Global linguistic situation in 30 years (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Global linguistic situation in 30 years
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30 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4

Kugel
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6543 days ago
497 posts - 555 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 26 of 30

16 March 2010 at 5:40pm | IP Logged

Although technology and economics play a huge role, freedom of speech will ultimately determine whether or not Mandarin becomes a dominant language.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Paskwc
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5682 days ago
450 posts - 624 votes

Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English
Studies: Persian, Spanish

Message 27 of 30

16 March 2010 at 8:28pm | IP Logged

Tombstone wrote:

We already have devices that can read whether or not a person is telling the truth.
That technology will possibly evolve to identify intentions and register emotional
levels, which is also important in knowing the point someone is trying to get across
when they speak.

I think we will be shocked to see how accurate and encompassing these linguistic
devices will be in 30 years.

Will that remove the need to study foreign languages and have interpreters? No. The
constant morphing of languages and the addition of new words such as "Internet, blog,"
etc. will always make it necessary.

I find this very interesting. I know you've stamped a heavy caveat onto your statement,
but I wonder what you see beyond 2040. Do you see a day, in the distant future, in
which representative language becomes obsolete and emotive language takes over? For
example, instead of using words or speaking, we will simply express emotions which will
be rendered comprehensible by some form of technology.
1 person has voted this message useful

John Smith
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6047 days ago
396 posts - 542 votes

Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish
Studies: German

Message 28 of 30

17 March 2010 at 4:29pm | IP Logged

People stop learning English. Other languages like Mandarin and Arabic become popular the world over. After a couple of years most people give up. Too many Chinese characters to memorise. Too many Arabic dialects to learn. Everyone starts learning English again.
1 person has voted this message useful

Delodephius
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 5408 days ago
342 posts - 501 votes

Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, English^C1, Czech
Studies: Russian, Japanese

Message 29 of 30

17 March 2010 at 10:49pm | IP Logged

By 2050 Serbs will finally put their plan of world domination into action and conquer Milwaukee and after that Tokyo thus making Serbian the official global language (based on the saying "Srbija do Tokija preko Milvokija").
3 persons have voted this message useful

robsolete
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5390 days ago
191 posts - 428 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin

Message 30 of 30

17 March 2010 at 11:48pm | IP Logged

English continues on its course, being used as the lingua franca between OPEC, China, and India. The Western economy begins to dwindle, and those of European descent are left with the bitter irony of watching one of their own languages being used to economically exclude them.

Okay okay. More realistic answer.

English continues on its ascendant course as the entire internet generation learns at least a smattering. English itself becomes highly variable and absorbs a plethora of loan words from across the globe. Eventually it begins to morph into quite another thing altogether, retaining its basic grammar while vocabulary explodes in size (as if English needed any more vocabulary).

If anything, it develops somewhat like Arabic, with a orthographically correct and somewhat simplified International Standard English being used in the worldwide press, medicine, transportation, engineering, and many other technical fields. Several Englishes develop in various parts of the world as the children of the internet generation inherit their parents' smattering of English and meld it into their own.

We end up with a strange sort of global trilingualism: International Standard English as a globalized language, regional 'English Creoles' developing as colloquial lingua francas between neighboring countries, and then native languages being used within communities and to maintain ethnic and cultural identities.

At this point, native English speakers emigrate en masse to learn Navajo so that they might actually be able to have private conversations again. :)

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