# Will the whole world eventually speak (American) English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 17, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531 "2017-07-17T21:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/62 "2017-07-19T18:17:10Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I was speaking specifically of the language of the Angles and Saxons. Of course if you extend it to mean all Germanic tribes it becomes unremarkable, just as it would become even more unremarkable if you extended it to all tribes which spoke Indo-European languages. You completely missed my point by interpreting tribe/tribes as _all_ Germanic tribes rather than two of them. He didn’t miss your point. He was reducing it to absurdity. English is no more the language of a small Germanic tribe than Spanish is the language of the Romans. The majority of English words come from Latin or French, anyway. Germanic words make up just over a quarter of our vocabulary, and our grammar and syntax are largely distinct from Old English. We don’t even use the same alphabet that the Angles and Saxons did. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/63 "2017-07-19T21:25:53Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > I predict that long before the whole world has adopted English as first language will AI have made learning foreign languages obsolete. Our computers and smartphones will do all translation for us. Even without computer advances I see no plausible trend toward everyone in the world speaking English as their _first_ language. Also slight changes in accent or vocabulary among/between the English speaking countries is fairly minor IMO. And it’s not all in one direction. Some Brit-isms are notably more common now in American English than they used to be. The question in my mind is whether English’s dominance as a second language and world lingua franca declines. It might, and if so tech will be the reason, not Chinese. OTOH Chinese to establish itself in the position now held by English would be competing against better and better, easier and easier device translation, which English never had to, besides being more difficult to speak reasonably intelligibly. I think the world linqua franca will remain English to the extent there is one, but the degree to which there is one will decline as machines make it so easy to translate, and accurately enough in enough situations, that mass foreign language education gradually becomes less worthwhile an investment of students’ time, even in relatively small language communities. Of course some people will always study foreign languages and perhaps a much larger number of non-Chinese outside China will study Chinese, at least a little bit, than have in the past. But Chinese IMO will never become what English is now. Also note if not obvious that ‘Mandarin’ refers mainly to a spoken language. The bulk of ‘second language’ speakers of Mandarin are either Han Chinese whose native spoken ‘language’ is another dialect of Chinese and whose first written language of education is the same, or else ethnic/language minority groups in 90%+ and totally Han dominated China. People beyond China having anywhere as much reason to learn Chinese en mass as ethnic minorities in China do now is very unlikely IMO. And as of now the number of people who speak Chinese but don’t live in China or aren’t ethnic Chinese is comparatively tiny, nowhere near as close to English as it appears at first glance in the Wiki table. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/64 "2017-07-20T08:20:11Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I was speaking specifically of the language of the Angles and Saxons. Yes, that would be why I said “one branch of”. My point stands. > [@](#): > > You completely missed my point by interpreting tribe/tribes as _all_ Germanic tribes rather than two of them. Everyone always forgets the [Jutes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutes#Settlement_in_southern_Britain)… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/65 "2017-07-20T11:14:12Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > It certainly won’t be the whole world as long as France keeps their protective attitude about the French language–and that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon. The OP didn’t ask if everybody would speak American English exclusively, but whether we’d speak it. I don’t think so. On one hand, there are many people who never bother with a foreign language except for school (if there), because they simply do not need one; on the other, people need a minimum level of proficiency in a language before they can be said to speak a given dialect of it. Many people say “ok” to express approval, do their “checkín” to ship their luggage or have their car on “renting”, but that doesn’t mean they speak English - it means their language has acquired those anglicisms. They wouldn’t be any more capable of having a conversation in American English than their American counterparts who took 3 years of Spanish in High School can have one in Argentinian Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/66 "2017-07-20T12:31:07Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > The numbers would disagree with you ([link to wiki article on World’s largest empires)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires), Hmm, no : those numbers list empires by land area. Not very relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/67 "2017-07-20T13:33:56Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Hmm, no : those numbers list empires by land area. Not very relevant. The British Empire also covered 23% of the world’s population. You’re tilting at windmills here. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/68 "2017-07-20T13:50:20Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I don’t see how this follows, to be honest. English has pretty much already taken over the world (1.5 billion people speak it fluently already, depending on how you define ‘fluently’ I guess). It doesn’t have to be every person’s primary language for it to take over, just has to be a common language that people around the globe know and use to communicate with each other when they don’t know each other’s native language…which it is already and will become more so in the future. Right, I mean English is actually already quite common as a “shared second language” that people with different primary languages use to communicate. There isn’t anything analogous with Mandarin to the 45 countries where more than half the residents can speak English, or places like India where over 100m people speak English. Most people who speak Mandarin outside of China you’ll find in places like Malaysia, where there has long been an ethnic Chinese enclave, or in the wider Chinese diaspora (which numbers 50m+) where they still speak Chinese but along with their local national language. I think there’s a real chance that more than 50% of the world will some day be able to speak English with “some fluency”, but I don’t think English is ever going to be a universal language or anything. There’s no reason to assume the French or Germans or any number of other countries ever lose or stop speaking their native language, nor is there much reason we’d _want_ them to; by its nature a _lingua franca_ doesn’t have to be a language people speak as their primary language and many countries embrace the concept of learning languages as part of primary education. