popularity of a language.

Good afternoon sprajah.

Ancient languages lack the utlity to descibe many modern concepts.

however, when Scientists or scholars come up with a brand new idea they usually create a term using, you guessed it, ancient Greek or Latin.

A quick example is "Ecology" comes from the Greek words for house oikos and body of knowledge or study of -ology

Languages are tools, and those that are more useful to the immediate situation are the ones that remain in use.

The issue also has a generational component: The person who converted that you described is fully invested in his native tongue. However, his or her children will likely take to a new language if that is part of the current culture ascendancy.

Don't forget the role of social incentives and barriers to change.

milo

must have lost a major war then........

Certainly the French have been upset about the primacy of English.

How English became the required language of Aviation is worth a study.

In the US many are truly trapped by the fact not many of us really know how to speak and write more than English, though Spanish has made strong inroads.

It has long, long been known that the best time to learn another language, is right after you have learned your mother tonque, and only recently and not in all of the US at all is a language other than English taught till late, into the High School years, when mastery becomes right difficult.

(I've long wondered if the US way of teaching languages other than English may have been purposeful as a way of trapping the labor force.) -Such manipulations are not out of the realm of possibility in light of how it was for long that conscious effort was put into preventing slaves from learning to read, and Native American Languages were targets for destruction.

It has not been that long now since in the Netherlands you cannot become a citizen there if you do not speak Dutch.

The history of the attempt to create a universal language worldwide as illustrated by Esperanto is also interesting. - This may be a unique event, for I certainly know not a soul that speaks that. William Shantner of Star Trek fame has the distinction of staring in a movie wherein that was the language used.

English has rapidly become the universal language, primarily because it is the language used by the US which was the leading economy and military power in the world for many years. It is also the language of engineering and technology. Note that CR4 has a wide audience around the world, but the forum is conducted in English.

There are few places anywhere that you cannot find someone who speaks English.

Having said that, as the US fades, and China moves into position as the dominant economy, Mandarin may become the predominate language. But I don't think so, too many people are already invested in English. It may be like the Middle East 2000 odd years ago. The Romans were in charge and spoke Latin, but the lingua franca for business was Aramaic.

The Chinese may come to own the world (they already own the US), but it would not suprise me if English continued as the primary language of business and technology.

True,

Also: English as the ruler-language of the far ranging long history British Empire.

Also: English being a relatively grammar-less language, easier to learn by exposure.

I do not agree with " primarily because it is the language used by the US which was the leading economy and military power in the world " English is the dominant international language because of the British Empire (one third of the world).

The reason why English survives as the dominant "common" language around the world is because the language is allowed to evolve and draws its words from any convenient source. This was particularly the case during the industrial revolution when many new technical words were coined. (Unlike French which insists on being "pure" or Belgian which manufactures long words to describe things instead of using the language of origin).

English is an Indo European language and has more words than any other language, adopted from many other languages and so if you subscribe to the belief that "one can not have a thought if one does not have a word for it", then English will always dominate in the area of creative thinking.

I love and admire the Chinese (not blind to the negative side) but agree that Mandarin will never dominate over English in the Scientific and business world as an international language. Every graduate from University in China now has to achieve a certain level of English before he is awarded a degree. Mandarin is not flexible enough, in my humble opinion, and is far too complex for other cultures to be bothered to learn. It is also not a "precise" language as all words have to be heard or read in context in order to have clear meaning. Pronunciation if not absolutely perfect renders the words unintelligible.

Another thing to remember about English is that it is relatively easy to learn the basics and never mind how much you screw up the pronunciation or the grammar you can more often than not make yourself understood. This is not the case in any other language that I have attempted. Vocabulary is relatively easy for most Europeans as English uses so many words borrowed from them.

Remember, French was the Diplomatic Language of the world and there was a belief that it would become the lingua franca - this did not happen because it was not allowed to develop and grow as an international language. The French would never allow the French language to be abused the way the English have allowed the Americans to abuse the English language.

Hence English, American or British or Chinglish or Indilish, dominates.

From Wiki

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree.

Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance languages (Latin based languages). This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility, resulting in an enormous and varied vocabulary.

And to go one step further back in the history of English:

Indo-European and Germanic Influences

English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today. The Indo-European family includes several major branches:

• Latin and the modern Romance languages;
• The Germanic languages;
• The Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit;
• The Slavic languages;
• The Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian);
• The Celtic languages; and
• Greek.

The influence of the original Indo-European language, designated proto-Indo-European, can be seen today, even though no written record of it exists. The word for father, for example, is vater in German, pater in Latin, and pitr in Sanskrit. These words are all cognates, similar words in different languages that share the same root.

Enough of a rant from me_{......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz}

An exemplary summary which should be read carefully by all participants. 'Guest' should be awarded many GA's were he/she not anonymous

Thank you. Did not mean to post anonymously.

Post #5 was brought to you by cwarner7_11, who inadvertently neglected to sign in before posting. Forgive me...

G.A. Mr. Warner,

Your comment;

English has come to dominate and replace British English as the language of business. In many parts of the world, the native language actually serves as a cultural barrier- I see this here in Panama. The wealthy all speak English. The working class speak Spanish. Business is quite often done in English, although Spanish is the official language.

and

It is not the number of people that speak the language that will determine the survivability of it- it is how much power the speakers wield that will dictate its progress.

Strikes home, I was doing a process start-up in CA. and most of the managers and worker are/were of Spanish decent. I heard them telling jokes in English, until the shop supervisor told them to work on a project......they just gave he a blank stare..."¿No Comprende english?". The Shop sup shook his head and kept walking. They looked at me, I said you have a lot of people fooled around here haven't you, they just agreed and laughed.

This may not have any bearing but it was a union, but I have seen this in non-union also. But a non-union is easier to deal with. Seems the union take away this positive power for correction.

Later that day things went to hell on different process line right next to the one I was working, since I was the only one there that was competent, this very same guy came up behind me and was very fluent in english and asked for help.

phoenix911

A GA attributed to you for your "Guest" reply.

cwarner7_11

since my ga was removed/canceled out from post 6 for this post. heres is a ga to you.

phoenix911

Languages are evolved as mere communication tools.The so called original roots like Sanskrit, Latin, Greek etc have undergone tremendous transformations as per user's convenience. This change is not exception to languages also.

The study of languages takes care of the historical development of various regional root languages. Though not the common user, efforts are to me made to preserve the original forms and relevant historical changes.

Language, one of the major accomplishment of human civilization and requires it's worthy preservation al aids.

Like what is practised, English can be a global second language to ensure better global communication. No doubt it is a great accomplishment till today.