English language spreading like cancer

[Darth Somethingorother]

This has been French policy for decades, carried out through La Francophonie.  Where schools in foreign countries have a choice of which foreign language to teach students, there's often a sizeable reward in terms of resources for schools that pick French.  I don't think there are many takers, though. 

 

English is the dominant global language of the globalisation era, but native speakers be warned - it's not your version of English, whether British or American, it's International English and belongs to no-one.  Moreover, who's to say how long it will last?  The next global language could easily be Spanish, Chinese or even Esperanto.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

More likely Spanish and English will hybridize, and Chinese will overtake us all ...

 

English's pre-eminence is due to:

• English being used on most of teH internetz (over half of the infrastructure is US)
   
  
• Enlgish being used (currently) as the language of science
   
  
• speakers of English as a second language (especially the 300 million Madarin speakers) outnumbering native speakers
   
  
• English cannibalizes from other tongues any inadequacy it has, and does this as well or better than any other language.
  

Any of these can change. English might then end up like Latin, with local dialectal derivatives of it surviving in isolation, were it not for the internet. Even if this process is inevitable, and the internet merely slows it down, "classic English" is here for the foreseeable future.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Incidentally, I think its the only language where you can curse mid-word e.g. "abso-bloody-lutely" (though I'm not 100% sure about that)

[metadigital]

Hee hee. I hadn't thought of that.

classic english?

 

isn't that like "ye oulde tyme english" or verily shakespearian?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, the stuff we're using now, since the globalization era began, and local variation slowed down. The stuff that Mandarin speakers and Europeans are learning as a second language.

 

For example, the English you refer to from the sixteenth century just shows how much a language can change in a few decades/centuries: think about all those words in the plays, how they would have been in common use and rhymed!

 

Now the forces of globalization are working to keep the language homogeneous, and they fight against the local dialectal forces. For example, I can see that the English spoken by the Scots, South Africans and Kiwis, for instance, could very easily become mutually incomprehensible ... "

[mkreku]

I kind of like english because it's so easy to improvize. When I lived with my friends in the US, everytime I lacked a particular word in my vocabulary, I just improvized using the swedish equivalent and 90% of the time they understood me.

 

Of course, it might just mean that my friends are highly intelligent or really good guessers too. Or psychic.

[Surreptishus]

Compared to ages gone by won't language stay comparatively static? Especially when considering dictionaries, printing and literacy rates.

 

If we have to learn a chinese language in the future then many westerners will probably be screwed since it apparently uses a different part of the brain to learn it... or something

[metadigital]

Yes.

Yes.

[astr0creep]

I live in a province filled with little Chiracs. Quebec, Canada.

 

These people who get offended by english speakers are a strange bunch.

 

It's about communication, making whoever is listeneing understand what you are trying to say. Be it in French, English, Dutch, Zulu, or whatever has no importance as long as one gets his/her words understood.

 

English IS the language of business, wether Mr. Chirac(and French-Quebecers) accepts it or not. The man was simply making sure everybody understood what he had to say.

 

Iz all.