|
 |
Next lingua franca | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 25 21 December 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
|
English currently has the status of global lingua franca. It dominates in the fields of commerce, tourism and
transportation. True, there are many places where English isn't widely understood, so it has some distance to go in order to become a true world language, but no other tongue has the global reach of English. The popularity of English grew after the second world war, but what will be the international language of the future? Of course, it's easy to dismiss this question and say that English will never be supplanted but throughout history there have been many linguistic shifts. Few people would have taken you seriously in the 1500s if you'd suggested that Latin would one day lose its grip on science and knowledge. Even until the early 20th century, international political conferences were conducted in French. Ancient Greek and the languages of biblical times have also bitten the dust in terms of widespread usage. Why on earth should we expect that English will always be on top? The obvious candidate is Mandarin with its sheer weight of native speakers and economic backing. India and Brazil also have huge populations and are getting stronger as nations. French is still clinging on as an international language, although battered and bruised. Yet huge areas of French-speaking Africa have immense mineral wealth. Spanish is continually creeping into North America, they say that English will be the minority language in Texas within our lifetimes. Russian is a real dark horse, the former Soviet superpower established Russian as the lingua franca across one third of the globe before receding. Yet the (still massive) Russian Federation holds all the aces in terms of oil and gas supply. I think this is a valid question. People study the history of languages so why shouldn't we be allowed to speculate on their future? Edited by beano on 21 December 2012 at 5:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4683 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 25 21 December 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
|
I think English will stay the lingua franca for our lifetime span.
But if I had to choose any other language, I'd say Spanish has the biggest chance:
A couple of past threads on the same subject: Language of the future Is Chinese going to be the lingua franca? Edited by Quique on 21 December 2012 at 5:22pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4750 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 3 of 25 21 December 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged |
|
In Brazil, English is more learned and liked than Spanish.
Most people see no point in learning Spanish. We have no contact with the Spanish language except from (some) Argentinian tourists. Movies, soap operas and songs in Spanish are nowhere to find. For example Laura Pausini singing in Italian has had more success in Brazil than any artist singing in Spanish. (Even Shakira had to translate/re-record her first album in Portuguese in order to get some exposure in Brazil). For the time being, the 2nd lingua franca is still French. It is spoken in 4 ''rich'' centers: Paris, Brussels, Montreal and Geneve. French is the official language of many organizations (alone or in combination with English), for example Medecins Sans Frontieres. Edited by Camundonguinho on 21 December 2012 at 7:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6494 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 4 of 25 21 December 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
|
I think the result will be in the favor of the country which generates the most for the other countries.
Rome at some point was the center of scolarship and the world order. France was the enlightment source. (Correct me if French became lingua franca earlier) English - simply because of the technical advancement. Tesla, Marconi, Einstein - all of them migrated into the English-speaking country. So now, it may either be China, if they start inventing things and become open to the world. Although the language difficulties may impede this. Or it can be Germany. Right now Germany is the only country without huge debts in Europe. I recall reading scientific economic papers in 2005 where American economists were moaning that Germany didn't open to their financial markets. (South Korea did, and Daewoo and some smaller companies were torn in pieces.) Now Germany is a source of technical innovation and urban innovation. Look at urbanism websites: most of the use cases are from Germany or Netherlands, with a few exceptions from Britain, 1 in Bogota and 1 in Curitiba, Brasil. German shouldn't be discarded. Or it may be India. It's a great target for outsourcing, and might become a place for emerging industries as well. US were that place, but now are dominated by corporations. (But I have a vague idea on what's happening in India now.) And it will be English again. Spanish has nice culture, but except Chile I see no good news. It doesn't seem a pretender for lingua franca, except by outnumbering the English speakers in the US, or all the world will need to go trade with Chile. But right now an enterpreneur is likely to go more often to India, China, US or Germany. Not to a Spanish speaking country, unfortunately. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4683 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 25 21 December 2012 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
|
As said, I don't think we'll be alive to see the fall of English as lingua franca.
But if other language is to overthrow it, it won't be French nor German. These might be strong on some niches/areas, but the only languages having a general/worldwide chance are Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Look at the numbers. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6494 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 6 of 25 21 December 2012 at 8:03pm | IP Logged |
|
Many contemporary peoples outnumbered Romans and Frenchmen, yet nobody bothered learning their languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 25 22 December 2012 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
|
The number of speakers can be of importance, but for a language to achieve some kind of lingua franca status, it has to be "everywhere" - culture, media, economy and what not(like English is in many countries in the world, like Arabic is in other parts of the world, and so on).
If kids in the Western Hemisphere don't know enough French or German to even order a cup of coffee after ~3 years of study, what are the odds that they would succeed doing so in Mandarin (which is an exotic language in all thinkable aspects)? Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 22 December 2012 at 12:09am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 8 of 25 22 December 2012 at 1:51am | IP Logged |
|
The next lingua franca will be Klingon! Next question!
5 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
