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Most influential languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6703 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 33 of 52 14 April 2013 at 6:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed that most of the people in this thread are jumping right in with their opinions without actually defining what they mean by an "influential language".
I've seen a couple of people noting what it is not--China having economic development =/= influential language. If you want to say that an influential language is a language that is used by the most secondary speakers, that is one thing. If you want to say an influential language is one which is the source for the largest number of loan words in other languages, that is another. If you want to say an influential language is the one that has the highest prestige, that is a third, and if you think it will have the highest prestige in the future, that is yet another. Define your terms before you start trying to compare things! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 34 of 52 14 April 2013 at 7:05am | IP Logged | ||
For me: influential means that the language is appealing enough to make me want/have to learn it. It could be due to its economic power, since learning language X will provide me with a raise or some financial benefit, or due to some "soft" reason like I want to listen to music or read literature in said language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Surtalnar Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 4397 days ago 52 posts - 67 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 35 of 52 14 April 2013 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Chinese will never become a world language, as long it doesn't adopt the Latin alphabet. You can't expect pupils in Europe or in the Americas to learn Chinese, it's just to complex. They already struggle with easier languages like French, Spanish and English. Therefore the venture that Chinese will become a world language is absurd.
The problem with Spanish is that there are to few inventions made while using the Spanish language. It hasn't a significant scientific culture. Within the European Union it doesn't play a role. Further problems are the economic struggle of Spain (~60% youth unemployment) and that the Catalonia and the USA is try to combat the Spanish language. The only world language in the current is English and it the next future it will stay as the only world language, although I wish that French would be the language that has achieved this status. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4370 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 36 of 52 14 April 2013 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Influential language for me= A language that is widespread where it is possible to communicate with native and non-native speakers, particularly a language that isn't confined to one country, where the people who learn it are not from a particular social background or profession (so not only college-educated people, for example), and it is "easy" enough to learn it badly and still be comprehensible. Additionally, it should have a degree of cultural exportation, and another contribution (scientific, medical, legal, etc.).
As far as I can see, the only two languages that might at some point come anywhere close to English would be Spanish and French. They both have native speakers spread out over a wide geographical area, both have an entertainment culture that has expanded beyond its borders, both have fairly significant diasporas in various parts of the world, and both have non-native speakers of various backgrounds learning the languages (I'll deliberately leave out how proficient it is). Now, of course, they don't come anywhere near to rivaling English currently. Spanish countries haven't made any significant or popularly known scientific contributions (but please correct me if I'm wrong!), and at least in my part of the world, when Spanish is discussed as the "next language everyone should learn," it's in the context of monolingual Spanish speakers immigrating to the US. Who knows what will ultimately happen with the next generation born to immigrant parents. From my experience, the second generation learns (and speaks) English (even if in addition to Spanish). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5052 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 37 of 52 14 April 2013 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, Spanish language is spoken by some 75 million people in the European Union and
some 50 million in the USA. At this moment, there are some 125 million people that speak Spanish in both areas as first or second language. It is specially important in the USA. Some reports, say that Spanish will be the most spoken language there by 2050. There are some 525 million people that speak the language worldwide (Wikipedia, Spanish version). This language is growing very fast, and according to several reports, it will be the most spoken language in the World in 2045-2050. http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/9317954/El-espanol-sera-el -idioma-mas-hablado-del- mundo.html http://www.larazon.es/detalle_hemeroteca/noticias/LA_RAZON_3 48904/1852-2050-el-espanol- derrota-al-ingles#.UWriZqIVOKI Anyway, I think that English, Spanish and Chinese will be the most influential languages this century. Perhaps also French, but it depends on some African countries. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 38 of 52 14 April 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Sorry, I love Spanish but it really is not going to be the most spoken language in the US by 2050. The issue is that the second and third generations of the latino immigrants tend to lose their language proficiency. This is seen not just in latinos but in almost all immigrants in the US. The best case scenario for Spanish in the US would be for it to be adopted as an official language, either at the federal (unlikely) or state level. Mind you, currently there is no official FEDERAL language in the US right now. In addition, those children of immigrants will also speak native English. I don't really see how people find French to be as or more influential than Spanish; the African francophone is much poorer than their latin-american counterparts and a tiny percentage of the African francophone actually speaks French! French has to compete with a lot of native African languages in those countries. Germany does have a long history of Nobel Prize winners as well as impressive scientific contributions to the world. Alas, German lacks the demographic weight of languages like Spanish or Arabic, for example. Mad Max, have you been to the US or have you lived here? Even in the border states, one really doesn't HAVE to know Spanish to have a good job or business. However, it is definitely a plus. I also agree that English, Spanish, Mandarin, are the top 3 current and future languages. The diglossia of Arabic and the low numbers of native French speakers give me pause when thinking about those two. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5052 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 39 of 52 14 April 2013 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, another conservative report say that Spanish will be spoken in 2050 by 133 million
people in the USA. I think that this report is more accurate. http://www.lodisoft.com/blog/posts-tell-me-more/item/en-2050 -133-millones-hablaran- espanol-en-ee-uu Anyway, the US Census doesn't say that these reports are wrong... The future is not clear, but we can see the tendency. For example, Spanish was spoken by some 400 million people in 2000. In 2013 is spoken by 525 million. I think the same about German, French and Arabic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 40 of 52 14 April 2013 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
There is a big difference between fluent speaker, partial speaker, and somebody that speaks little. The issue is that those 133 million will include people with very low Spanish proficiency. And I say this as somebody that is a big Spanish proponent. Spanish probably won't die out nor ever become the equal of English in the US--it will probably always be an influential language in the US and more so in the border areas with Mexico. Now, people that say that Spanish will die out in Central America and South America are a little extreme--it's extremely unlikely that an official language spoken by 95%+ of the population in all of those countries will ever die out. French has a greater chance of being supplanted in Africa by English and Arabic, however. (Though apparently the French language is relatively entrenched in the ruling and business elite of Africa's francophone countries) You think that German will expand? How so? I wonder what people think about Arabic and it's major diglossia or triglossia! A lot of types of Arabic, it kind of seems like the types of Arabic are kind of like the differences between very related but distinct languages like Spanish/Portuguese. (And no, the difference in Spanish between countries is extremely minor, much less than the Arabic dialects) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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