These days anyone can speak a foreign language. Or at least appear to. Many a comment is posted in French or Spanish etc which the user has translated through a website such as reverso.com or worldlingo.com
These website provide a wonderful service, but as a result, do we find that fewer and fewer people feel the need to speak a foreign tongue in a world where more and more people are learning English every day? Will the world eventually evolve to one language and if so, what language would you want it to be?
2007-03-11 17:20:51 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
To reference one of the answers... I like the idea of a future anglo-chinese or anglo-arabic collaborative language as a worldwide phenomenon. Difficult to blend though I would have thought.
2007-03-12 13:01:19 · update #1
the language of love my friend!
2007-03-11 17:24:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
English is an "open language" meaning it accepts words from other Languages. Because of this, it is by far the largest, which probably leads to the fact that it is becoming more universal. But as far as web sites replacing languages it won't happen until technology creates a device that is portable and can speak it fluently (besides your brain).
Most other languages are closed languages, like French. The French have a commission that keeps the language pure and less in flux, so you will have to learn it.
But if you study linguistics, you will find that language in general is in flux and to say English will be the universal language one day is devoid of logic. Latin was once the "universal" language mainly because the Romans spread their culture to all parts of the Western world. Now no one speaks Latin. It is a dead language, but most Indo-European languages are made up of Latin parts: roots, prefixes and suffixes. English is like this, because the British once spread their language through world domination and the US is perpetuating this. So who is to say that in 100 years everyone isn't speaking a blend of Anglo-Chinese?
2007-03-12 00:50:09 · answer #2 · answered by O 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
unfortunately....yes!
english being the most widespread language in the world seems to be heading towards being the 'universal' language.
as brits are too lazy to learn other languages then it would be a waste choosing another one.
many countries and i suppose china and african would good examples, have many varieties of a single language.
not too many years ago, even the UK had differing dialects and even now you can tell the area a person is from by the local 'twang' in the voice....usually.
i doubt languages will ever die out but for the sake of exports and imports etc, one language would be an advantage.
2007-03-12 00:37:28 · answer #3 · answered by safcian 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think other languages will die out, but I expect that at some point there will be a single language spoken throughout the world in addition to all the others.
English is quickly becoming that language, but to be honest it doesn't matter which language becomes prominent throughout the world, so long as everyone can communicate.
2007-03-12 00:30:24 · answer #4 · answered by Ashley 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i think eventually there will be a main language that everyone speaks, although i think it might be an in-public language whereas people will keep their own languages in their homes...or atleast there might be a universal business language...who knows... it would be an interesting world to see though
2007-03-12 00:46:41 · answer #5 · answered by Holes_In_My_Skin 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Based on the amount of SIGN language I saw out on the highway yesterday; you could be onto something!
2007-03-12 00:31:43 · answer #6 · answered by Randy L 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
we didn't win the war for nothing,twice
2007-03-15 23:16:28 · answer #7 · answered by magoo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