The global spread of English is a seismic event in Man's history

The Times (UK) ^ | 1/15/05 | Matthew Parris

[VOA]

Plus, nowadays, a lot of the research literature they're reading isn't in
German, Russian or French anymore, it's in English, so they're all reading English anyway

Two of the biggest wastes of my life:
1. two years of high school French
2. one year of university German required by my degree-advisement committee;
required because a lot of OLD German chemical lit is in German, but that's
becoming increasingly dusty and irrelevant.

I'm glad I took two years of high school Latin and regret not having taken Spanish.

[Aquinasfan]

No single language has ever before approached universality. English is now doing so.

That's hard to argue. But the author didn't address the consequences of this phenomenon, which are?

This phenomenon will certainly benefit commerce, but more importantly, with the simultaneous rise of the internet, a universal language could also aid in our understanding of each other. A freewheeling international dialogue can serve the promotion of truth and also, unfortunately, an international market for pornography and vice.

[Revolting cat!]

[dighton]

‘Mr Waugh is a great writer from England. He will tell you how to be great writers.’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘well. I have spent fifty-four years trying to learn English and I still find I have recourse to the dictionary almost every day. English,’ I said, warming a little to my subject, ‘is incomparably the richest language in the world. There are two or three quite distinct words to express every concept and each has a subtle difference of nuance.’

This was clearly not quite what was required. Consternation was plainly written on all the faces of the aspiring clerks who had greeted me with so broad a welcome.

‘What Mr Waugh means,’ said the teacher, ‘is that English is very simple really. You will not learn all the words. You can make your meaning clear if you know a few of them.’

The students brightened a little. I left it at that.

.
-- Evelyn Waugh, A Tourist in Africa.

[Polybius]

"Turn the tide? That's impossible--cultural dominance trumps language elegance every time. As long as America produces the world's movies, TV shows, and books, English will be the predominant language."

Although to a lesser extent than the Romance languages, a great deal of modern English is also Latin based as a result of the Norman invasion.

In the above quote, look at all the words that have a Latin origin.

[Polybius]

Maybe so, but it is efficient. Next time you look at any document printed in several languages, take a look at the lengths of each translation. English is always the shortest.

Sometimes.

I used to come. I used to see. I used to conquer........English

Venia. Veia. Vencia................Spanish

[Tribune7]

ping

[radiohead]

I'm glad I took two years of high school Latin and regret not having taken Spanish.

I had 2 years of required Latin and 3 of Spanish in prep school. Still serves me well.

Even though I placed out of the foreign language requirement at Michigan, I liked languages and ended up taking German, Chinese, had a term of Old English at the University of London so I could read Beowulf in the original. (nerd alert) I'm teaching myself Danish now, kinda for fun, kinda for work. Glad I never took French!

[Temple Owl]

This must really upset the FRogs.

[VOA]

Glad I never took French!

The only moments of note in 2 years of high-school French:
1. Interations with the nice teacher (whose husband was a big-time police officer)
2. interactions with the other intelligent (and witty) fellow students who were
also DUPED into taking courses in "the language of diplmacy" (too bad our
parents didn't realize that English and Spanish were to become the functionally-useful
languages of the early 21st Century).
(with the variants of Chinese)
3. Learning to giggle aloud "Quelle suprise!" with other nerds.
4. Watching a few passable French film "classics" (that was held off until
the second year, as these cinematic classics actually made me think Adoph made
a mistake by not just unleashing the Luftwaffe on Paris.)

[hershey]

You said it.

[x]

Good fences make good neighbors. Somehow this makes me a little uneasy. It may make for a more peaceful world, which is all to the good. Perhaps it will spread "Anglosphere" values, also a positive thing. But I think many people are going to feel more lost in the world, without ties to older cultures. Some of them will likely fall prey to ideologies which claim to explain everything for them.

If we "Americanize" the world, it will take some time for us to rediscover who we are and what our place in the world will be. But if the English language and American culture do become dominant in the world, we'll probably have plenty of enemies, and that will give us some sense of purpose and unity.

[StACase]

Sometimes.
I used to come. I used to see. I used to conquer........English
Venia. Veia. Vencia................Spanish

A contrived example. Go out in the real world and compare the multi lingual instructions on any consumer product. English is always shorter.

[E Rocc]

It's a bit of a shame that an Latin-based language, like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, is not the predominant world language. Their grammatical rules are typically much more elegant.

Well perhaps if one of them had been this nation's predominant language, they would be.

-Eric

[ChicagoHebrew]

English is always the shortest.

Have you ever looked at Semetic languages like Hebrew or Arabic? Not only do they omit the "be" verb in the present tense, but they also don't have vowels written out. As a result, text in those languages is almost always shorter than English. Of course, they are horrifically complicated in other ways.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Spelling is a speedbump, not a hurdle. There are plenty of native English speakers on FR who get their spelling and grammar wrong, but still get their point across.

Amen to that. Furthermore, one does not even have to be able to spell in order to learn a language. Two years olds start to put it all together amazingly well without being able to read. Immersion is the way we all learn our first language.

I had a co-worker from Brazil whose wife wanted to learn to speak English because when he had guests visit him from the States she felt like she was missing out on something. So she found an instructor. The instuctor was Russian, and spoke absolutely no Portuguese. She, of course, spoke Portuguese and Spanish, but did not know any Russian. They did not have any common language between them. Within 6 months, she was highly conversational in English. It was amazing.

[StACase]

I think it's fair to compare English to other languages that use a silmilar alphabet. Comparisons with those that use script or characters is a stretch. Perhaps written out those that you refer to are more efficient. So I'd have to say that English is certainly one of the most efficient. Maybe it's not #1.