language of 20th century?

Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:41 pm GMT
<<2050: English, Chinese, Spanish, probably. >>

More likely

2050: Chinese, Hindi, Arabic (or perhaps 2099)

The West should be pretty much gone as a cultural power by then.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:59 pm GMT
<< I agree with you about German and Japanese. But the fact that many French loanwords entered other languages in the past, in no way ensures that French will continue to be the 2nd most influencial lanuguage in the future...sorry. You can't base your assumption on the past because things have changed a lot in the last century. >>

I'm sorry to say too that Spanish did not become the 2nd most influentail language in the 20th century. Actually, it's competing with Russian and German, and Italian for the 3rd place but it failed to land on that place.

How can Spanish be influential when it has weak foundation in science, technology, literature and arts?
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:05 pm GMT
<< 1900: French, German, English

1950: English, French, Russian

1999: English, Spanish, French

2050: English, Chinese, Spanish, probably. >>

1999: English, French, Russian, and German

2050: English, French, Russian for sure.

How can Chinese be important when the Chinese themselves learn English, and to a lesser degree French, German, and Russian because they admit that their language is not that attractive to be studied by other people especially westerners? The same case applies to Spanish.

In 2050, all the Spanish speaking people will remain in the 3rd world because of the culture of corruption and technologically backward so the chances of Spanish to be studied is so remote.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:35 pm GMT
Argentina used to be very rich until many Italian and German migrants arrived and corrupted that country. I think that Argentina will be again a developed country since they are growing very fast. Buenos Aires is one of the biggest cities in the world and La Pampa is very fertile so Argentina has arable land enough to feed hundreds of millions of people. Remember also than Antarctica belongs to Argentina so this is the largest country. Argentina and Spain will conquer the world and everyone will speak Spanish.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:00 pm GMT
Antarctica belongs to no country. Claimers of this country:
Argentine, British, Chilean, Australia and Germany.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:41 pm GMT
<< 1900: French, German, English

1950: English, French, Russian

1999: English, Spanish, French

2050: English, Chinese, Spanish, probably. >>

1999: English, French, Russian, and German

2050: English, French, Russian for sure.

How can Chinese be important when the Chinese themselves learn English, and to a lesser degree French, German, and Russian because they admit that their language is not that attractive to be studied by other people especially westerners? The same case applies to Spanish.

In 2050, all the Spanish speaking people will remain in the 3rd world because of the culture of corruption and technologically backward so the chances of Spanish to be studied is so remote.
Omar, Dakar, Senegal   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:16 pm GMT
OMAR FROM SENEGAL !!!!

My case is special because I live in a French-speaking country but I HATE French. This is why I spend most of my time learning English. I notice that everything around me is English - the American films, the Internet, etc. I think the French and the Germans are JEALOUS, but they can't stop the influence of English in Europe because the USA dominate the world by their language - English.

Omar, Dakar, Senegal
Omar, Dakar, Senegal   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:17 pm GMT
OMAR FROM SENEGAL !!!!

My case is special because I live in a French-speaking country but I HATE French. This is why I spend most of my time learning English. I notice that everything around me is English - the American films, the Internet, etc. I think the French and the Germans are JEALOUS, but they can't stop the influence of English in Europe because the USA dominate the world by their language - English.

Omar, Dakar, Senegal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1490463.stm
Bright Oduri-nimo Accra,   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:26 pm GMT
I am in an area of the world where English is a second language due to our colonial heritage. However people here in Ghana do not see the all-conquering nature of English. Instead SPANISH which A minority of Ghanaians SPEAK AS A THIRD LANGUAGE HAS GAINED THE STATUS AS AN INTELLECTUAL LANGUAGE. I must say that the SPANISH FRENZY WILL CATCH ON AS TIME GOES ON, but English being our second language gives us a big advantage when it comes to international commerce, entertainment and the internet.
Bright Oduri-nimo Accra,   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:28 pm GMT
I am in an area of the world where English is a second language due to our colonial heritage. However people here in Ghana do not see the all-conquering nature of English. Instead SPANISH which A minority of Ghanaians SPEAK AS A THIRD LANGUAGE HAS GAINED THE STATUS AS AN INTELLECTUAL LANGUAGE. I must say that the SPANISH FRENZY WILL CATCH ON AS TIME GOES ON, but English being our second language gives us a big advantage when it comes to international commerce, entertainment and the internet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1490463.stm
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:29 pm GMT
I'd like to know about this. I understand that Spanish is popular in Ghana too. How did this happen?
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:32 pm GMT
While we are discussing Ghana, could you please tell me about the lexical similarity between common languages in your country and whether there are groups of languages that Ga speakers tend to learn in addition to English? For example, what languages would a native speaker of Ga be likely to know beyond English and perhaps Spanish.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:33 pm GMT
It's not true that Spanish is no spoken in Africa. Everywhere in the North African coast you can find people who speak Spanish, even in Egypt.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:37 pm GMT
Look, only foolish people think that Spanish is not a "world language"; whether is travels well is another matter. Of course, they speak it in the area of Spain that is actually in Africa-that small area, and I assume that some Moroccans speak it as well. As for the rest of the Mahgreb, I'm not sure. Egyptians speak whatever language they need.
huesped   Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:31 am GMT
<< I'm sorry to say too that Spanish did not become the 2nd most influentail language in the 20th century. Actually, it's competing with Russian and German, and Italian for the 3rd place but it failed to land on that place.

How can Spanish be influential when it has weak foundation in science, technology, literature and arts? >>

Um...I you read my post, you'll see that I didn't mention anything about Spanish. I was talking French alone. Don't be so paranoid.