Will another language replace English as the dominant language in the near future?

[Roger]

I think those statistics may be a bit off. Isn't Arabic in the top 10? I thought it was. I'll try and see if I can get a legit source.

Yes, fly_away, arabic language seems to become international language. I can't remember where i read this article, but yes. Possibility is there.

 

[Gaze]

Good point, Quinlan.

Both Chinese and English are analytic languages which means they don't motivate you to construct your own words based on principles, but to choose from many already existing words; and also since each word can be interpreted in multiple ways, those languages are ambiguous, best suited for trading (and deceit), not science.

All languages are formed by random factors and of course are far from being efficient and precise.

I doubt English will get replaced by Chinese or Hindi, but languages may slowly die out in everyday use, as we move towards completely visual/audio realistic communication.

Many of the abstractions of languages have caused more damage to people than they have been useful. We talk about a lot of things that don't exist. We mostly need abstraction, really, in formal languages like mathematics, which help to extract precise information, unavailable directly.

interesting point

 

[NeverAmI]

Arabic is 5th according to wikipedia. Mandarin Chinese by a landslide. But as Naxx mentioned, there is not an alphabet, it uses pictographs (over 2000 of them) VERY difficult to memorize.

Spanish and English are close for the amount of speakers.

I don't know if I will ever take the time to learn Mandarin Chinese, but I am currently learning Spanish and Arabic.

 

[Sithious]

Yes, Spanglish

 

[Wyst]

Mandarin Chinese by a landslide. But as Naxx mentioned, there is not an alphabet, it uses pictographs (over 2000 of them) VERY difficult to memorize.

Indeed. I've been studying Japanese, which uses many of the kanji from the Chinese language. I think I've only learned several hundred and they are very easy to forget if you're not constantly immersing yourself in them.

Bah... I should start studying again...

 

[Artisan]

German used to be the most common second language in europe, but after WW2 this was quickly replaced by English and Russian.
With the fall of the soviet union and corporate americas rising popularity in the east, English quickly rose to become the most prominant.

In other words, the dominant language will be in the hands of those who believe to be the victor.
It depends, With current politics it seems that a lot of wrong doings by the US and by extention NATO will receive public attention.
If it so happens that they are discredited completely, then a huge popularity shift will accur, quite possibly in favor of that country, especially in europe.

The thing that will keep english as one of the most widely spoken world languages however is the fact that the majority of the western worlds entertainment industry is in english. The pentagon (US GOV) spends millions on the entertainment industry each year in exchange for locations to be in the US or to portray the US in a positive light. This is what makes america so popular, all these movies we get here make america seem like the land to be for oppertunity, the birthplace of heroes and justice, even though there are plenty of neighborhoods that prove otherwise. But we all are addicted to entertainment. We go nuts without internet and television. Even if America turns out to be the next Third Reich, its firm hands in the entertainment industry will likely cause english to remain the most commonly spoken second language.

The only way for this to change, is if the entertainment industry moves to another place and all changes it's standart languages.

 

[Eventhorizon]

Ive heard many people say they think Chinese will become the world language.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Ive heard many people say they think Chinese will become the world language.

Doubt it. At what age do most people choose to learn another language? Teens.
Virtually all pop music is in English. If you look at the music charts in China, virtually all the top local Chinese artists perform in English. You just can't sing melodies in Chinese because that language requires tonal inflection for its meaning.

The significance of most Chinese having English as a second, or third language is that outside China, there is never really a need to conduct business in Chinese.

 

[Eventhorizon]

Doubt it. At what age do most people choose to learn another language? Teens.
Virtually all pop music is in English. If you look at the music charts in China, virtually all the top local Chinese artists perform in English. You just can't sing melodies in Chinese because that language requires tonal inflection for its meaning.

The significance of most Chinese having English as a second, or third language is that outside China, there is never really a need to conduct business in Chinese.

A driving factor would be business. Do you profit with knowing one language over another etc...