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Will English take over? | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | Endangered Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5280 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 37 03 March 2010 at 3:21am | IP Logged | ||
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A question that has been bothering me for a while is the concept of English taking over
and replacing certain countries' national languages. I fear for the world's linguistic future although it may seem silly. It would be a shame for certain European countries to give up their national languages for a lingua franca. What my real question is though, as the world learns English more and more, will it just be there as a lingua franca that everyone knows, or will it start to replace the national languages of some countries? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kerateo Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5445 days ago 112 posts - 180 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 37 03 March 2010 at 3:47am | IP Logged | ||
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In fact the languages that are dying are doing so because of the national languages, not because of English except where English is the national language (example, indigenous languages in canada, united states and australia). So dont worry about the european countries giving up their national languages worry about the european countries replacing the minority languages, occitan in france, milanese and many more in italy, even catalan in the long run could dye for the high Spanish inmigration in its provinces. Edited by kerateo on 03 March 2010 at 8:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5221 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 37 03 March 2010 at 6:38am | IP Logged | ||
And you would mean "die" in this case I'm not trying to sound condescending, just helping a fellow language learner ;) I would hope you would do the same for me in Spanish 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6129 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 37 03 March 2010 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||
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You shouldn't worry about Europeans giving up their national language to adopt English, that just won't happen. What's worrying me is the low quality standard of this new International English, in terms of vocabulary and grammar. I wonder what percentage of foreign English speakers can actually read English litterature?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5328 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 5 of 37 03 March 2010 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't be so sure about European countries not giving up their own languages for English. In Norway at least there's been serious debate about it, with the former head of the Norwegian Language Council saying he thought that there was a real possibility of this happening.
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| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6135 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 6 of 37 03 March 2010 at 11:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't see how English could replace the national languages of European countries.
People lazyness will always win - while the majority of people around you have the same native language as you do, you won't just start speaking English on a daily basis, no matter how good your English is. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5328 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 7 of 37 03 March 2010 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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But what if you use English all day at work, even with people who have the same native language as you, because that's the company's policy? (Several large Norwegian companies have been using English exclusively for internal communication for some years now...)
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| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6980 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 8 of 37 03 March 2010 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems nearly all international business here in China is done in English! French
companies will use English and so will German ones. Japanese companies though seem to still favour Japanese, which is evident considering the many Chinese natives learning Japanese (and from what I hear using it in their work place). Russian to a lesser extent also seems worth learning due to the fact that Russians here don't usually have great English. However, while many Chinese students take up French and German as their third language after English, in reality, few people actually use them when they go to work in the French or German company. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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