Former UK minister Bryant calls French a useless language
- Thread starter Akela
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He probably made a very good prediction then, given that the French language is believed to become extinct in the year 3000, according to David X. Cohen, based on the trends that Bryant predicted.
I can invent a couple of my own, anyway.Akela dixit:
French will become extinct, and so will English, the latter however being preserved as the language of culture sacred language of the Anglican Church (there will be a lot of controversy about the restituted classical pronunciation of English). North America and Australia will adopt different Chinese dialects. Tatar will be the lingua franca in Europe. Iste Cohen just lacks fantasy, or he is holding something back. 
In a world without DVD players, stereos and the IPA, perhapsQuasus dixit:
 Tongue.gif "(1) Tongue out :p")
Of course, people would come up with ridiculous circumlocutions, under the impression that English was never actually spoken and that new meanings cannot be attached to old words, such as "machine buoyed by dark-matter and propelled by liquid space-time which transports passengers between planets" instead of "spaceship", because our idea of a spaceship differ from what they actually create.
David X. Cohen also predicted that German would become extinct in the year 3000.
Russian? I'm really not sure... 
When the oil is over...
On the other hand, let it be like this: the Ucrainian language will be considered true Russian (since Kiev is "the mother of Russian cities"), and Russian will be regarded as a corrupted dialect.
Cohen is smoking nervously aside.
When the oil is over...On the other hand, let it be like this: the Ucrainian language will be considered true Russian (since Kiev is "the mother of Russian cities"), and Russian will be regarded as a corrupted dialect.
Cohen is smoking nervously aside.QUOI?! Il a vraiment osé dire celà? Quelle dommage! Même si la langue française en fait mourra, nous en toujours rappellerons bien. (WHAT?! He actually dared to say that? What a shame! Even if the French language does in fact die, we shall remember it well.)
Well, since some people equate the US to the Roman Empire, another possibility is that North America and Australia will play host to a family of distinct "Anglic" languages.Quasus dixit:North America and Australia will adopt different Chinese dialects. Tatar will be the lingua franca in Europe. Iste Cohen just lacks fantasy, or he is holding something back.
Internationalization and use as a lingua franca are even now causing English to fragment.
There are already many forms of English in the world, which a kind of putative "International English" holds together. Among some of the more interesting and lesser-known are: South Asian English, a group of dialects spanning the Indian subcontinent, Burma, and Sri Lanka; Philippine English; "Singlish," spoken in Singapore; and various English pidgins, or more accurately creoles, such as the New Guinean Tokpisin, Jamaican Creole (and other Antillean versions such as Bajan [Barbadian] and Trinidadian Creole), and Hawaiian Pidgin.
The more common and well-known are of course, British, American/Canadian, Australian (lovingly known to Ozzies as "Strine") and the closely related New Zealand Kiwi English, and South African English.
Modern English is already in decline, being replaced by Po-Mo (Postmodern English), a deconstructionist dialect. [That last bit was a joke; don't take it seriously, unless you are really compiling a grammar of Po-Mo.
]
There are already many forms of English in the world, which a kind of putative "International English" holds together. Among some of the more interesting and lesser-known are: South Asian English, a group of dialects spanning the Indian subcontinent, Burma, and Sri Lanka; Philippine English; "Singlish," spoken in Singapore; and various English pidgins, or more accurately creoles, such as the New Guinean Tokpisin, Jamaican Creole (and other Antillean versions such as Bajan [Barbadian] and Trinidadian Creole), and Hawaiian Pidgin.
The more common and well-known are of course, British, American/Canadian, Australian (lovingly known to Ozzies as "Strine") and the closely related New Zealand Kiwi English, and South African English.
Modern English is already in decline, being replaced by Po-Mo (Postmodern English), a deconstructionist dialect. [That last bit was a joke; don't take it seriously, unless you are really compiling a grammar of Po-Mo.
]However unjustifiably superior we British may feel about our version of it, there is no doubt that the current pre-eminence of English is due to its being the language of the United States. Sometime in the next century Spanish will become the majority language of the US.
This is certainly true of Spanish in California, where I live. Many native English speakers are even (horror of horrors!) trying to learn it. Isn't it odd how English speakers are so well-known for their aversion to learning other languages? Yet in England, try to get a Geordie and a Kentishman to communicate, if they still speak their local lingo. I imagine these local dialects are dying out, or being reduced to odd typical phrases and such.Decimus Canus dixit:
My favorite example of New Guinean Tokpisin is an old newspaper headline from a Port Moresby newspaper announcing the visit of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, in which he was referred to by the delightful paraphrase "numba wan pikininny bilang missus kwin" (Number one pickininny belong Mrs. Queen).
Numba wan refers to birth order; pikininny comes from the Portuguese "pequeninho," a diminutive of "pequeno" (small one); bilang marks the possessive in Tokpisin; and missus kwin refers to HM Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, Fidei Defensor, etc.
The name of the language (or creole, if you insist), Tokpisin, is the native pronunciation of "talk pidgin."
Numba wan refers to birth order; pikininny comes from the Portuguese "pequeninho," a diminutive of "pequeno" (small one); bilang marks the possessive in Tokpisin; and missus kwin refers to HM Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, Fidei Defensor, etc.
The name of the language (or creole, if you insist), Tokpisin, is the native pronunciation of "talk pidgin."
You may be interested in other English dialects. The Scottish Parliament, for example, mainly works in English but recognises Scots as a separate language and supports it and publishes some documents in it.
See http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/language/scots/documents/LPguidance-Scotstranslation18.03.10.pdf for example.
See http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/language/scots/documents/LPguidance-Scotstranslation18.03.10.pdf for example.
As a matter of fact, three idioms should not be mixed up: Gaelic, Scottish dialect of English, and Scots. The last of them evolved from Old English independently of Modern English, so it is to be considered a Germanic language different from English, not a dialect of the latter.Decimus Canus dixit:
Interesting. Scots is certainly a language in its own right and has its own identifiable dialects within it. Whether this excludes it from also being a dialect, or number of dialects, of English is open to question. In the same way Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are distinct languages but are to a great degree mutually intelligible and may be regarded as dialects of each other. See http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/lang.htm.