World languages

Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:38 am GMT
<< Sorry Parisien but small world languages don't exist. Don't lie to yourself, French language is irrelevant nowadays .>>

Don't hallucinate because even if Chinese and Spanish have large number of native speakers but French has far more secondary speakers than two worldwide minus so the two plays a far less important role in international arena.

English and French are the only 2 global languages. Next in importance is Russian.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:41 am GMT
<< Belgium, Switzerland , Monaco and Luxembourg are a territorial continuum with respect to France (it happens the same with Germanophone areas in Europe ) and the fact that there are some pockets of French speakers in Canada, concentrated in Quebec, does not make French an international language. >>

But French is very strong in those countries and you haven't mentioned Francophone Africa where the number of native French speakers is growing.

Even though Spanish and Chinese have large number of speakers it doesn't make them international languages because they lack prestige. Actually German and Italian are more prestigious.
guesto   Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:15 am GMT
<< But French is very strong in those countries >>

You missed he point of the post you were replying to.

We'll see about French in Africa. It is surrounded by Arabic (a regional lenguage), English (the world languge) and the many Native languages of the African people. Also, the countries where is it offical are some of the poorest, most corrupt, and violent places in the world. Yes, they have high birth rates, but also high mortality rates, AIDS, and poor education.

I'm not doubting the presence of French in Africa. I'm just saying that French in Africa doesn't do much to help the overall strength of French and really isn't worth boasting about. English
SarkoYes   Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:01 am GMT
<<English and French are the only 2 global languages. Next in importance is Russian>>

Really do you think this?

Then Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Haiti, Gabon, Djibouti or Chad are SUPER-POWER dominance in the world ?
Xie   Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:49 pm GMT
>>>Even though Spanish and Chinese have large number of speakers it doesn't make them international languages because they lack prestige. Actually German and Italian are more prestigious.<<<

If I were an admin of this site, I would probably get more dictatorial and say discussions about this topic should be banned or locked, esp. since they tend to be rather repetitive. In my own words, many of you are more like talking ABOUT how to talk about languages, rather than just languages.

Every place has its own native languages, and whatever they are, and no matter how popular or unpopular they are elsewhere, you simply can't EVER say you can conquer the world as a tourist with only one language. English is just as international as all others you can call international languages. Statistics aside, even though the knowledge of all others is rather exclusive, at least in my cultural circle, English in a non-native area, again at least in my place, is tasteless and merely auxiliary. There is nothing on earth as prestige.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:54 pm GMT
<< We'll see about French in Africa. It is surrounded by Arabic (a regional language), English (the world languge) and the many Native languages of the African people. Also, the countries where is it offical are some of the poorest, most corrupt, and violent places in the world. Yes, they have high birth rates, but also high mortality rates, AIDS, and poor education. >>

There you go again! Since when did the Arabic language surrounded the French language in Africa when the former is just confined in Northern Africa and even there it has to compete with French?

<< I'm not doubting the presence of French in Africa. I'm just saying that French in Africa doesn't do much to help the overall strength of French and really isn't worth boasting about. English >>

And English without the US is useless too.
L'italofilo   Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:05 pm GMT
<And English without the US is useless too.>


Re: Without US, English is still of great help.
Without UK, English is still of great help.
Without US & UK, English will be of little help.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:41 pm GMT
French is not the most learned language in US, and French Africa is irrelevant economically speaking.
Guesto   Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:25 am GMT
<< And English without the US is useless too. >>

OK. And French without France is useless too.

(Actually you would have to say without the US and UK.)

You didn't defend your position. I said that Africa doesn't do much to help French. Then you responded with a hypothetical statement about the US not existing, which is meaningless becuase the US DOES EXIST. Think of a new arguement if you can.
Guest   Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:18 am GMT
What about Australia? It's a big country with low population, but it could receive much more like US did (and does) and replace US as the biggest Anglophone country assuming US dissapeared. But French only has France.
Guesto   Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:20 am GMT
<< and replace US as the biggest Anglophone country assuming US dissapeared >>

Well, that's assuming an awful lot, don't you think? ;)
Guest   Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:02 am GMT
Yeah, man! What if Godzilla came over and took out Sydney, then what, man? Idda be Jap-pan-nese then, and what if Elvis was found and teamed up with Jackie Chan, what would happen then? They'd take over Owlstrailia and see- it ain't gonna happen, so get back to one of the good topics.

A. I speak Phlibatan, a very rare romance language that even greg and Mallorqui don't know. What's the lexical similarity with Italian and will it take me longer than thirty/trente days to learn? I'm lazy, by the way. Thankx.

B. I think only France and German are world culture languages. Please join me in my narrow views at a soon to be created "International" forum for all people who like Nordic languages and think French is also a Germanic language.

C. I think Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Latvian, and Limburgish must be alike because of the letter "L". Am I crazy?
Guest   Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:17 am GMT
A. Phlibatan. No such langauge exists. I

B. Germanic is not a French language.

C. Limburgish is in limbo not to be learnt.
Guest   Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:20 am GMT
A. It's a joke. I think some people insert jokes in here occasionally.
B. I agree!
C. Nor eaten, wait! That is Limburger.
Bill   Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:03 pm GMT
<<English and French are the only 2 global languages>>

Also portuguese is a global language ( spoken in america, europe, and africa), and it far out-ranks french in number of speakers.