What will be the international language?

I have noticed that a lot of Europeans now speak English as a second language. Well hardly any of us English speak any European language. This led in my mind to wondering whether English will become the language of the EU (eventufully). Then as I normally do I became to think way into the future at a time when the world is more united (at least that is the way I see it). I began to think maybe there will be an international language that all international organisations (like the UN, G8, World Bank, IMF, WTO etc) will be conducted in. So if you are reading this then you too are interested in this subject and I will like your opinions so I can disagree with them (obviously depending on who you are rather than what you said).

I voted for English. It may seem like Spanish is the most commonly spoken language spoken in the world, but I think that's just because it is so concentrated in certain areas. Pretty much the entire continent of South America speaks Spanish(but a lot speak Portugese), but over the entire world, English is spoken(or at least understood) more than any other language.

Originally posted by MrPresident
So if you are reading this then you too are interested in this subject and I will like your opinions so I can disagree with them (obviously depending on who you are rather than what you said).

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First I wasn't that interested in this subject but who could resist such an invitation?

Hmm, to say something about the subject...hmm...
Isn't English already the (unofficial) world language? Which else should it be? English is spoken at probably every conference, event, etc. with worldwide importance.
And English has the advantage of being a very simple (easy) language. As someone who speaks German which is a close relative in the language family I can only say that this advantage is very important. So it won't change I guess, things like Esperanto simply have no chance.

But to the question of the EU language: I don't think the other Europeans would accept that.

Hmmmmm.... I don't know any foriegn languages, but from what I have heard, English is NOT any easy language, at least not compared to something like Spanish.

Yeah, I knew that comment would follow
How difficult a language is most likely different for different people. But there are some things that make English relatively (!) easy to learn (not to master though). That is for example that there's only "the" in English, opposed to "le/la" in French, "el/la" in Spanish (not 100% sure as I speak no Spanish) and "der/die/das" in German. That can cause alot of confusion to beginners. Other languages have the disadvantage that they come along with "their own" letters (I think you'll accept that THIS letters are THE world letters, if only for computers), like Hebrew, Russian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, etc. .

Puzzling. I've heard from many people that English is a horrible language to learn, what with the lack of good spelling and grammar rules and the widespread use of contractions and slang, not to mention the multitude of different accents in the English-speaking world. Even English pronunciation is severely messed up: consider the words though, thought, trough, etc., which SHOULD sound alike but don't.

A language like Spanish, for example, of which I know a little, has simpler and more widely followed rules governing verb forms and such. (BTW, it's el/la/los/las in Spanish. You had half of it).

That said, English probably will be the predominant language of the world in the future, despite these issues. It is already very prevalent all over the world and seems to be only growing stronger. No matter how hard it is to learn, people will probably have no choice about learning it.

PS: I also wasn't aware that German and English were similar, as I believe they derive from different tongues (German is Germanic, I think, while I believe English is Romance, from Latin). EDIT: This was later found by other posters to be WRONG. See Padma's and MCdread's later posts for correct info.

usually i would say english, but i spent this night (and had great fun) with a lot exchange stundents and i noticed that most of them spoken better spanish then english, although i don´t speak any spanish at all.

sign language!!!

(on account of that in the year 2050, a virus will pillage the globe, causing every human's lower jaw to fall off... unfortunatly, in the year 2500, leporsy will sweep the world again, rendering sign language usless. (i think we know why that will be.) fortunately, by that time we'll all be telepaths.)

that is my hisotry of the future.

ps i guess i should have voted other and put telepathy down...

Well, I voted English. English is the closest thing we have to an international language at this time. For good or ill, I think that's what we will have.

On the sidebar: One reason English is so difficult is that has grown from several different sources. CD Light, you are close, but incorrect. English is a GERMANIC language. At its base is OLD GERMANIC. However, for centuries after 1066 (William the Conqueror) England was ruled by French-speaking people. Thus, French became the language of court, and therefore exerted a great influence over the development of the language. This is probably why you think it is a Romance, or Latin-based language. (Then again, to get way off-topic, German and Latin (and Greek, and Arabic, and Russian, etc.) are all descended from Indo-European, the source for all the major European languages.)

On top of English and French, after the colonization of the New World, and of Africa, many more 'foriegn' words entered the language. Over the last couple of hundred years, Spanish has also made important additions.

Actually, as I think about it, the international language of the future will probably be an English so changed from what we speak now that it will be almost unrecognizable.

Originally posted by CD Light
A language like Spanish, for example, of which I know a little, has simpler and more widely followed rules governing verb forms and such. (BTW, it's el/la/los/las in Spanish. You had half of it).

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Right. I was thinking about the singular, and I think los/las are plural forms, like les in French.

