What is the next global lingua franca and why?

General discussion about learning languages

What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Arabic
1
2%
Esperanto (or any other conlang)
2
5%
French
1
2%
Hindi-Urdu
0
No votes
Malay/Indonesian
1
2%
Mandarin
12
29%
Portuguese
0
No votes
Spanish
7
17%
Russian
1
2%
Other (tell us in your answer)
16
39%
 
Total votes: 41

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AML
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What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby AML » Tue Nov 06, 2018 5:42 pm

As we all know, English is, for better or worse, the dominant global language right now and for the foreseeable future. But eventually this dominance will end, and some other language will dominate. I don't believe this new language will overtake English in our lifetimes, though.

My guess is Mandarin, because the Chinese are planning for long-term domination (on many levels - economic, politics, research, military, etc) like no other country.

FWIW, English/French/German are still the most studied in Europe, while Spanish and French are the most studied in the USA. Even in India, German, Spanish, and French appear to be the most popular outside of English.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:58 pm

New creoles like Cityspeak or Nadsat or an emergent language of the Instrumentality. Because language changes in use.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby Chung » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:01 pm

No, you got it all wrong.

It'll be Finnish. Book it.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby neumanc » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:34 pm

According to Nicholas Ostler, The Last Lingua Franca, after English machine translation will be the next lingua franca. There's also a video series about this on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a0-ck7Ns2fA.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby Kamlari » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:54 pm

Newspeak.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby Glossy » Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:03 pm

I’m guessing AI will either merge with humans or replace us a few decades from now. It will not communicate in what we’d recognize as language.
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby IronMike » Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:28 pm

Googletranslatish
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby rdearman » Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:31 pm

Assembly / machine code. I for one welcome our computer overlords
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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby patrickwilken » Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:45 am

It's all about the money...

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Re: What is the next global lingua franca and why?

Postby Cainntear » Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:13 am

‘I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.’ -- Albert Einstein somebody-or-other.

Similarly, I don't know what the next global lingua franca will be, but it will be written in mud with sticks.
Last edited by Cainntear on Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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