the main language will be...
This subjetct is interesting.
As you notice you can go from artic to antartic speaking just english, spanish+portuguese (mutually intelligible). And you get all americas from alaska to patagon.
Yes yes there are also other minority lenguages, but they are mainly bilingual as french speaker in canada.
What a difference with the UE that we have more than 25 lenguages. A big mess. And translations cost a lot of money too.
China I'm spaniard and we don't want portuguese culture and lenguage portuguese disappear, we live in 21 century not in 16 as you know.
Besides it was Jose Saramago ( portuguese nobel prize writter) who proposed a political union portuguese-spain called iberia. No success at all, people say we are already unioned under UE rule.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Saramago/profetiza/Portugal/Espana/acabaran/siendo/Iberia/elpepuint/20070715elpepuint_5/Tes
sorry it's in spanish, you can use google translator or bable fish.
Joao is wright, My parents studied french at school, french was cool, nowdays everybody study english at school, english is cool, although french is still 'the second foreign lenguage' perhaps because it's easier than chinese or german or standard arabic for a latin speaker.
Nuestro caudillo Francisco Franco fue el primer político español en ver la necesidad de introducir el idioma inglés en la enseñanza y descartar el francés como primera lengua extranjera, su capacidad visionaria se echa de menos en la clase dirigente española actual.
China,
>> There are sizeable Spanish communities in Northern states like Illinois and New York (third most populous state) <<
"There are sizeable groups of just about any kind wherever there are large cities."
Maybe
>> It will be interesting if a comercial or political union happens in al americas south center north....what do you think will be 'the enguage'? I agree with x <<
Why would there be one language? The European Union is a political union and it has many languages spoken. I'm sure nobody in any of the countries within the EU would give up their language.
Maybe, but in the long term... lots of factors happen
>> 300 years ago, nobody wanted to learn English. English was really a bastard lingo full of corruptions from French and German. Look at what is English nowadays <<
"English was spread because of colonization. And what do you mean corruptions from French and German? English has very few words borrowed from German. The only ones I can think of off-hand are Schadenfreude and Kindergarten."
English does not come directly from German but from a proto-Germanic language, and it's the result of corruption. Languages always develop from a common root because of word and meaning corruption. Look at the English word "Dutch": it's a corruption of the German "Deutsch". German immigrants in XIX century US did not speak English at the beginning. When asked about their origin they said: "Deutsch". The Americans though they were from Holland, due to their simmilar guttural language. So, they started to call them what they seemed to hear: "Dutch". Then the natives of Holland started to be called Dutch (corruption becomes official).
English spread because of colonization, but the English colonization started later than the Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch colonization. What made English such a hype thing was the height of capitalism, first in XIX century England, then in XX century America. Money talks louder.
>> 40 years ago, speaking Spanish was the opposite of a hype thing Nobody wanted to know Spanish. Look at the Spanish language today <<
"I'm not sure what a "hype thing" is. But what do you mean nobody wanted to learn Spanish in the 1970s? Do you mean Americans? Or other people? I haven't noticed any changes in attitude towards Spanish."
Maybe I am short sighted, but at least in my native country, everything coming from Spain was seen as backward up to the 1970's. Nowadays, it's completely different.
I've heard that in other European countries and in the US, it was the same.
>> iving standards of Brazil, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique. If Portuguese speaking countries remain poor, the anguage will disappear <<
"Disappear? I'm sure the millions of people in Portugal and Brazil, etc. would beg to differ."
Probable long term trends, highly imprecise, of course.
>> This seems to be what Spain dreams about Portugal and Brazil [that it will disappear] <<
Yeah right.
The Castillians and Andalucians never stopped dreaming about that. The discrimination that Portugal is subject in the EU is due to the strong Spanish lobby.
>> French? Will have the same fate of Portuguese <<
Why?
French is in regression. Imagine that France turns around, and some of the French speaking countries become rich. French will be fashionable again.
>> Anyway, I think that Chinese is an obvious bet <<
"A bet for what? That it will become compulsory in American and European schools."
That depends of how China performs economically. If the current trend continues, it's an obvious bet. You denied my statement and justified by saying what I did, That's a contradiction.
>> Given that money speaks louder than anything else, economic power is the most important thing <<
"I don't see why it would be the most important thing. Imperialism, cultural domination, and entertainment industries are far more effective at spreading a language. That's how English became the world language."
English imperialism developed after the height of English economic power. The English were already unbeatable at the seas, but the colonization of the world started later. It was the capitalist economic system that made England very rich in the XIX century. The industrial revolution started in England.
Cultural domination is the outcome of economic domination. No country is able to be a cultural beacon without being rich and powerful. It will be rejected by the others.