Originally posted by Padma
(Then again, to get way off-topic, German and Latin (and Greek, and Arabic, and Russian, etc.) are all descended from Indo-European, the source for all the major European languages.)

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To stay way off-topic for a moment, are you sure about that? I think I've learned about the difference between the Indo-Germanic language tree (German, English, Dutch, etc.) and the latin/romanic language tree (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) at school. Together that might make Indo-European then, but we've had the term Indo-Germanic. Just wondering...

EDIT: You're right, the Germanic AND Romance languages are part of the Indo-Germanic (or Indo-European) language tree. I was confused by the translation actually, maybe I should think about English as world language...

The idea of a "New-English" as world language is interesting though.

CD Light: English is a germanic language. I'm learning German now, and both languages are realy similar. The words in particular resemble a lot. The grammar, however, is a bit different.

I think English is an easy language. That's one of the reasons for the success it reached in the last century. I know I make a lot of mistakes, but that's because I rarely speak it. In fact, my posts for CFC and other forums are the only ocasions that I have to produce an english text.
English is quite easy to learn because:
- it has only one genre (all the nouns are preceded by the)
- the conjugations are very simple (I swim, you swim,... they swim)
- unlike German, for example, and many other eastern european languages it has no Falls or Declensions (what's the right word?). Latin had this to, and six of them. Thank God the latin languages lost them...

I have no problems with Italian or any of the Spanish languages, because they are not very different from Portuguese. But I've learned French (not so similar) and I'm learning German and believe me: English is not in the same league.

As for the topic, I think it's obvious. But I am curious to see how many votes are Hebrew, Mongolian and Maori gathering.

English is not an easy language to learn compared to Spanish or German.
However, it is easier to use since it is so widely used.

Easier to learn than the other languages that are spoken by a great number of people... like Mandarin Chinese

Originally posted by MrPresident
So if you are reading this then you too are interested in this subject and I will like your opinions so I can disagree with them (obviously depending on who you are rather than what you said).

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Ooh, a challenge! Count me in. I am about to agree with you, but will you disagree with me because of who I am? It could be quite an argument. How very exciting!

If we get some sort of international language in the near future, it will probably be English. Yes, more poeple speak Spanish as first language, but English is the far most common language if you count non-first ones. Perhaps it is somewhat difficult to learn, but what language isn´t?

1. Latin is spread all over the world

2. No one has Latin as their language of birth (less political problems)

3. Many languages in the world are influenced by latin (French, Spanish, English etc...)

I have noticed that a lot of Europeans now speak English as a second language. Well hardly any of us English speak any European language.

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I couldn't agree more!

Even English pronunciation is severely messed up: consider the words though, thought, trough, etc., which SHOULD sound alike but don't.

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Not only that but we invent our own words every other minute and constantly change the meanings around.

English is NOT an easy language to learn. Especially when the people around you speak some strange pseudo-english that has a different word order, sticks words together to make thirty-letter, one word sentences. When that language is spelled worse than English, pronunciation is never the way it looks, verbs change daily (Steal - Nick, knock, bump, theeved), and there are 50 words for idiot! Try learning standardised English in that environment!

English.

Originally posted by Sixchan
English is NOT an easy language to learn. Especially when the people around you speak some strange pseudo-english that has a different word order, sticks words together to make thirty-letter, one word sentences. When that language is spelled worse than English, pronunciation is never the way it looks, verbs change daily (Steal - Nick, knock, bump, theeved), and there are 50 words for idiot! Try learning standardised English in that environment!

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Isn´t that the situation with most languages? It certainly is when it comes to Swedish and German, the two other languages that I speak. I fail to see that English should be much harder to learn than any other language.

English

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You know, a one word post doesn't help much. Are you referring to my post, or the original question? If you are saying the language I describe is english, then translate THIS!

Lament for a Lost Dinner Ticket

by Margret Hamilton

See ma mammy
See ma dinner ticket
A pititnma
Pokit an she pititny
Washnmachine.

See thon burnty
Up wherra firewiz
Ma mammy says
Am no tellnyagain
No'y playnit.
A jist wen'y eatma
Pokacrisps furma dinner
Nabigwoffldoon.

The wummin sed Aver near
Clapsd
Jistur heednur
Wee wellies sticknoot


They sed Wot heppind?
Nme'nma belly
Na bedna hospital.
A sed A pititnma
Pokit an she pititny
Washnmachine.

They sed Ees thees chaild eb slootly
Non verbal?
A sed MA BUMSAIR
Nwen'y sleep.

EDIT: To Mr Spice: Imagine you are brought up speaking Swedish, and you walk in on the first day of school and all your lessons are in Chinese. That's the problem.

So long as the World's leading industrial countries are primarily English speaking, English will be the primary language. When the English speaking countries fail, a few hundred years of mush will follow and eventually a new industrial power will emerge with whatever language it holds.