The future of English

English as she was spoke


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Michael Dunne


With regards to one point: If you put a Bolivian and a Brazilian together, what would they speak?

I didn't get the sense that many within Spanish speaking South America spoke Portuguese. Similarly, when driving around the border regions of Rio Grande do Sol, I recalled the traveling sales man I accompanied complaining that "these people (people of Uruguay, Argentina and Rio Grande do Sol) live together, but don't even understand each other." Now this was around towns like Riviera and Artigas, Uruguay, or on the border in Uruguaiana/Paso de Los Libres. This was also more than ten years ago, when I used to go to Brazil regularly.

Michael Dunne

Tim Hart,

I think the Romans did debate the quality of Latin. Now it has disappeared in one sense, from governing and scholastic circles after a really long period of time (Hungary may have stopped using Latin for official communications in the 18th or 19th century). Within the realm of religion it is much diminished following Vatican II.

However, an old Latin teacher of mine took another line of argument, arguing that Latin evolved, into the Romance languages. Considering how communications, transportion, networks, etc. were different then from now, that kind of linquistic drift could be expected.

J. Sparrow,

Good point about French. It reminded me that France was one of the most populous regions in Europe up until the mid-18th century, one of the first truly centralized monarchies/states, and certainly possessed very strong culture. However the metropole is modest both in size and population by today's standards while the US is a continental size country with the third largest population in the world (maybe in the future Pakistan or Indonesia take that spot).

Carl J Tornell


Odd. If you have ever had the terrible experience of lecturing or making a speech through interpreters, you will understand the importance of the speaking common language. This can simply never be replaced with any artificial tool. Mr Ostler's hypothesis does just not make sense.



No offense taken! I was just surprised by the omission of the contribution of Greek to this subject in your original post.

I am well aware, and it was freely admitted to by the Ancient Greeks, that they got much knowledge from earlier civilizations, including of course the Egyptians. The Greeks are accredited with taking this knowledge, systematically and substantially adding to it and developing it into science.

I am not involved in the medical profession, but I am sure the Doctors here in Greece use much the same terminology used around the world.

c r williams

@english language unity (or, should we say, English language hijack)

What can Americans and Canadians possibly contribute to proper English? For example

As the English and Australian captains venture to the centre of the MCG this morning, it is more than likely the toss of the coin will decide whether the defence of The Ashes has been in vain.

No need for Americans to try to rope in their Canadian cousins to this debate - we all know who the tossers are.

Felipe Coelho


Nice point about the Babel Fishes. They can not exist, poor things! Automatic translation is a joke, rendered impossible by the language evolution, and particularly by the ever-changing slang spoken by young people and by the continuous creation and migration of words. But, as the Guide says, "Don't worry!".


I disagree with Mr Ostler. I think that in the future the world will be like the US (Homogenized Society) and in such a society the chances of a multiple languages being used is slim. I also believe that technology will hasten the process of homogenizing the world. Sad as it may be, but i think that is where the world is heading towards.


Damianos1 wrote: Dec 25th 2010 9:53 GMT @McJakome

"Just to set the record straight, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am under the distinct impression it's actually Greek that was the first basis of the terminology used in the Medical,(and several other scientific) professions."

No offense intended to Hippocrates or other Greek contributors to the medical knowledge of humanity. Despite the title "Father of Medicine" bestowed upon him, it might better have been given to Imhotep. The Greeks learned much from the Egyptians [see Herodotus].

There are Greek derived words such as democracy [δημοκρατία], and Egyptian medical discoveries were filterd through Greece, but the preponderance of non-English loan words [in these areas] derive from Latin or Latinized Greek. You can make a case for Greek being a close second if only considering lexis [also Greek λέξις] or a coequal parent if you consider content [transmitted via Greek, irrespective of origin].

Apologies for appearing to slight greek contribution, but as to linguistic reach my remark was, IMHO, valid. If you are Greek, or speak and read Greek, perhaps you could ascertain whether Greek doctors and medical texts use only Greek, or also imported Latin.

c r williams

I agree that auto-translate is a long-term proposition.
Moreso since google.translate only deals with the written word.
It really does make a hash of Japanese/English translations.


bluenoserboy, I'm one of the 34 million. But thanks all the same for schooling me on the demographics. Read the messages more carefully the next time you're hurling sarcasm around to make a point. I'm not the one making the population estimates. That would be the other poster.

