Does English risk being replaced?

Nichet   Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:35 am GMT
I dislike the sounds of Russian not a little.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:00 am GMT
Different does not make Russian harder. It takes 2 hours to learn, that's all.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:11 am GMT
«Different does not make Russian harder. It takes 2 hours to learn, that's all.»


Please, oh great language lord/lady of infinite linguistic wisdom, point me to the source of this easy Russian learning method. I would love nothing more than a 2-hour solution to speaking Russian. (rolleyes emoticon) GET REAL!

As for those who say Russian is not beautiful... :-O! I find the sounds in Russian to be so much more pleasing than those in Spanish ;-). I mean, Spanish has lovely sounds and all, but they are so simple that it takes away the uniqueness. I do not see learning a new writing system as much of a problem, especially since many people wouldn't actually have to learn a new one ;-). There's nothing like a velar affricate to get the day going on a good note (literally!) :-D




Jon
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:17 am GMT
Sorry, my message meant to say:

Different ALPHABET does not make Russian harder. It takes 2 hours to learn the ALPHABET, that's all.
Nichet   Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:44 am GMT
Anyway I find Russian can not be compared to Spanish in terms of sound.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:09 am GMT
As someone pointed out 3 messages above, since Spanish has such simple sounds the easiest among all mayor languages and yet it sounds so nice, it has way more chaces of overtaking English than Russian.
Jasper   Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:53 pm GMT
<<I ?nd the sounds in Russian to be so much more pleasing than those in Spanish >>

I agree. While I realize that beauty is subjective, to my ears, Spanish--particularly Castilian Spanish--is unbearably harsh.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:56 pm GMT
<<Oh, Russian is the least easy (or at least one of the leasr easy ones) language to learn among the European languages. I don't think it has any possibility of taking a lead. Spanish is quite likely.>>

I doubt it. Spanish is the language of the workers.

Russian might be difficult, but it had already reigned supreme in the Eastern Bloc for quite a few years. In terms of area, it "ruled" in probably a third of the world until 1990, when the Wall fell.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:42 pm GMT
Russian is the language of the workers... of the sex workers, at least in my country .
Jasper   Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:41 pm GMT
<<Russian is the language of the workers... of the sex workers, at least in my country .>>

This is true NOW, but I ask you to look at the bigger picture.

Russia has enormous oil reserves, and a relatively small population, ergo, the potential for vast wealth.

Russian as a language has already dominated the Eastern Bloc; if oil money helps Russia regain her prominence in the World, there's a very good possibility that Russian might become the world's lingua franca.

At this particular juncture, however, English is entrenched too deeply in the world's consciousness to be replaced. If it IS ever replaced as the world's language, it will take quite a bit of time--probably not in our lifetimes.
Guest   Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:53 pm GMT
There are many underdeveloped countries with big natural resources and low population, in fact this is usually the profile of most of them. German, Japan, Uk... none of them have natural resources in big quantities.

Russian is a regional language, but even in Eastern Europe it is losing importance since the USSR collapsed. Now every nation that belonged to the USSR in the past promotes their own language in detriment of Russian, no matter if there is an important Russian minority. For example, Moldova no longer uses Russian but Romanian, Ukrania does the same with their national language, and so on. Russian is the language of a vast country like Russia, but no more. Will Russia become a global power once again? I highly doubt it. Even when it was a superpower along with US, Russian didn't spread that much. Definitely, Russian is not an alternative to the dominance of English. They would better take care of not being invaded by China and end up speaking Chinese.
Guest   Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:25 am GMT
<<Russian is the language of the workers... of the sex workers, at least in my country . >>
Point taken!
Guest   Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:27 am GMT
<<Spanish is the language of workers>>

Really? you obviously don't know that Mexico, Argentina and Chile are almost developed countries with high HDI's not to mention Spain.
Guest   Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:35 am GMT
Russian is a language of lowly people. It simply cannot compare with our Western languages!
K. T.   Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:50 am GMT
I'm not a linguist (just a polyglot), but it seems to me that people who scorn the people of a certain culture are not likely candidates to learn the language of that culture.

When you write a masterpiece like Leo Tolstoy, please write back.