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French: the most spoken tongue in 2050? | ||
Tags: Number of speakers | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7205 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 9 of 19 27 March 2014 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||
I can hear them already, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". Edited by luke on 28 March 2014 at 7:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4290 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 10 of 19 28 March 2014 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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If it means that people stop switching into English (or instead start to switch to
French), then glad shall I be. Being an Anglophone, I am unaccustomed to have anything else as a general lingua franca, and it would be nice that my own native language retire from such an excessively important status. It would also be interesting to see how native Anglophones, who generally to be nice, learn very few languages and are usually monolingual in comparison to non-native Anglophones. I mean that I am interested in seeing how Americans, Britons, Australians, Anglophone Canadians, New Zealanders and the British Empire and Commonwealth nations deal with having French as the lingua franca instead of the tiring English language. My grandmother learnt French in secondary school growing up in a colony of the British Empire in the 1930s, and said that French was the world's lingua franca. She said that she thought that it would stay like that for centuries. Perhaps she was right, and English was just a short stay. Also I have a Vietnamese friend whose extended family mostly live in France. Despite his living in an Anglophone country, both of his parents (probably born in the 1940s) speak fluent French. Their English is poor, but their French is better, and I can speak to them like that. His relatives in Vietnam also speak French, despite their not having any French blood. So French is not completely gone from Vietnam yet. I am unsure about its situation in Cambodge or Laos. Edited by 1e4e6 on 28 March 2014 at 2:38am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5207 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 19 28 March 2014 at 10:55am | IP Logged | ||
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As extremely unlikely as it seems, I would also welcome it as it would make all my French learning efforts over the last four years seem like a bit less of a waste of time.
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| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 12 of 19 29 March 2014 at 2:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't mind learning French. It don't know how likely it is; as someone pointed out population is not necessarily the maker of a global lingua franca.
1e4e6, that's interesting about French in Vietnam. Is it common there anymore? I'm trying to imagine why the Vietnamese would keep French hanging on there. Is it mostly the older generation? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rlnv Senior Member United States Joined 3951 days ago 126 posts - 233 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 13 of 19 29 March 2014 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I believe the primary driver of a languages dominance is and will be information and technology, followed by, or perhaps along with business. Right now there are large sections of earth that are not as connected as you and I. In the future they will become as connected, and the advancement of technology is very rapid. The technology that emerging nations use and information they consume to a large extent will influence their usage of secondary languages. I see that growing English for the foreseeable future.
I'm sure French will continue to have influence. And as much as I would personally welcome its advancement, I don't see it happening unless that primary driver changes in a big way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4444 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 14 of 19 29 March 2014 at 4:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Based on # speakers Mandarin & Hindi will still dominate except that these languages do not have a
wide geographic reach. Besides English, Spanish will still be the lingua franca in Latin America. A country like China is teaching people English as a 2nd language in school and many people dream of a new life in the US for their families. You have over 1B people learning to speak English on top of Mandarin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4290 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 15 of 19 29 March 2014 at 5:16am | IP Logged | ||
I am unsure exactly, because I have not discussed the reasons nor wherefore either with him or his family, but from what I understand, both of his parents learnt French during the colonial period of L'Indochine Française. France probably left when they were already teenagers. I am unsure exactly what languages were taught during the American-Vietnamese War, but I would guess that the linguistic ties were still strong, and up to now, Vietnamese immigrate to France, probably also due to linguistic ease, not unlike someone in Singapore or Hong Kong during the same period (and even recently and currently) immigrating to the UK. Perhaps French is not as prevalent as it is in Algeria, Tunisia, etc., but the historical ties probably left the language to sit there. He says that his relatives in Vietnam can speak both their native Vietnamese and French as a second language, whilst the ones in France almost exclusively speak French natively. I am not good at history, but I think that Cambodia and Laos had somewhat similar linguistic histories, and also entered wars in the 1960s and 1970s. They had many immigrants to France as well, up to now. I am unsure how current this is, but I recall something about how French, not English, is useful if one cannot speak the native language whilst travelling in any of the Indochina countries, and that even if their French is not very good, it would probably be better than their English. Were French to increase into a lingua franca, they have quite a large region that already has had the linguistic history to restart. The French Empire was the second largest compared to the British Empire, covering almost all continents except Australia. Also it seems like France do not try to accept English as readily as Norway or the Netherlands, and they do not switch as often (although I have been switched). So in that manner they could halt the encroach of more English and increase expanding French language. Maybe if they could increase the popularity and coverage of TV5Monde or France24 to the level of BBC, Sky News, and CNN, that would help to spread French. Probably in addition to French, Spanish could compete concurrently. The English levels are fairly low as I saw on a chart in some other thread from the English Proficiency something research (I cannot remember exactly), but when I was in both Spain and Hispanoamerica, their English was often limited, even in tourist areas. It seems as if they have English learning as a low priority, or in some cases, try to block its influence (something that I actually quite like). Concerning populations and linguistic influence, Hispanophones are the third largest group after Mandarin and English speakers. The problem is that the majority of both parts of the Hispanophone and Francophone countries, i.e. post-imperial nations, is that they are poor and not as influential globally. It does not help that Spain have a financial crisis still, and France are not as powerful as even since the 1950s. But it could change very quickly. I bet that just one Francophone music group that reaches the international musical prestige of bands like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, or Def Leppard could cause a dramatic increase in interest in French. Edited by 1e4e6 on 29 March 2014 at 5:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cristianoo Triglot Senior Member Brazil https://projetopoligRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4121 days ago 175 posts - 289 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, FrenchB2, English Studies: Russian | Message 16 of 19 29 March 2014 at 5:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Probably not, but I will certanly count as one of those francophones in 2050
Well... if i'm still alive by them... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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