In 2109 (it's very difficult to predict things but...). The 2 most spoken will be:
North America: Spanish, English
South America: Spanish, Portuguese
Europe: Russian, English
Africa & Middle East: Arabic, Swahili
South Asia: Hindi-Urdu, Bengali
East Asia & Pacific: Chinese, Indonesian
So, I don't see a strong influence of English. It will be an important language in Western Europe and North America, like nowadays. Traditional languages, like German or French will be in regression.
Spanish and Chinese will be stronger in Western World and Asia, respectively. Arabic will be also very important (official in more countries of Africa and Asia, from Central Africa to Iran).
Sorry, but I do not believe that it is possible to predict what the major languages would be in 100 years. Think about what people thought in 1909. Or 1809.
>> That depends of how China performs economically. If the curren trend continues, it's an obvious bet <<
How would learning Chinese help an American unless they planned on taking a trip to China? And I would imagine that by that time, a large percentage of Chinese would already have learned English, thus sparing us all the bother.
The Castillians and Andalucians never stopped dreaming about that. The discrimination that Portugal is subject in the EU is due to the strong Spanish lobby.
Vamos, que la culpa de que los portugueses seais pobres es debido a los andaluces y castellanos. Como una puta cabra . Así os va a los Portugueses. Menos llorar y más traballar.
The Castillians and Andalucians never stopped dreaming about that. The discrimination that Portugal is subject in the EU is due to the strong Spanish lobby.
Vamos, que la culpa de que los portugueses seais pobres es debido a los andaluces y castellanos. Como una puta cabra . Así os va a los Portugueses. Menos llorar y más traballar.
Working more? If the EU pays to Portugal for not producing anything, how is that possible?
By the way, I was in the south of Spain on holidays last year. Andalucians are really nice people, friendly and stuff, but they are a lot more careless than the Portuguese. I was not there long enough but it was my impression.
Sorry, but I do not believe that it is possible to predict what the major languages would be in 100 years. Think about what people thought in 1909. Or 1809.
Agree. I just tried to set some possible causes that could make some languages trendy in the future, but that's fallible. I am aware of that.
<<Sorry, but I do not believe that it is possible to predict what the major languages would be in 100 years. Think about what people thought in 1909. Or 1809. >>
In 1909 I suppose people would have thought ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN and RUSSIAN
<<In 1909 I suppose people would have thought ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN and RUSSIAN>>
Yep. 2 of them are in regression and out of the top ten: German and French. Another one is not clear, but demographic trends are bad: Russian
In 2009 we can say that the languages of the future are English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. All experts think that. But it is very difficult to predict it...
I think people are overestimating Spanish. Unfortunately, the Spanish speaking sphere is much less united than the Anglosphere. Latin America is still a hotbed for political, ideological, racial and economic instability. Each country has its own unique issues, and there are deep seated animosities between Latin American countries. Recent and predicted in the near future events show just how far from united and stable Spanish speaking countries are:
- Military coup in Honduras.
- Rise of socialism, which implies ideological confrontation between Spanish speaking countries
- Possible dictatorships
- Aggressive foreign policy, increased chances of war between nations, especially Venezuela/Colombia/Ecuador region (threats of military action, violations of territorial sovereignty, moving of troops to borders)
- Extreme corruption
- Continued guerilla warfare.
- Drug trafficking. Very large influence of criminal organisations (top Mexican officials connected with the drug-mafias)
- Racial inequalities (eg, turn on the TV and you'll see that whites are by far overly represented) and class systems could lead to civil unrest (eg Peru currently)
- Economic squabbling (eg, Uruguay and Argentina)
- Deep seated historical animosity (eg Bolivia/Chile)
- It's only a matter of time before Cuba's political system collapses, for better or for worse. Could be very dangerous if Venezuela and the US get involved.
If the Spanish speaking countries can't get their act together they will be overshadowed by a united Brazil.
Yes toroidal. Latin american is still a social mess.
And yes Brazil wants leadership latin american so Brazil need spanish (it's being tought in all brazilian schools).So there will be millions new spanish speakers soon. 30 millions as i read.Spanish is not overestimate.
There are political movements to a culture, comercial and monetary union as mercosur, alca, OEI, OEA (this includes USA and Canada) etc...But if you are thinking about an all americas political union I think Brazil needs more big countries as Argentina, Mexico, Usa to do it.
<<Working more? If the EU pays to Portugal for not producing anything, how is that possible?>>
Es posible porque sois unos vagos y preferís la limosna de Europa antes que crear industrias y producir.
Who knows what the future holds. Even the most preeminent minds of today are struggling to foresee the upcoming ten years. We can fathom only little about the next hundred.