Will English Die?

Jamesaritchie · Nov 1, 2010

English is the official language of international business, and is making rapid strides in taking over science from Latin, despite what scientists actually want.

Now, if we could just get lawyers to use English, we'd all be fine.

All languages change, but there is no danger of English dying in the sense of no longer being used. That's fool talk.

Maxinquaye · Nov 1, 2010

gothicangel said:
I disagree.

Just as quicklime has pointed out, it is the language of science. It will evolve, but die out? No.

Let's make a bet. I'll wager a pound. If London is still around in a thousand years, and haven't fallen to the cockroaches, let's meet there in 3010 and settle the bet.

JimmyB27 · Nov 1, 2010

Jamesaritchie said:
Now, if we could just get lawyers to use English, we'd all be fine.

I don't think you'll ever pull lawyers away from the Black Speech.

gothicangel · Nov 1, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
Let's make a bet. I'll wager a pound. If London is still around in a thousand years, and haven't fallen to the cockroaches, let's meet there in 3010 and settle the bet.

Don't worry about the cockroaches, the sea levels will get them first

*GA, running for the Scottish Highlands*

whacko · Nov 1, 2010

I tht Englsh hd died ot -snce wee ll spk txt.

blacbird · Nov 1, 2010

All of us will, long before it does.

Maxinquaye · Nov 1, 2010

I missed the millennial shift because I was sick as a dog. I plan to make up for that at the next one.

Zoombie · Nov 1, 2010

It depends.

What if we figure out how to live forever by 2080, and the youngest of us now get to live comfortably to the 45,000nds?

Will they still speak English?

Can English change with immortals?

Course, that all predicates that immortality is figured out before English changes, or gets replaced by Chinese or something.

Either way, I think English will keep doing what it always does: Steal words from other languages and make no sense.

Hallen · Nov 1, 2010

The primise of the article is that if English is not a mother language, it will die out no matter how many speak it now. Many people speak English as a Lingua Franca, a second language that they speak because they must (language of science/business/aviation/etc). As soon as that requirement dies, so will the language. A language that perseveres is a native language, a mother tongue. It's what you speak to your children. It's nativity passed down.

So, the only way that English dies out is if all English speaking nations die out or are overwhelmed. Otherwise, even if we have to switch to Chinese for business, we'll still teach our kids English as long as there are still sovereign, English speaking, nations.

gothicangel · Nov 1, 2010

whacko said:
I tht Englsh hd died ot -snce wee ll spk txt.

Urgh! I hate text-speak. I even punctuate my text messages. When people send me them I'm WTF?

whacko · Nov 1, 2010

Hallen said:
Many people speak English as a Lingua Franca,

I'm sorry mate, but the irony meter went off the scale with that!

QUOTE=gothicangel;5470182]Urgh! I hate text-speak. I even punctuate my text messages. When people send me them I'm WTF?[/QUOTE]

I had to look up WTF!

But you're right.

Some text messages I get, I look at the screen and say, well, WTF in unabbreviated form.

Don't know if it's the language or the content that I don't understand though.

Jamesaritchie · Nov 2, 2010

gothicangel said:
Don't worry about the cockroaches, the sea levels will get them first

*GA, running for the Scottish Highlands*

You grossly underestimate the survival ability of cockroaches. If the sea levels rise too much, not really possible, of course, but if they did, roaches would build the first insect navy.

ANinfinity · Nov 2, 2010

Jamesaritchie said:
You grossly underestimate the survival ability of cockroaches. If the sea levels rise too much, not really possible, of course, but if they did, roaches would build the first insect navy.

They will make rafts out of their dead, tied together with their fallen rivals - the bed bugs.

dawinsor · Nov 2, 2010

I once heard Steven Jay Gould say it was the Age of Insects. But then, he said, it was always the Age of Insects. They'll outlast us all.

Re English: No matter what happens, our language will gradually change until it takes on a form we don't recognize. That's what happens with living languages. Latin became Italian and French and Spanish. This is a feature, not a bug.

Danger Jane · Nov 7, 2010

(Hi again AW)

It seems that this article isn't saying much anyone couldn't guess. It talks about the 700 years it took for Persian to lose its importance and 1000 or so for Latin. So English isn't likely to mutate into a couple of creoles (ie, Romance languages) very soon; it's only been a few hundred years since English even jumped off the British Isles.

Side note; Latin wasn't the lingua franca of the Roman Empire--Greek was. However, Latin was the language of the military, so when new territories were conquered and new soldiers trained up, Latin was the language they were trained in.

Will English Die?

Jamesaritchie

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood

gothicangel

Toughen up.

whacko

Keeping up with the class

blacbird

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

Hallen

Mostly annoying

gothicangel

Toughen up.

whacko

Keeping up with the class

Jamesaritchie

ANinfinity

I'm plenty of fish in the sea

dawinsor

Dorothy A. Winsor

Danger Jane