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Most influential languages

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Samual
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5945 days ago
37 posts - 39 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 17 of 52
01 October 2008 at 5:03pm | IP Logged 
autodidactic wrote:
[QUOTE=amphises]
China is stronger than ever in africa, 2nd only to the US. They don't mind working
with (sanctioned) dictators (like mugabe) as long as they get paid. Business is
business.

http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com/node/1126


I dont understand what you mean? No one is disputing Chinas economic success, i thought we where talking about the language?

The simple truth is, China is one economy so linguistically it has little impact on the many other successful economies, most of whom speak a European language
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Alkeides
Senior Member
Bhutan
Joined 6149 days ago
636 posts - 644 votes 

 
 Message 18 of 52
02 October 2008 at 9:53am | IP Logged 
autodidactic wrote:
amphises wrote:
[QUOTE=Samual] [QUOTE=Polandboy] Africa is the only continent that
the Chinese haven't yet invaded, but we are gradually gaining a foothold, at least in
the politically stable regions.


China is stronger than ever in africa, 2nd only to the US. They don't mind working
with (sanctioned) dictators (like mugabe) as long as they get paid. Business is
business.

http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com/node/1126

["]Eighty-five percent of Africa's exports to China come from five oil-rich countries
(Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan), according to
the World Bank. But Chinese interest in Africa extends beyond oil. China now ranks as
the continent's second-highest trading partner, behind the United States, and ahead of
France and Britain. From 2002 to 2003, trade between China and Africa doubled to $18.5
billion; by 2007, it had reached $73 billion. Much of the growth was due to increased
Chinese imports of oil from Sudan and other African nations, but Chinese firms also
import a significant amount of non-oil commodities such as timber, copper, and
diamonds. China recently began to import some African-manufactured value-added goods,
such as processed foods and household consumer goods.["]
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9557/

["]With over 750,000 Chinese settling in Africa over the past ten years, and
suggestions that anywhere up to 300 million will need to be sent in the future (to
offset over-population and pollution), Malone says that Galton’s vision of a colonized
Africa is now coming to pass.[/"]
http://intercontinentalcry.org/chinas-colonizing-africa-whil e-we-talk-charity/

Out go the europeans, who built vast roads and infrastructure and schools in their
colonial rule, and in come the Chinese, displacing africans and taking regimes' money.
Poor africa.




Well, China HAD been involved in trade with East Africa during the Ming Dynasty, pirates were also fairly common to that area, according to the records of Zheng He's travels.

Zheng He also kidnapped the Sri Lankan king and made him apologize to the Ming Emperor. So I guess you could say the Chinese colonization of Africa began long ago.
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Alkeides
Senior Member
Bhutan
Joined 6149 days ago
636 posts - 644 votes 

 
 Message 19 of 52
02 October 2008 at 9:59am | IP Logged 
JuanM wrote:
Well, for me the influence of a language is strongly tied to its cultural achievements. That's why ancient Greek and German will always be essential languages. On the other hand, languages of commerce and business fade away with the fortunes of politics and demography.
Ancient Greek and German were languages of commerce and business in their day; most Hellenistic literature wasn't written in Greece!

Linguistic domination is one of the mechanisms by which languages gain more native speakers and thus the opportunity for those speakers to produce "cultural achievements".
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Marc Frisch
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6666 days ago
1001 posts - 1169 votes 
Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Persian, Tamil

 
 Message 21 of 52
02 October 2008 at 4:05pm | IP Logged 
amphises wrote:
JuanM wrote:
Well, for me the influence of a language is strongly tied to its cultural achievements. That's why ancient Greek and German will always be essential languages. On the other hand, languages of commerce and business fade away with the fortunes of politics and demography.
Ancient Greek and German were languages of commerce and business in their day; most Hellenistic literature wasn't written in Greece!

Linguistic domination is one of the mechanisms by which languages gain more native speakers and thus the opportunity for those speakers to produce "cultural achievements".


Not to mention that Chinese also has an impressive amount of 'cultural achievements' to boast with!


Edited by Marc Frisch on 03 October 2008 at 8:04am
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crackpot
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6302 days ago
144 posts - 178 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 22 of 52
05 October 2008 at 12:23am | IP Logged 
Let's get real. If one thinks of the masses of English folks that have gone abroad over the centuries, the number of Chinese moving out of China pales by comparison. That is why Chinese is only the key language in Chinatowns across the globe and why English is the dominant language on at least three of the six inhabited continents.

Outside of China if you are Chinese and you want to venture outside your own neighborhood you need to speak the local language. This is not world domination!

Basically, today about half the habitable territory in the world is dominated by people who speak one of five European languages. English in North America, Australia, eastern and southern Africa with many speakers in South Asia. French in west and central Africa. Spanish in the western half of Latin America and Portuguese in the eastern half as well as in in southern Africa. Finally, Russian is dominant in eastern Europe and northern Asia. This situation came about due to the expansion of technologically advanced societies taking over and colonizing weaker ones. We are past this point in history, so while there may be some limited immigration from country A to country B we will not see the wholesale destruction of local languages in favor of a dominant foreign languge.
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Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6035 days ago
1457 posts - 1759 votes 
5 sounds

 
 Message 23 of 52
05 October 2008 at 5:58am | IP Logged 
Actually, English is dominant in at least part of eastern Europe.
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lloydkirk
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6414 days ago
429 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 24 of 52
05 October 2008 at 10:28am | IP Logged 
crackpot wrote:
Let's get real. If one thinks of the masses of English folks that have gone abroad over the centuries, the number of Chinese moving out of China pales by comparison. That is why Chinese is only the key language in Chinatowns across the globe and why English is the dominant language on at least three of the six inhabited continents.

Outside of China if you are Chinese and you want to venture outside your own neighborhood you need to speak the local language. This is not world domination!

Basically, today about half the habitable territory in the world is dominated by people who speak one of five European languages. English in North America, Australia, eastern and southern Africa with many speakers in South Asia. French in west and central Africa. Spanish in the western half of Latin America and Portuguese in the eastern half as well as in in southern Africa. Finally, Russian is dominant in eastern Europe and northern Asia. This situation came about due to the expansion of technologically advanced societies taking over and colonizing weaker ones. We are past this point in history, so while there may be some limited immigration from country A to country B we will not see the wholesale destruction of local languages in favor of a dominant foreign languge.


I agree. It amuses me that people on this board see Chinatowns as proof of Mandarin's international significance. There are roughly 40 million people of chinese descent overseas. There's twice as many people of German descent around the world. Furthermore, it's a stretch to deem the language some sort of East Asian lingua franca. Where is it a lingua franca outside of China? Do they speak it in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia? I think not...

Edited by lloydkirk on 05 October 2008 at 10:38am


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