Will English take over the whole world?

[PeckhamRose]

It always amazes me when a reporter is on the scene in some far distant corner of the world where there has been some natural tragedy, there is always someone, somewhere who has enough English to be able to say what happened.

[????]

Tidy up

[Mick Mac]

It took you 3 days to think of that?

[vinceayre]

English took over as the de facto world language about 300 years ago , catch up!

[Brendan]

And that?s de facto.

[Brendan]

English is the de facto global lingua franca.

A sentence that in itself is not short of a certain grammatical irony.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Slim esel.

[Brendan]

Dom donkie.

[SteveT]

Slim esel.

San Isal......most will be too young to know it is a bog roll without absorption.

[Loz]

It's been speculated that a derivation of English - dubbed Chinglish - will be the future Lingua Franca, due to the Chinese effect on both the language and world economics.

[Loz]

Cassius Wrote:

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

> 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.

Urban legend - sorry!

[Brendan]

So the question really is, "Will the world take over English?"

[Ridgley]

No I don't think english, should be the only language, as other languages brings culture and difference that is what this country is made up of myself comes from a Jamaican mother who speaks english and spanish father who is Canadian and speak french, I had a great childhood with this added differences :)

[caroline_green]

Ridgley Wrote:

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

> No I don't think english, should be the only

> language, as other languages brings culture and

> difference that is what this country is made up of

> myself comes from a Jamaican mother who speaks

> english and spanish father who is Canadian and

> speak french, I had a great childhood with this

> added differences :)

I absolutely agree with you, different languages make the world interesting and open different point of views. The english language is not very 'specific' comparing to other languages and you might be able to discuss a certain topic in an other language much better. My question would be: Why is there not more focus on foreign languages in english schools? I would suggest to start at nursery.

[DJKillaQueen]

With the internet and global media (of which the US is the biggest producer) I can't see how the march of English can be stopped. It is already the second language of half the world and with that there's little incentive for native English speakers to need to learn another language.

[Heinz]

English is also very popular because it is very at ease with assimilating new words.

Also, the English language has the most extensive vocabulary. This means precise concepts can be expressed succinctly.

All technical terms are already in English, which The Chinese, Indians,and Brazilians have learn already...I do wonder sometimes if all the Mandarin learning Dulwich kids are not wasting their time.

[Jeremy]

Heinz, in my experience English speakers are not common in China. And there's no reason to think that will change any time soon, bearing in mind that this is still the case in Japan and Korea.

[Thomas Micklewright]

Will the rise of China mean English people will start learning Chinese as a second language in order to expand our chances of securing business deals?

I'm sorry to see so many americanisms creeping into English telly such as 'gotten', bother anyone else?

[mockney piers]

Actually gotten is English, it's just we more or less ditched it a couple of centuries ago but it lives on in the colonies.

I have got new boots.

I have gotten new boots.

There is no ambiguity in the meaning of the latter, whereas the former can mean either I have taken new boots into my possession or I have them now. Not so terrible is it?

[Brendan]

I have new boots.

[mockney piers]

I got new boots.

[Brendan]

Well we seem to have gotten that all sorted out then.

[Townleygreen]

Someone mentioned Welsh will disappear.

Actually, what I find remarkable is that it has survived so long and so (relatively) well despite being so close to England itself, and despite the English education system doing its best to wipe it out in the 19thC/early 20thC.

There are hundreds of thousands of Welsh speakers, but only a few thousand Scots and Irish Gaelic speakers.

I wonder why?

[Charlotte1988]

I think everyone should keep their own language. It's good for us English-speakers that English is the global languag, but at the same time it makes us lazy to not learn another one.

[uncleglen]

When abroad though, people are always trying to speak English at you when you are trying to practise their language.