The 8 "imperial" Languages

Jr   Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:23 am GMT
Imperio romano era la lengua 'imperial'..... hoydia, solamente es una (lengua) obra citada para todos. Todavia existe dentro las lenguas romances y en otras varias lenguas. El alfabeto latino ha sido una referencia; para casi todas las lenguas del mundo. No obstante "el imperio romano y su lengua" era y siempre sera la lengua que sobrevivio mas que otras y tambien su cultura sobrevive.

Ego sum latinum, et sum felix de esso.
JR   Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:18 am GMT
Si, enverdad la gran lengua imperial es la lengua de los Romanos. Tal vez veremos si lo que hablan aqui nuestros amigos Chinos, del poder de China, sera capaz de sobrepasar el imperio linguistico mas poderoso que el mundo ha visto.
wired   Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:40 pm GMT
I was actually looking for some information concerning the influence of American English on the grammatical structure of German, when I accidently came across this forum.

The subject here is the eight imperial languages and their defining criteria. One other aspect could be considered: an emperial language, in order to be successful, must not be generally associated with a dominant ethnic, religious or cultural group. Otherwise, it won't expand beyond that defining group. English and French are strong in overcoming predefined groups. English also welcomes foreign words; it would be impossible to "purify".

Also, a language must be easily adaptable to the digital age. For example, it must have few characters/ letters, a trait of Indo-European languages. (Iran could change their writing system easily, as Turkey had done, although Turkish is not IE.)

My own observations (American/European perspective): Russian is being rapidly replaced in Eastern Europe by English as a second language. The other imperial languages are here to stay, but won't expand beyond their associated ethnic/ religious groups. None of them accept foreign words on such a scale as English. Economically speaking, I haven't seen products exported world-wide from e.g. China, India or Arabic countries, that are identified without using English.

Well, that's my contribution.
Benjamin   Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:19 pm GMT
Going back to what was said before about an apparent 'economic influence' of the US and the UK...

I really doubt that the current popularity of learning English as a second language in non-anglophone European countries has very much to do with the UK these days, except perhaps in France and some of the other countries nearby. Instead, I think that it primarily because of America. English is the most learned foreign language amongst children in Poland today, over both German and Russian. But I cannot imagine that English is popular due to a perceived 'economic influence' (or any other kind of influence) of the UK there over that of Germany. I'm sure that the main reason by far is the US.
English Teacher in China   Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:19 am GMT
I believe English is being taught/learned in China moztly because 80% of them all want to immigrate to Vancouver, thus because of Canada, not the US or the UK. ;-)
Ooops   Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:21 am GMT
a typo:

"mozt" LEGE "most"

(And how else would you, anyway?)
Guest   Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:29 am GMT
Spanish should be the second official language of the united states in much the same way that french is in canada. 20 percent of american in the usa have some command of the language.
greg   Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:59 am GMT
C'est vrai. Et de plus l'espagnol est historiquement une langue du sud-ouest états-unien.
knewman   Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:37 pm GMT
Brennus Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:26 pm GMT
The British and Americans together have had a cumulative effect of spreading English around the world but the United States appears to be the main engine that sustain's it today.

Unfortunately, many foreigners are attracted to the U.S. and American things only because of the country's strong economy and high living standards. If the United States were to go back to the living standards of 125 years ago for some reason, this would all come to a halt.



Sure! If china were to go back to the living standards of 200 years ago for some reason, the whole world would learn chinese instead of english.
Alicia   Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:12 pm GMT
Zhonghua Minguo Wansui! My political standpoint: "One country, different interpretations", per Ma Ying-jeou and the Kuomintang.

To all others here:

Heehee, here's my take on "imperial" languages :-p...

1. English: because there was a British Empire.
2. Chinese: because China was ruled by emperors.
3. Japanese: because there still is an emperor there.
4. German: don't forget the Kaiser.
5. Spanish: with Spain's former empire in the Americas.
6. Arabic: Umayadh (?) and Abbasid mediaeval empires.
7. Hindi: Hmm...Gupta Empire?
8. French: Well, there was l'empereur Napoléon.
9. Portugal: Hmm, hmm, not sure, but perhaps you could consider Brazil and Angola as parts of the "former Portuguese empire"?
10. Russia: The Tsar, the Tsar! Emperor of Russia!
11. Mongolian: Genghis Khan, anyone?

Any other empires, past or present? Oh yes, the Aztecs and the Incas, but are their languages still spoken?
Hmm,hmm   Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:00 pm GMT
9. Portugal: Hmm, hmm, not sure, but perhaps you could consider Brazil and Angola as parts of the "former Portuguese empire"?

You can find here a list of the lands of the Portuguese empire:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire
Javi   Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:32 am GMT
The Aztec and Inca languages are no longer spoken, I only know of countless decendants that arose from these spread throughout mostly in Peru, Ecuador and western Bolivia, and southern Mexico, Honduras and parts of Guatemala. Each language usually isnt spoken beyond the limits of its tribe.
Jeremy   Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:30 am GMT
A nice website to learn chinese : http://www.chinese-tools.com
Free online mandarin courses : http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese

And for those who just want to a chinese preview, name translation in chinese! http://www.chinese-tools.com/names !
Marinheiro   Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:54 pm GMT
Brazil itself was and still is a big Tropical Empire !
The biggest one !
It is and will be the world powerhouse of renewable energy !

Federative Republic of Brazil
Brazil is the major subunit of the Portuguese colonial empire, and remains today the fifth largest state in the world in terms of territory. 03,300,000 sq. miles (08,547,000 sq. km.)

Of Course Portuguese is the main language in South America and Portuguese is the language of all the Brazilian-South American borders and it is the businesse language in South America.

-------------
Brasil 200.000.000
Português do Brasil - A Principal Língua da América do Sul
Aldo   Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:46 pm GMT
<<It is and will be the world powerhouse of renewable energy ! >>

Sadly this will not last forever. Amazonia is being destroyed too fast. Scientists predict that in 50 or 100 years the largest tropical forest of the world could disappear. Only from 2001 to 2003 more than 40,000 squared kilometers were destroyed and the thing goes on.