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2031: More and Less Influential Languages | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | Language Politics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6253 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 1 of 25 17 April 2011 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Looking over the old thread about whether Chinese will become the world's next lingua franca made me wonder about the future of languages in general. In twenty years, which languages do you see becoming more influential and which do you see becoming less influential?
More Influential 1. Spanish - The Hispanics in the USA, power pushers like Hugo Chávez and progressing economies like those in Costa Rica and Chile will make Spanish an even more relevant language in the future. 2. Portuguese - One word: Brazil. A less and less corrupt government, growing middle class, competitive entrepreneurs in São Paulo and a huge wealth of natural resources. If President Dilma is as much of a political maneuverer as Lula then Portuguese will definitely become more important. 3. Arabic - A fast growing population that wants to take a more active role in the world will make Arabic an even more important language in the future. Best of luck to all of the protesters fighting for freedom! 4. Chinese - For obvious reasons that many will be sure to mention later on. 5. English - Yep, there is still a lot of momentum behind English and it won't go away in twenty years even if there are drastic changes in the global economy. It's a double edged sword, to be sure. Less Influential 1. The Scandinavian languages, Dutch and Dutch related languages - Those that are currently under 30 in these groups often speak English quite well. In 20 years their children will probably also follow suit meaning that most everyone in those countries will speak English very well. It's a two edged sword. 2. Japanese, French, German, Russian, Thai and Korean - These languages will stay about the same as now: a good idea for those going on vacation or wanting to do business in those places. I predict that fewer people will have a mastery of them so I suppose that's why I think they belong in this list even though they will continue to be important, just less so. 3. Hundreds of languages in Indonesia and Malaysia. Edited by portunhol on 17 April 2011 at 5:59pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| GauchoBoaCepa Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5420 days ago 172 posts - 199 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 2 of 25 18 April 2011 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
Dream on! Besides what you said about Chavez cracks me up. Edited by GauchoBoaCepa on 18 April 2011 at 3:57pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6253 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 3 of 25 18 April 2011 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
Have faith my Southern Brazilian friend. It's easier to give up on a language when you are at the intermediate stage than to be diligent and attain fluency. It is easier to let go of the rope while you climb a mountain than it is to continue to the top. Being cynical is easy. Having faith in worthwhile things (like language learning for example) is hard but it is worth it. Look at Brazil twenty years ago. Compare that to now. Now look twenty years into the future. You guys have set yourselves up for some good times. Sure, you're not there yet, but you could be. If you don't stop half way through then you will end up being major power players on the World Scene. Tenho fé no "jeitinho brasileiro". Vocês têm MUITO potencial e vão conseguir fazer ainda mais coisas fantásticas nos próximos 20 anos. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rolf Senior Member United Kingdom improvingmydutch.blo Joined 6008 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch | Message 4 of 25 18 April 2011 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Less infuential" is a relative thing.
These languages will occupy the same niches they do today. They will also retain their historical significance. No different to most dialects around the world. There is no under/over 30 rule when it comes to Dutch, I can assure you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 5 of 25 19 April 2011 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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So is this basically shadowing relative economic forecasts of those countries who use the languages?
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| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6253 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 6 of 25 19 April 2011 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||
Nope. What makes languages significant or not is related to more than money. See this post on global languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5094 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 7 of 25 19 April 2011 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that Standard Constructed Mandarin will be more influential, mainly because the Chinese government is pushing for this and the people of China wishing to get ahead in life need to learn it.
I think English will be even more widely used than it is now. I have read that more people are learning English than there are native speakers. I can't remember the source though. Spanish will also grow in influence I think. I don't know about languages losing their influence globally but languages like Tagalog in the Phillipines seem to be falling out of favour, and being replaced by English or Spanish. Edited by Nguyen on 19 April 2011 at 2:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonE Groupie Canada Joined 5071 days ago 54 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 25 19 April 2011 at 2:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Wasn't there a huge thread about this same thing not too long ago...?
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