One spoken language on Earth?

Silent UK

Silent UK

Silent UK

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Was thinking about this the other day and thought I'd ask to see what everyones opinion is. Not really sure how to word the question, but to give it a shot...

Do you think that one day Earth as a whole with have one universal language that would be classed as "Earth", instead of "English"/"Chinese" etc.

Now I'm not sure on the overal stats of how many people out of the 6 Billion speak English to some degree. But would it be correct to say that currently "English" is the most spoken language on Earth? Either as a first or second language?
 
Mandarin has the most L1 speakers in the World, but you're right that English has the most speakers when you combine L1, L2 & EFL speakers.

It's clear that greater globalization will promote the greater use of one language (which seems to be English) however I don't think that we'll ever see the other languages simply disappearing. Language is incredibly important in terms of identity and once you lose that then I reckon the rest would quickly follow which most people would not accept.

Because of a lack of jobs in South America, I'm now looking at China but terrified about the prospect of having to learn a new script!
 
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The thing is, even if you have a single language, it will never be unified as such because there will always be groups of people with unique words which deviates from the language. If I went up to someone from china and suggested we go for a scran they might not realise I'm asking if they're hungry and might get the wrong end of the stick.
 
Monkeynut said:
The thing is, even if you have a single language, it will never be unified as such because there will always be groups of people with unique words which deviates from the language. If I went up to someone from china and suggested we go for a scran they might not realise I'm asking if they're hungry and might get the wrong end of the stick.
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That's slang though, which is totally different. You could go up to a native speaker and they might not know what that meant.
 
I currently live in Shanghai and it is very difficult just speaking English (though I am learning Mandarin, which was the reason for me moving here).

English is the lingua franca of the world and there is no denying that. There are English signs everywhere in Shanghai. My class is taught in English to people from France, Japan, Korea, Norway, Colombia etc... And everyone uses English as a common language to talk to each other. Including the Chinese and Koreans/Japanese.

Even though Manadrin probably has the most people speaking it as a first language I cant see it become a world language anytime soon.
 
KaHn said:
Isnt mandarin the most spoken?

KaHn
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i read the other week, that it is becoming increasingly common in china for natives to speak to one another in english as two villages (for example) 10 miles apart, will speak a different variation of mandarin!
 
I've always thought it would probably be either English, Mandarin or Spanish. English is the most likely; it's the required spoken language in aviation and surgery worldwide. I think I read somewhere that more world leaders know English than any other language too.
 
Ahleckz said:
That's slang though, which is totally different. You could go up to a native speaker and they might not know what that meant.
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Dialects however can be formed from the same language yet be unrecognisable in spoken form from each other the reasons may be geographical, cultural or social. Examples of this are Chinese and Arabic. It is the primary driver of language evolution, for example British English and American English, while currently diverse from each other are mutually understandable, but that is not to say that in 500 years the same will be true.....although with increased globalisation isolation in the evolution of dialects is somewhat lessened by the integration of social and cultural groups, for example the introduction of commonly used foreign words in the French lexicon which initiated State protectionism of their language.

The problem with assuming that Mandarin will evolve into a Global Language is that it makes a distinction between it's written (formal) and spoken (informal) forms, something that is alien to most English and Spanish language speakers.

So if we assume that we will eventually become a single language world (and I don't think we will for one minute) it is unlikely to be Mandarin and is more likely to be English due it's acceptance as both the Business and Scientific Lingua Franca in what is effectively a global environment. It would take a concerted and organised effort to impose Mandarin or Spanish that I think is unlikely or practical.
 
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Ever seen the SciFi series Firefly? They speak a mix of Chinese(Cantonese?) and English, mixing the 2 all the time its actually quite funny, swapping mid sentence.
 
cm1179 said:
i read the other week, that it is becoming increasingly common in china for natives to speak to one another in english as two villages (for example) 10 miles apart, will speak a different variation of mandarin!
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Doesn't suprise me. Went to Beijing a few months ago and it was a completely different dialect from the one in Hong Kong.

Cantonese is the more "global" version of Chinese.
 
Efour2 said:
Ever seen the SciFi series Firefly? They speak a mix of Chinese(Cantonese?) and English, mixing the 2 all the time its actually quite funny, swapping mid sentence.
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The thread made me think of Harry Harrison's novels where Esperanto is the official language of Earth.
 
Efour2 said:
Ever seen the SciFi series Firefly? They speak a mix of Chinese(Cantonese?) and English, mixing the 2 all the time its actually quite funny, swapping mid sentence.
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The interesting thing about that is that is appears to be isolated to those who left Earth so if we assume the majority of those who left in the implied diaspora spoke either English or Mandarin then language evolution will create a dialect (and eventually a new language) that reflects this evolution in isolation....for example, the changes in Anglo-Saxon Old English with the Norman Invasion and the subsequent introduction of Norman to the English lexicon....we can see how that evolved differently in seperate way when we look at the differences between how it effected Old English to form Anglo-Norman French and it's subsequent assimilation into Modern English and how it developed on the different Channel Islands to form Jerriais, Guernesiais and Sercquiais respectively.

Given that Chinese seems to be limited to collequial and/or the prejorative it would appear that the writers made an assumption that English was the predominant spoken language among the leadership or most powerful groups of the diaspora which created the Alliance (so assuming the US culture was the dominant one over the Chinese culture)...resulting in almost a recreation of high-born and low-born dialects of the same language. Which would reflect the nature of the mixed technological and historical context of the environment the writers created. (the Western Pioneer/emigration/technologically advance culture mix)
 
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