far future Re: dialects and languages

[Dan Goodman]

Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
> I would suspect in this age of global communication, only a few
> languages will survive in the far future.

I think you need to allow for 1) the effects of settlement beyond Earth,
2) language revival (a mere hundred years ago, how likely did the
revival of Hebrew as a living language seem?), 3) splintering of
languages (if the Latin-speaking population of Europe had continued to
speak reasonably good Latin, rather than the dialects which became
French, Spanish, etc., there would be considerably fewer European
languages).

If it comes down to one, English is a good bet. Half the books in the
world are written in English. Ninety-five percent of the scientific
journals are in English.

In a mere century or so, they might be written in Chinese or Portuguese.

That's why I think it especially necessary to develop an English based
phonetics.

Which should, of course, be based on English as spoken in India.


--
Dan Goodman
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Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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