Do you think that in 1000 years that English will be the only language left in the world?

Question

At the fast rate it's growing, although I think it would be sad, it could just happen.

After the British Empire took over several regions of the world, English was spoken in these countries and now most of them speak English, with exceptions to Myanmar and Bangladesh, etc. (who was owned by Pakistan).

Major countries like the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are all major speaking anglophone countries, with also many in the Caribbean too, i.e; Jamaica, Both Virgin Islands, etc. and even in countries where English is not a first language, it is being taught in schools, will parents and government see that English will be the best language for "getting on" in the world and use that instead and drop their own language.

This is a hunch. What do you think? Do you think it's possible?

Answer 1

You know, this is one of the most thought-provoking questions I have come across. You should earn points for good questions like this...
Besides the fact that in many countries are learning at least 2 languages, people would want to preserve their culture. I mean, let's say if your language isn't English. Especially if you don't know English, you wouldn't want the whole world to speak something foreign in which you are not fluent in. Right?

Answer 2

Good question! The thing is that the way we are going, it's highly unlikely we will be around in a thousand years, however, if we are, it is quite unlikely that we will have the population numbers and the diversity of languages that we have now.

It is more than likely that many island cultures, with their own personal language, will have been wiped out by rising seas. The inhabitants will have had to move on and their language will just die out.

I also think, and I do hope I'm wrong, that if things do go pear shaped, the poorest people of the planet will be the ones to suffer, as usual. That being the case, the most commonly spoken language is likely to be English, but not the English we know now.

All we have to do is listen to people being interviewed, some who have lived in England all their lives, yet their speech is almost a mystery to me. It's not just the accent, it just seems their pronunciation is completely different and they make up their own slang terms.

Any people from other countries, even though they may speak English very well, could not get a grasp on some of the words being spoken these days.

Answer 3

No, Because Even If The Only Language Was English, It Would End Up Deforming Itself In Diferent Areas Of The World.

This Is Already Slightly True, Seeing As American English Has Many Diferences In Spelling, Definition And Pronaunsiation Of Many Words, Compared To British English.

The Spanish From Spain Has The "LL" Pronounced Like A "Y", But South American Spanish Pronounce It "SH". And Then You Will Have Different Accents From The Original Language, Causing More Differences.
And On Top Of All That You Have Teenagers, Who Regulaly, Mispronounce, Misspell, And Re-Define Words.

So There Is No Way That There Could Be A Universal Language Without Near Millitary Enforcement Of The Way Everything Is.

Answer 4

No. People love to have their own culture and history. In Wales there are some regions where Welsh is the first spoken language and English is secondary. If English is not the only language left in the UK after a thousand years of England ruling Wales then it won't ever become the only language.
Arabic is also the language of Islam and Latin the language of Catholicism so these religions would have to die out to end these languages.
Plus if you think about the Roman Empire spreading Latin throughout Europe as being a model of the British Empire spreading English you can see that many peoples will return to local dialects a few hundred years after the Empire has gone.

I think there may be a new world language by 3007 but this will be a new language for international communication and local languages will still be used first and foremost throughout the world.

Answer 5

If I were a Roman citizen living 2,500 years ago, I would most likely feel the same way about Latin. Look whats happened to that!

The main difference however is that in this century at least, the language take up is mostly voluntary and thus more likely to continue. This combined with the rapid recent rise in English based communications media will I'm sure cement the languages position in the World and it's economy. Though as English is such a vibrant and Dynamic tongue in a thousand years it may not seem so much like the English we know today.

Answer 6

Don't worry too much. English is a constantly evolving language and it already takes lots of inspiration from other languages. After 1066, French was the language spoken in the Court in England and so we still use lots of French words. English has also borrowed from other countries in the old Empire - words like Pyjamas have become as English as any other, even though they are only recent additions to the English vocabulary.
English is also very different depending on where it is spoken; a UK English speaker won't understand all the words that a NZ English speaker uses.
It is this constant evolution which makes English such a rich language, but it also means that it is inclusive rather than exclusive.
But in short, if any of the world's current languages still exist in 1,000 years (including English), Spanish and Mandarin will be 2 of them.

Answer 7

constantly evolving language and it already takes lots of inspiration from other languages. After 1066, French was the language spoken in the Court in England and so we still use lots of French words. English has also borrowed from other countries in the old Empire - words like Pyjamas have become as English as any other, even though they are only recent additions to the English vocabulary.
English is also very different depending on where it is spoken; a UK English speaker won't understand all the words that a NZ English speaker uses.
It is this constant evolution which makes English such a rich language, but it also means that it is inclusive rather than exclusive.

Answer 8

As an Englishman, I suppose you could say I have an inbuilt bias and there are some fascinating and very pertinant answers here. It is entirely plausible that English will be the predominant language in 1000 years time but whether that will be to the exclusion of all other languages and whether it will survive in it's present form is debatable.

But whatever happens and putting aside all political considerations, when you consider English in it's historical context, the achievements of this tiny island are breathtaking. At one time the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland (and with a population of under 50 million) controlled about one third of the whole world. England itself is just a tiny bit bigger than NY State and the United Kingdom as a whole could fit into Oregon.

Would it be a good thing? I will leave that to others to judge.

Answer 9

No language is always changing. We may not have English anymore by that time. It could turn into a mixture of a lot of languages, like Chinese and Spanish and English. We who speak English adopt a lot of other language's words and make them our own and they do the same with our language. So I think that there will be a language that mixes all of the current languages we have now and create a new one in 1000 years.

Answer 10

No. We're looking a long way into the future here but my guess is that most nations' indigenous languages will remain. Depending on whose economy is the most successful a the time, people will end up learning their language as well. It could be Chinese. It could be Korean. Who knows?

There's generally more to a nation ditching its native language(s) in favour of English than meets the eye. In Ireland, English became the dominant language in the 19th century, a time when it was under British rule. The schools only taught through English, and administration was done through English. Also, lots of Irish speakers were in poorer areas and there was a stigma attached to speaking Irish so parents discouraged their kids from speaking Irish.