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Post by Jaga on Oct 29, 2006 20:36:27 GMT -7
I know we were talking about it before but... I am tending to think that the decay of the national languages would take only a couple of generations. In one hundred years, everybody would speak English and some people would also speak their national languages just to keep tradition going.
what do you think?
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Post by Jaga on Oct 29, 2006 20:40:18 GMT -7
Maybe America would not be a superpower in 100 years, maybe it would not even be in 20 years... but just like Roman empire influenced the world by Latin, the US influenced the world, sciences, humanities by adopting their language to world community....
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Post by leslie on Oct 30, 2006 1:19:50 GMT -7
I'm all for the whole world speaking English (English English) - it would certainly make life easier for Brits who like going abroad but in the main can speak no other language than their own (and sometimes not that very well)!! But English is well on the way to being the international language, so why rock the boat? Leslie the Anglik
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Post by constantine on Oct 30, 2006 2:54:43 GMT -7
]I know we were talking about it before but... I am tending to think that the decay of the national languages would take only a couple of generations. In one hundred years, everybody would speak English and some people would also speak their national languages just to keep tradition going.
what do you think?[/quote] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Such anxieties was in 19-th century about French. All Russian high class have spoke on it, but now? Rather difficult to find out somebody why can speak on it freely! It's just a fashion and like a fashion this influence is so ephemeral.
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Post by suzanne on Oct 30, 2006 6:29:28 GMT -7
I don't think this planet is ever going to become a monolingual, English-speaking place (in terms of English taking over other native languages), but English is definitely becoming the lingua franca of the world.
My prediction: People will still learn their different native languages, but I think there will be fewer people learning a second language other than English. I just hope English-speakers will bother to learn a foreign language. It seems there are few native-born Americans (with non-immigrant parents) who have any real communication skills in a foreign language.
Last night, I happened to tune into a radio program on National Public Radio, and there was a segment about how the Internet is, at least for now, saving some rare languages from becoming extinct, by providing a community and a "home" for these languages (such as the native American language Cherokee).
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Post by Jaga on Oct 30, 2006 7:51:51 GMT -7
Constantine,
the problem now is that internet, computers change peoples habits a lot. Everybody has to know English to some extend to operate in the vurtual world.
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Oct 30, 2006 9:08:28 GMT -7
quote] It's just a fashion and like a fashion this influence is so ephemeral. [/quote]
Of course ephemeral in this case is a relative term, but probably not too far off course. As the world learns English, Americans are forced to learn Spanish (Mexican flavor). China will have the hot economy, so there will be a push to learn that as well.
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Post by bescheid on Oct 30, 2006 11:12:48 GMT -7
Well, I think, there fore, I am.
National languages as such, is simple what it actually is: simply communication. Beyond that, it is simply another tower of babel.
If, English is the universal language, so be it. For what does it to matter? For what ever language is dominant? We only speak to communicate, we only read and listen, to understand.
{the thing I hate of English is the d---n spelling problems}
Charles
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forza
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Post by forza on Oct 30, 2006 15:42:48 GMT -7
We have been adopting lots of words into polish from other languages and mainly from English recently but still we would keep them within original polish grammar structure and sometimes give them "polish" endings thus creating another polish words; maybe as novelty some would use foreign grammatical rules and mix it with polish one and perhaps in some circles some would use complete foreign sentence to make a point. It is rather enriching polish language overall but is far from any vanishing of original polish. It won't happen in near future.
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Post by constantine on Oct 31, 2006 7:53:25 GMT -7
:-) BTW, It is so interestingly for me, how Russian speech sounds for foreigner? For russian ear all sounds of foreign speech have certain melodic phonation.
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Post by Eric on Oct 31, 2006 8:34:20 GMT -7
I can't imagine that the world will become mono-lingual, or even just the "educated" world. For example, in Russia there are more than ethnic languages in use. Some of these languages are EXTREMELY small in terms of speakers, but they still exist from generation to generation.
If anything, I think (with the exception of currently-English speaking countries) that bilingualism or even trilingualism will increase. Certainly English will be known to more and more people, but I doubt it will replace their own languages. Russian still continues more or less as the common language for the whole former Soviet Union, regardless of nationality. Many African nations use a European language as a lingua franca when there are so many different languages within a country. India uses English as the lingua franca... and so on.
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Post by Eric on Oct 31, 2006 8:35:29 GMT -7
:-) BTW, It is so interestingly for me, how Russian speech sounds for foreigner? For russian ear all sounds of foreign speech have certain melodic phonation. According to my mother (she's not Russian), Russian sounds like it has too many consonants running into each other, too many long words, not enough vowels, and people speak too quickly. I told her to listen to Polish, and then ask who has too many consonents. ;D
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Oct 31, 2006 11:32:25 GMT -7
:-) BTW, It is so interestingly for me, how Russian speech sounds for foreigner? For Russian ear all sounds of foreign speech have certain melodic phonation. I think what you describe is the same everywhere. I've said this to many people, that languages are like songs. Some are soothing to the ear, some are harsh, and which ones are which depends upon what your own language is! One day at work, I listened to a lady talking on a cell phone in an adjacent seat (lounge area). I could not for the life of me guess the language. After 5 minutes it dawned on me: IT WAS ENGLISH. It was English with every single word inflected incorrectly, so that it sounded totally foreign. It had changed the "melody" to something unrecognizable. This was either probably someone from India or that area, and I just couldn't understand a word. I actually like the melody of Slavic languages and have heard Russian spoken, though not only the words, but the melody is different. We have a Russian restaurant in the area, and of course the clientele is heavily Russian immigrants. I think Russian's primarily inflect a different syllable and not the 2nd last syllable , like Polish. Or at least that's what it sounds like to me?
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Post by hollister on Oct 31, 2006 13:27:09 GMT -7
Well, I think, there fore, I am. National languages as such, is simple what it actually is: simply communication. Beyond that, it is simply another tower of babel. Charles Charles, I have to say I quite disagree with you on this. I think language and how people use it is a reflection of how a people think and see their world. Think about colloquial sayings - I think what those saying are tell a lot about how a people see themselves, their problems, and teach their children what the values of that society are.
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Post by kaima on Oct 31, 2006 23:09:36 GMT -7
Charles, I have to say I quite disagree with you on this. I think language and how people use it is a reflection of how a people think and see their world. Think about colloquial sayings - I think what those saying are tell a lot about how a people see themselves, their problems, and teach their children what the values of that society are. Holli, I must agree with you. The natives in America are so concerned with preserving their culture that they are reinventing parts of it (or restoring, even on the basis of thin remaining threads). A part of that is to try to save their languages and bring them back from near extinction. Just like many of the Slavs identify ethnicity by religion, name form or language, the American natives are doing their best to restore these factors to reinvigorate their cultures. We various white peoples are no different. The disadvantage the Slavs create is their consistent dis-unity. They would often rather die than cooperate with "historic rivals (or enemies in some cases). This hurts them all. The natives in Alaska, in contrast, are largely cooperating with one another. I do not see the local languages dying out. I do hold it as healthy for them to borrow from one anothter. Kai
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