Will the English language ever die?

[CajunCenturion]

Will the English language ever die?

It's a good read.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read
FAQ181-2886
Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

[Noway2]

Interesting. It looks like one of the first commentators was thinking along the same lines as I:

Google translate 20 years on will merge with googletalk so languages differences will not matter--you might be speaking Inuktun and I English and neither of us will might not know nor care.

I was thinking of some form of universal translator.

Could English as a language die? It could, if for example, something were to happen to wipe out most of the English speaking populace and their societies. It could also continue to evolve into what is no longer English, much as Old and Middle English transformed.

 

[BadBigBen]

>> I was thinking of some form of universal translator.

ah, yes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species listed Babel-Fish...

I think that one of the great strengths of the English language is the incorporation of foreign words to describe new things/thoughts/lifestyles, etc...

and yes, any living language will continue to evolve in time, there is no way around that...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[SamBones]

I haven't read the article at the link yet, but I believe English as we know it will "die". Language evolves. Old English and Elizabethan English are difficult to understand by the average person today. They are effectively dead because nobody seems to speak them outside a playhouse giving tribute to Shakespeare.

 

[1DMF]

It won't die, just merley evolve, as is the nature of all things!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

MIME::Lite TLS Email Encryption - Perl v0.02 beta

 

[JCreamerII]

No it won't die, too many Chinese speak it.

Jim C.

 

[Andrzejek]

Talking about how language evolve, I came across this article:

SUBJECT: GOV'T STANDARDS

Having chosen English as the preferred language in the EEC, the
European Parliament has commissioned a feasability study in ways of improving efficiency in communications between Government departments.

European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is unnecessary difficult; for example: cough, plough, rough, through and thorough. What is clearly needed is a phased programme of changes to iron out these anomalies. The programme would, of course, be administered by a committee staff at top level by participating nations.

In the first year, for example, the committee would suggest using 's' instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivil servants in all sities would resieve this news with joy. Then the hard 'c' could be replaced by 'k' sinse both letters are pronounsed alike. Not only would this klear up konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters kould be made with one less letter.

There would be growing enthousiasm when in the sekond year, it was anounsed that the troublesome 'ph' would henseforth be written 'f'. This would make words like 'fotograf' twenty per sent shorter in print.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reash the stage where more komplikated shanges are possible. Governments would enkourage the removal of double letters which have always been a deterent to akurate speling.

We would al agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful. Therefor we kould drop thes and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapend. By this tim it would be four years sins the skem began and peopl would be reseptive to steps sutsh as replasing 'th' by 'z'. Perhaps zen ze funktion of 'w' kould be taken on by 'v', vitsh is, after al, half a 'w'. Shortly after zis, ze unesesary 'o' kould be dropd from words kontaining 'ou'. Similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

Kontinuing zis proses yer after yer, ve vud eventuli hav a relisensibl riten styl. After tventi yers zer vud be no mor trubls, difikultis and evrivun vud fin it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drems of the Guvermnt vud finali hav kum tru.

Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[BadBigBen]

... and in the end they would all sound like most Germans trying to speak English... ;-)

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Annihilannic]

If you liked that, try reading Feersum Endjinn by Iain M Banks... it's amazing how kwikly u get ust 2 it.

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[N1GHTEYES]

I'd second Annihilannic's suggestion and add another one - Clockwork Orange. I guess you could regard it as Burgess' take on the issue of language evolution.

Tony