Marc in MA

I don't see computer-aided translation taking the place of a spoken lingua franca. There is more to interpersonal interaction than just communicating the meaning of words. Learning English as a 2nd language is not just a matter of learning how to translate your own language, it is admission into a larger global community and the opportunity to socialize with others outside your cultural group. And if nothing else, speaking English as a 2nd language will continue to be a status symbol, showing the education and cosmopolitan credentials of the speaker. I don't think that aspect will ever be lost, no matter how advanced the technology develops. I can imagine company scenarios where you one-up the next guy by forgoing the translation headset, i.e. "I am more competent than you".

Computer-aided translation will make a bigger impact in documentation, where their is no social aspect involved. .


Not having read the book, this might be a moot point, but judging from the review, the author seems to assume a rather white-collar and technologically literate perspective. What of those vasts swaths of the world lacking access to advancing technology?


It’s reasonably true that being world lingua franca the English language owes it to the superpower of the US.

I think a second, closely related but altogether different, contributing factor is the "Americana" as distilled and projected in Hollywood motion pictures and other rich cultural scenes such as the Broadway and pop music developed over the past 80 years or so.

The preeminence of American science, technology and medicines helped also.

That's why I believe English as "king of language today" won't be going away anytime soon.


some points:

An aristocratic Taiwanese friend who traveled (first class) to china recently assures me mandarin comprehension and speech was minimal? Comments?

I am told also by her, that Hong Kong is losing its english skills? Comments?

No one has mentioned its famed superiority at conveying nuance and subtlety. The Oxford english dictionary is a wonder of the world.

Lets not forget, there has never been a better time in history to be the lingua franca than since the PC and the internet up until now - ~30 yrs. English has radically reinforced its pre-eminence.

All these historical arguments are a bit lame.Its not a big deal being lingua franca in an era when almost no one can read or write, or much in the way of ideas to communicate, or the means of doing so.

Things are very different now.

I am going to go out on a limb and advocate being a language luddite (I used to annoy the hell out of my dogmatic, pompous dad= "anyone monolingual is a bum")

However, I knew a guy who spoke 12 languages and was crashing bore in his native english. Whats the point?

You only have so many neurones and they all get used up eventually. Being lucky enough to be born to english, it seems foolish to waste big chunks of my neurones on something neither I nor most others, would have much use for.

I spoke fluent arabic as a kid and promptly forgot it when we returned to OZ, so I can say "been there done that".

Sure, would be nice to read classic books in the original french or russian say, but its not worth the cost to this bear of little brain.

I have traveled more than most in english free zones, and have good japanese friends w/ no english. With a bit of imagination you can communicate quite well. Mime, gesture, props, sketches, humming the theme for Jaws to convey "shark". I have even succeeded in endearing the locals with visual jokes.

I found it polite to have a book handy. Because you are a novelty, they will make the effort, but its tiring. Returning to your book allows them to chat on among themselves until they next want to include you.

I tried to be polite and learn a few basics, but it isnt rational to invest time and neurones in a new language with 60m speakers globally, when I am already very skilled at a language with a billion speakers, and which dominates global commerce and ideas.

I read somewhere that when US Congress voted english in as the national language, the majority of the delegates and population were native german speakers. True?

As above, I am no linguist, but I used to be hugely impressed w/ the english skills of; dutch, swedes, germans etc., but having watched many sub titled movies over the years, I am struck by how many words we have in common. Now, I am not so impressed.


@Baltic Fleet Dec 20th 2010 11:42 GMT (apologies for comment necromancy)

"On topic, I think the author overlook a serious loophole here. What language are the guys working on language barriers using...?"

This is a VERY important point: Any successful effort must be multilingual, and multilinguals must feature in the development team both as test subjects and design inspiration...


