3. That Mandarin cannot dominate because Chinese characters are too hard. But Pinyin romanization (i.e. Latin letters) is simple, easy, and known by native speakers and learners alike. so it could be that Chinese written in Pinyin comes to dominate outside China.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
Zero language!!!
I would be surprised to see Chinese become dominant in anything. Like Hindi, mandarin Chinese is spoken by a lot of people by only in the narrow confines of China(not even all of it at that). Outside of China English, French, and Spanish are all much more widespread. And the thing is, given the choice of english or chinese, most the worlds countries(which speak one of the above 3) will opt for english because.
1)It is easier to use proficiently
2)it is much easier to type
3)the alphabet isn't so god damn convoluted and if shared by most the world making literacy much easier
4)The other major population centers in asia(India, Japan, South Korea) already have an
extraordinary high number of english speakers, especially India where it is practically the national language.
5)It is a much more closely related language to spanish and french making fluency a matter of months not years if you immerse yourself in it.
Spanish was easy for me to pick up, Mandarin I found nearly impossible... even Japanese was simpler.
Lojban! http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Loj...
http://about.me/jimm.pratt
We will not speak languages. Humans will communicate exclusively through mind meld.
By that time the telecoms will have completely taken over people's social interactions and there will be no 'spoken' language. All text in small chunks. Sex will be done by switch across the internet. As soon as we get rid of all this silliness like living and socializing and get straight into the buying shit the better off our overlords will be.
I would love for American English to be simplified further. The spelling reforms of American English are great and more spelling reforms could be made, and our grammar could use reforms too. I think we could get by without different verb conjugations for plural and singular nouns. We should also do away with vestigial gendered nouns like actor and actress or waiter and waitress. We only need one of each noun. Can you guys think of other simplifications that could be implemented? I am an Anglophone so I am probably not the best person to ask about how to simplify English further.
I am new to Slashdot.
Whichever language comes with the Solar Federation invaders in 2112. It appears to be Canadian English.
The company I work for bought a small start-up. The owner of the small startup asked why we bothered to localize.
"Why do you localize? Isn't English the standard language of tech?" he asked.
English will become the primary language because foreigners believe things like this. This is a startup. A brand new company. If new companies feel this way, and they write English only software, then software will lead the world to come closer to English as the world language.
Also, in Singapore, English has become or is becoming the first language for everyone under 35. In India and Pakistan and other such countries, due to outsourcing, English is becoming a very important language. I am starting to meet youth from India with very little accents because they learned so early to speak English.
...the unchanging lingua of medicine, church, law, and many sciences.
English will die through ad hoc overmorphing; e.g., people using "alot" and "is comprised of..." . I just made up a word, so I'm guilty too.
We might want to pick the dominant language, rather than let it happen to us.
http://www.ted.com/talks/keith_chen_could_your_language_affect_your_ability_to_save_money
Chavspeak, innit.
1) Internets and Computer Science are dominated by English.
2) Traditional Science is dominated by English. http://science.slashdot.org/st...
3) Globalization has promoted English into other markets (Indian tech companies, Chinese manufactures).
4) Wealthy tend towards it globally.
5) If online video games have taught me anything it is that any 12 year old can learn enough English to at least say nasty things or mock me.
6) Ease of travel has also inordinately promoted English at least in tourist locals.
7) USA media and Hollywood. Media creators in the US for TV and movies also promote English. Why Canada has Canadian content laws, and Quebec, Canada has Language laws.
So give current trends, I would say that English will continue to increase it's domination. That said, it isn't to say that as a result that English may change dramatically as other cultures make it their own. Also that isn't to say that many of the more "primary" languages aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but perhaps more of a multilingualism going on, and bastardization of local languages. Look at Quebec and French for example in Canada. I took French immersion in school, but driving across Quebec I have heard things like "Le Tire" at a gas station for example...
Of course all of this could change if something drastic happens, but it would be on the level of Robotic Overlords subjugating the Human race forcing us to learn binary or something...
Haskell
Im not a religious person - I think all the major religions just spout the same gibberish.
But we often hear claims in the media that Islam is the worlds fastest growing religion.
It's also claimed that you need to learn Arabic to appreciate the babblings of an epileptic camel herder in their true beauty.
So... Arabic is my vote :p