Will English take over the whole world?

[citizenED]

Are we on course for the English Language to take over the world? And would it be a good thing?

[HAL9000]

Yes and yes. Diverse languages tend to separate, isolate and divide. A common language (even if it is only a second language) will help bring the world's different cultures and peoples closer together - that has to be a good thing.

[PeckhamRose]

I think it would be a great thing, mainly because I speak English.

I think we should only have one currency too!

[katie1997]

citizenED - a very good question. When I worked overseas, my whole team were all from different states with different first languagues. The local language that I thought would be their likely 'common' language wasn't, in fact , when I asked them they all replied in unison "english" as being the language that united them.

[SteveT]

English is a very new language and was spoken for many yonks before it was ever written, everyone wrote in French then as it was the diplomatic language.

Whilst English was being spoken for those many zillions of years it absorbed bits of other languages which were the most precise in explaining that particular point, which eventually honed it to it's present accuracy.

As China decided some years ago to drop Russian and learn 'English' as it's second language,

it makes 'English' our most successful export.

Great Britain was so named as it's an island lying off the coast of Brittany, and not because of it's errr greatness!

Germany has a body of people trying to think up ways of saving German from disappearing off the planet, and the welsh language is most likely to be preserved by the welsh speaking tribe in Patagonia.

Now I shall go and get a life.

[ruffers]

Kind of, but rather than English it'll be American.

[SteveT]

No-one asks if you speak American Australian or Canadian do they?

In the southern states of the USA they are considering using Spanish as the first language.

[Cassius]

I don't know if this is true or not but a German friend told me that when the US were forming their first constitution there was a vote to see what language the 'United' states would speak and that German only lost by a couple of votes. How different would the history of the last century in particular be if the US had been a Germanic orientated country and entered the two WW on the other side.

[Brendan]

Well technically English is a Germanic language.

[Alec John Moore]

Interesting thought, does the language "hold" the values of the nation? If that is the case then perhaps there is an argument for a "mongrel" language like English to be the global lingua franca. Of course it isn't that simple, fortunately. I read a few years ago about Hinglish, a combining of English and Hindi that young people in India speak and is used in the commercial (non state sponsored) TV channel aimed at a young audience. However, I feel for all those people in the world who have to learn English as a 2nd language. Observing my children learn to read and write is salutary. Very little in English seems to make sense compared to the predictability of Spanish, say. Alec

[SteveT]

It is very difficult to get English right as there are no predictable rules especially in spelling.

Because of the various outside influences from the other bits of language it has absorbed the rules are broken or dysfunctional, or ahem not written in stone.

The first european language in North America was French introduced by the trappers and fur traders.

English was spoken eventually because the brits took locomotives and developed the interior which opened up the prairies.

[????]

er....think that locomotives weren't that common before 1776 Steve

[HAL9000]

SteveT Wrote:

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> It is very difficult to get English right

English is a lot more fault tolerant than, say, Arabic where the slightest mispronunciation can change the meaning beyond recognition, I find.

Famous Arabic example: "purify your hearts" is transformed into "skin your dogs" by a slight nuance of pronunciation.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Who knew Laurence Lewellyn-Bowen was a pioneer?

[Moos]

Which illustrates the difficulties of Welsh, at least.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Oh 'ell.

[SteveT]

HAL9000 there seems to be no end to your vast pool of knowledge, I'm very impressed,

and 'skinning your dogs' is a useful procedure prior to serving,

they can be surprisingly tastey with cous-cous and olives, with dates* to follow:))

* pronounced datt ezz

[Jeremy]

HAL9000 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> English is a lot more fault tolerant than, say,

> Arabic where the slightest mispronunciation can

> change the meaning beyond recognition, I find.

Same with Chinese, I reckon.

[Moos]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Oh 'ell.

Lovely!

[david_carnell]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> HAL9000 Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > English is a lot more fault tolerant than, say,

> > Arabic where the slightest mispronunciation can

> > change the meaning beyond recognition, I find.

>

> Same with Chinese, I reckon.

Indeed. The Chinese word for mother also means horse with different intonation.

Moos - you might find that a useful reference point when dealing with the in-laws!

[citizenED]

Yes, but even in English changing just one letter will change the whole meaning of a worm.

[david_carnell]

True indeed Citizen. And I suppose with the use of intonation we have the great British sense of irony too.

See?

[Brendan]

And saying a word like fecundity slowly and in the wrong context can cause all sorts of trouble.

[HAL9000]

It's quite possible that English is now the world's most badly spoken language - it seems to get the job done, though. During my travels, I can't recall a single occasion where I failed to find someone who spoke or understood it to some extent.

I blame the BBC?s World Service, Voice of America and, of late, the ubiquitous CNN.

[Brendan]

Is this the point where someone makes a joke about Scotland?