Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
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Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#2Leading off with a word long naturalized from Hebrew suggests that perhaps the English language has all along been letting the planet take it over.
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#3Leading off with a word long naturalized from Hebrew suggests that perhaps the English language has all along been letting the planet take it over.
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Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#4English is the de facto lingua franca, and the fact I can use that phrase and you all know what it means proves there’s no “taking over”, English is uniquely welcoming to others
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#5It is necessary that there should be a common global language that everyone speaks, in addition to their native tongue. It might as well as be English rather than any other language. The other options are Spanish, French, Hindi, Chinese, or Arabic. It makes little difference as each of these are not going extinct any time soon.
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#6My unsuccessful forays into foreign language learning have convinced me also that none are as simple and logical as our own beautiful language, English, innit?
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#7If you're interested in this topic, you might like this podcast: http://historyofenglishpodcast.com
It's a very interesting version of history as it relates specifically to the english language.
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#8English is the de facto lingua franca, and the fact I can use that phrase and you all know what it means proves there’s no “taking over”, English is uniquely welcoming to others
> English is the de facto lingua franca
The fact that the idiom you picked there uses Latin to tell us that English is like French tells you everything you need to know about this status. It's ephemeral in the long term.
I don't know what our grandkids' children will be speaking. It certainly could be English or Mandarin. But languages change, even on this scale. Certainly there's economic value in having a universal language (and a social loss when languages fall into disuse, for that matter), but IMHO that's as far as it goes.
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#9Considering that English has basically emerged as a "pidgin" languages, taking elements from the languages of various peoples coming to the islands -- Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, French etc -- and being simplified in the process, it's only logical that it is adopted far more easily than other languages with even more speakers -- Chinese, Hindi, Arabic -- or that were expanded around the globe in a similar fashion -- French, Spanish.
Re: Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
#10My unsuccessful forays into foreign language learning have convinced me also that none are as simple and logical as our own beautiful language, English, innit?
English grammar has a lot of exceptions. Personally I think Spanish is much simpler than English, and has a much more logical spelling system as well. The main complexity Spanish introduces over English is the subjunctive mood , which is less complex than the many fine details of the English language, IMO (such as learning how to use the word "do" as a helping verb). The English language actually does still have the subjunctive mood, but it is used in a more limiting set of circumstances (If I were you...)