Notice that "languages" is in plural
2006-08-19 12:13:21 · 16 answers · asked by College Kid 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
A lot of them! Not in their current form, for sure. As someone said, all languages change. But native speakers are quite resistant to change and when government intervention is in place, it's quite possible for minority languages to flourish. Welsh, for example, is still alive and well despite being on the periphery of the English speaking world (in fact, only 20% of Welsh people are native speakers)
I think the biggest paradigm shift will be that more of us will become bilingual. I think that no single language will take control, but certainly there'll be a universal second language.
The problem now is not which languages will live, but which will die. A lot of them are on the endangered species list, so to speak - and I believe that something should be done to protect them.
2006-08-19 12:40:34 · answer #1 · answered by Philipek 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No language survives "forever". Languages are constantly changing into the next thing. Take Egyptian, the language for which we have the longest continuous written record--about 4000 years. The earliest Old Kingdom Egyptian would be completely unintelligible to the latest Coptic speaker, yet they are the same language, 4000 years apart. So no language lasts "forever". They are always and constantly in a state of change from one thing into the next.
2006-08-19 13:05:15 · answer #2 · answered by Taivo 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
None. All languages evolve. Just look how much English has changed in the 400 years since Shakespeare. In a thousand years, none of the languages spoken today will be spoken, only their descendants. The only languages which will be the same are the dead languages which we still have knowledge of (Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Arabic)
2006-08-19 14:08:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
English
2006-08-19 12:19:21 · answer #4 · answered by Tulip 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
English (since it's practically an international language), Spanish (one of the most popular Latin-based languages)...
2006-08-19 12:18:58 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The language of love.
2006-08-19 14:30:26 · answer #6 · answered by Benjamin 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
at least English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Chinese.
I would say that in this stage of world-wide development, it is safe to say that if you can find a book on the language in a bookstore, it'll be around for a LONG time.
2006-08-19 16:02:31 · answer #7 · answered by creative 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe that both Chinese and English will survive... that is answer to your plural "languages"
2006-08-19 12:30:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
sign language for sure
even if people would become to lazy to speak, they will still use some body signals
if you ask about languages it traditional meaning, my answer would be "Chinese" - there is so many of them!!! and i know that many schools in US looks for teacher of this language instead of Spanish because with every year they have more and more Asian students
2006-08-19 14:20:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
none. languages change over time, especially with exposure to other languages. In a few centuries, it would be hard to identify any language.
2006-08-19 12:20:00 · answer #10 · answered by lee m 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