@J.Sparrow wrote "Even though I take pride in my fairly good command of English as a foreign language, I do not console myself with a blind belief that it will necessarily retain its dominant role in tomorrow's world."

English will definitely be a dominant language at least in our lifetimes.

Felipe Coelho


I agree that multinational Spanish and Arabic are no competitors to English, they are regional lingua francas. The same for German in Central and Southeastern Europe, and French in Africa.

The case for Mandarin seems to me the same as the ones for Hindi, Russian and Portuguese: their speakers are too much concentrated in single countries. Hindi is not even the majority language in India, and pressing ahead its use will flare regional disputes. The spread of Chinese as the second language in India is as unlikely as the spread of Hindi in China.

China is growing fastly but the status of a language requires much more than that. If much of the Art, the Science, the Technology and the Literature is made in Chinese (as it was the case with the previous lingua francas) then learning Chinese will become attractive for people all over the world. There also nationalistic factors, Asian countries once influenced by China and India - Korea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam - will not want to speak either Hindi or Mandarin as second languages, even if that made economic sense.

Other fast growing regions in Asia and Africa already require their people to speak two or three languages (one of them is almost certainly English, French or Portuguese). A person from southern Mozambique, for example, speaks her native language, Portuguese and English, and perhaps understands Afrikaner a little, as many people there go to work in South Africa. The effort to learn a fourth language is too much for the average person, so other competitor languages will have to prove themselves attractive indeed.

In short: Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, French and German fail the criteria of being the hegemonic language of knowledge production, even if they were so in the past, so English will remain as the "official second language" and these languages could be regional languages. Thousands of other languages will also remain as local languages. Advances in computing and in educational levels will make this multiplicity of languages a smaller burden, one hopes...


Felipe, I agree with you.

Although as far as my knowledge goes, the Japanese have created new "alphabets" to modernise the language, I see the Chinese having an advantage in doing so if they want to spread their language to Africa.

now for the contenders:

- Portuguese, for its sheer number of users is a joke if anyone thinks will become lingua franca. It WAS apparently in like the 16th century in Asia and there are even creole Portuguese dialects spreaded around the Asian continent. BUt with the mother-country not having more than 10 million people and quite not that much international prestige, its fate is definitely in the hands of Brazil, ,which has regional and soft power. As you said Portuguese will grow in Africa, etc. But the lack of real "wealth" and the lack of scientific, etc. achievements will keep Portuguese at bay

- Spanish is a good contender, and much better placed than Portuguese. Although it would probably fail in as much as the same reasons Portuguese would, for the lack of real "wealth" and scientific production in Latin America and Spain.

- Arabic is another joke. No one in the west would want to learn it as second language, for all the obvious regions

- Hindi is to localised.

We're stuck with Chinese, in sheer number of Speakers Mandarin and Cantonese are truly hard to beat. The rise of China as an Economic power-house will definitely challenge the position of English as the world language.

But what I truly meant to say was that the "linguas-francas" are first and foremost,regional. In the "core west" as I said, English will remain the lingua franca for many decades to come. Other world regions may decide to use a different language, and its for the Europeans and "united stadians" to have to adapt


English may not spread as the author opines but it will remain the repository of certain disciplines.

On the technological front, one can think of a technical journal article. One clicks on a language tab and reads the tract in the selected language.

On the verbal communication front, think of a device like the miniature blue tooth you see people wearing. Future generations of this device are nearly invisible. You dial up the language of your choice and your spoken words are translated and wirelessly relayed to a corresponding ear piece worn by the person with whom you are speaking and vice versa. Moreover, you can adjust the volume of both incoming and outgoing words in both languages thereby assisting in language learning. This would take place in real time.

Such devices would probably have an impact on humanity as great as the sum of all communication technologies developed up to that time.

English language unity

UK, US and Canadian language academics could consider teaming up to form academy to standardise spelling. Surely we can settle the "defence"/"defense", "centre"/"center" spelling disparity. Other words should be spelt closer to how their are pronounced. The idea is to 'strengthen' the mainstream use of the language even if there are many localised versions like Aussie English in Australia and Singlish in Singapore.


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