Shall Sweden adopt "English" as official language?

Gaelic and Welsh will disappear because they live in a country where English is an official language and is taught in education (a sad fact, because they are the only Celtic tongues alive; I have only heard Welsh in real life once). Afrikaans is somewhat backed by the fact its are people struggling to survive, these people aren't willing to give away their culture.

Speakers of bigger languages don't understand how people of smaller languages don't struggle at all to speak in their native tongue, because they are used at being answered in English. We still speak our native tongue in every aspect of our lives, don't be confused about that...
English is the international language for communication purposes only, people don't want to replace their native tongue by it and throw away their own literature and poetry. It's funny how people openly dream of a world with one language and that bullcrap. Esperanto for instance also is meant for communication only, yet we also have Esperanist fanatics who dream about a ugly world where Esperanto is the only tongue spoken.

No I don't wanna throw away 1000 years of Dutch literature, and exactly no single Dutch speaker struggles using Dutch. Yes, we use English sentences now and then, but that's because we're enthusiastic about foreign tongues, we also use French and even Latin sentences like "des goûts et des couleurs on ne se discute pas" or "de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum", but English speakers also do that.

Silly people, and to say linguists come up with these absurd theories. There are even small languages that are growing, like Yiddish for instance; people predicted it'd be death soon, yet more people speak it everyday (yet alone orthodox Jews).
Especially people with superiour education in their native aren't in danger of losing their lanuage.

Dutch is one language that scores good on that. Only 20 million speak it, yet our Wikipedia is as big as the French one. Some Dutch articles about Ancient Roman leaders have more details than the English ones.

GLOBAL HEGEMONY OF ENGLISH: One dimension of the hegemony of English is the increasing use of anglicisms in other languages. That's a fact.

The same as the Gallicisms Anglo-Saxon adopted. Not a threat to a language. Dutch is full of Anglicisms, that's true. Dutch from the Netherlands more so than Belgian Dutch (not to be confused with Flemish which is spoken in Western and Eastern Flanders)

What about the Russian language?

>>Gaelic and Welsh will disappear because they live in a country where English is an official language and is taught in education (a sad fact, because they are the only Celtic tongues alive; I have only heard Welsh in real life once). Afrikaans is somewhat backed by the fact its are people struggling to survive, these people aren't willing to give away their culture.<<

Mind you that Welsh seems to actually be making a comeback these days... More people speak Welsh today than have ever spoken Welsh in the past, and these days kids throughout Wales are being taught Welsh as a primary language (rather than as a foreign language) regardless of whether their native language is Welsh or English...

A good evolution. I often meet Welsh autonomists on forums, but never knew how big in number they were. English chauvinists often dislike people from Welsh, I think it's because they still prefer their native tongue about English. :p

Guess Welsh has a better future than Gaelic has.

<<Several experts in languages say that there will be only some 20-25 languages in the year 2300.

If that is true, I doubt that Swedish will be one of them. They will probably speak English (or Arabic or Chinese, etc) but not Swedish>>

It is a common misconception that languages simply "die" and that the number of languages, therefore shrinks. There are thousands of different languages and, yes, some die over time just as two dialects become unintelligible over time. British English and American English continue to diverge, Mexican and Spanish Spanish continue to diverge, etc.

If, by some strange event, the entirety of the world all of a sudden spoke, for example, Estuary English, within 50 years there would be many dialects forming and after probably 100 years there would be unintelligible dialects.

<<and these days kids throughout Wales are being taught Welsh as a primary language (rather than as a foreign language) regardless of whether their native language is Welsh or English... >>

It's one thing for them to be taught it but something entirely different for them to speak it. Do children speak Welsh on the playground? Do teenagers speak Welsh with their friends? That's the difference between a language with and without a future.

<<What about the Russian language? >>

Russian is actually growing in importance. It is now spoken in 6 countries rather than 4.

>>A good evolution. I often meet Welsh autonomists on forums, but never knew how big in number they were. English chauvinists often dislike people from Welsh, I think it's because they still prefer their native tongue about English. :p

Guess Welsh has a better future than Gaelic has.<<

Definitely - both Irish and Scottish Gaelic are still in a steady decline, and have become quite marginal, while Welsh has effectively ended its decline; the vast majority of native speakers of Celtic languages today speak Welsh, while there are relatively limited numbers of native speakers of Irish and Scottish Gaelic in contrast, and they are limited to only the most remote areas of Ireland and Scotland.

>>It's one thing for them to be taught it but something entirely different for them to speak it. Do children speak Welsh on the playground? Do teenagers speak Welsh with their friends? That's the difference between a language with and without a future.<<

From what I know, Welsh is used actively in everyday life far, far more than, say, Irish, which, while being taught as a mandatory subject in Ireland, is not actually used much by the Irish on an everyday basis outside the Gaeltachtaí.

What's the biggest Welsh speaking city? Is there one or is it a rural language?

I would celebrate if English becomes an official language in Sweden. It is a mess that there are so many languages in Europe. There should be three of four at most: English, Spanish, German and Russian.

Welsh is still in a strong lively state. I live in a part of north Wales where I often hear and use the language. I sing in a male voice choir called 'Cor Meibion Maelgwn' whose only official language is Welsh.

I also speak Esperanto, and I recommend it stronlgy. I have just come back from an international holiday week in Plouezec (Pluezek), Brittany, where 150 people from France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, China all sang together chatted together and enjoyed tourism through the medium of Esperanto.

Are people actually fluent in Welsh? That is, can they express themselves in Welsh better than, or at least as well as, in English?

Wales is a strange miracle.
The country has long been an integral part of England for all practical purposes.
Unlike Scotland it wasn't a separate kingdom, nor had it its own Church. Unlike Scotland, Ireland or Brittany, there is no mych typical Celtic culture legacy like bagpipe bands and traditional dances.
And Welsh survives in much better shape than any other Celtic language!

The Irish have their own Republic, their distinctive Catholic Church, a lively popular culture, U2, a per capita GDP higher than UK's, it looks like this is enough for their national identity needs — and that consequently the Gaelic language can be dropped.

The Irish government is aiming to make Ireland a fully bilingual country within 20 years.