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/69 "2017-07-20T13:53:15Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > There are some slight differences, but I agree with you that most Canadians do not have accents that are instantly noticeable. Words like “sorry” and “progress” are sometimes pronounced differently though. > > Either way, Canadian English is definitely part of the same family as the US dialects. It has a lot in common with the American English spoken in the Western and North Central regions. It can be hard even when a Canadian speaks some of the words that they often have an accent for, because at least to this Southerner’s ear some of those cases are also similar to how people in Wisconsin or Minnesota pronounce things so I wouldn’t immediately assume the person is Canadian. I wouldn’t be shocked if a Minnesotan or a Canadian might note a difference, but I couldn’t usually distinguish. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/70 "2017-07-20T13:57:43Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > The spread of the English is much less surprising than the spread of the Arabic or even the Roman language. They all spread for the same reason. I’m not sure why one is more surprising than the other. By far, the one with the most impressive track record is Latin, but in fairness, it’s the oldest. In a thousand years we’ll see how English is faring. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/71 "2017-07-20T14:05:19Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > It can be hard even when a Canadian speaks some of the words that they often have an accent for, because at least to this Southerner’s ear some of those cases are also similar to how people in Wisconsin or Minnesota pronounce things so I wouldn’t immediately assume the person is Canadian. I wouldn’t be shocked if a Minnesotan or a Canadian might note a difference, but I couldn’t usually distinguish. While that may be true for the majority of Canadians, there’s still a very distinct accent from Newfoundlanders, some British Columbians, Québécois, and Northern indigenous people. I have noticed, no doubt due to the influence of television, that my daughter pronounces “sorry” the American way. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/72 "2017-07-20T14:36:19Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > They all spread for the same reason. I’m not sure why one is more surprising than the other. > > By far, the one with the most impressive track record is Latin, but in fairness, it’s the oldest. In a thousand years we’ll see how English is faring. The spread of Arabic is quite surprising since it happened mostly _after_ Arabs had ceased to be a major political power. During their heyday the language of administration and then the prestige language was Persian. It with be if in a few hundred years, the language of the Middle East and most of Central Europe was Turkish. A language which has suffered a relatively recent precipitous decline is probably Farsi/Persian. There was a time, not 150 years ago that it was widely spoken from the bay of Bengal almost the Atlantic Ocean and almost all the way to Central Asia. Even a 100 years ago it was much more widely spoken than it is today. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/73 "2017-07-20T15:12:10Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The spread of Arabic is quite surprising since it happened mostly _after_ Arabs had ceased to be a major political power. During their heyday the language of administration and then the prestige language was Persian. > > It with be if in a few hundred years, the language of the Middle East and most of Central Europe was Turkish. > > A language which has suffered a relatively recent precipitous decline is probably Farsi/Persian. There was a time, not 150 years ago that it was widely spoken from the bay of Bengal almost the Atlantic Ocean and almost all the way to Central Asia. > Even a 100 years ago it was much more widely spoken than it is today. Yea the decline of Persian is particularly remarkable. As you point out it was a prestige language through most of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. I guess the decline of Greek, with the slow shrinkage of the Byzantine Empire, would be comparable. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/74 "2017-07-20T15:44:55Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Yea the decline of Persian is particularly remarkable. As you point out it was a prestige language through most of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. > > I guess the decline of Greek, with the slow shrinkage of the Byzantine Empire, would be comparable. And French. There was a time when any educated Westerner would be expected to know French. And I think that could apply to much of MENA, too. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/75 "2017-07-20T16:18:26Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > While that may be true for the majority of Canadians, there’s still a very distinct accent from Newfoundlanders, some British Columbians, Québécois, and Northern indigenous people. > > I have noticed, no doubt due to the influence of television, that my daughter pronounces “sorry” the American way. My exposure to Newfies/Indigenous peoples is basically zero, I’d have to YouTube what they sound like in Canada. It’d go without saying that the Francophone Canadians would speak English with an accent, but I think people were talking about Anglo Canadians in terms of having a distinct a ccent. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/76 "2017-07-20T16:20:45Z")
It’ll be interesting how technology affects all of this. The internet I think is such a shift in how we communicate that it’s going to entrench English even more as an international language even if America declines (which I repeat isn’t really happening), but with enough technological advances I could imagine a time when we won’t even need a common language. Right now automated translation services tend to be pretty horrible, especially when converting from say a Germanic language like English to an Asian tonal one like Vietnamese, but there’s no reason to assume software won’t eventually be able to do it seamlessly. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/77 "2017-07-20T18:07:38Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > My exposure to Newfies/Indigenous peoples is basically zero, I’d have to YouTube what they sound like in Canada. It’d go without saying that the Francophone Canadians would speak English with an accent, but I think people were talking about Anglo Canadians in terms of having a distinct a ccent. Here is an [interesting clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjW3rSZ6Ovs). The news anchor sounds typically middle Canadian, the reporter has a bit of an east coast accent, and the folks being interviewed are typical Newfoundlanders. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/78 "2017-07-20T19:40:05Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Here is an [interesting clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjW3rSZ6Ovs). The news anchor sounds typically middle Canadian, the reporter has a bit of an east coast accent, and the folks being interviewed are typical Newfoundlanders. I could understand the anchor and the reporter just fine, though they had distinctly different accents, but hardly understood a word from the first interviewed local, the blond guy with the striped shirt. Granted, I’m not a native speaker, but this happens to me with some German accents too, for instance I’m not able to understand some variants of Palatine. Same with this guy’s accent. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/79 "2017-07-20T20:19:51Z")
> [@Shearer](#): > > Nope. Why wouldn’t we be seeing it already, India produces more movies than anybody and China has the second biggest economy. Yet virtually none of their pop culture is exported globally. Both are just seriously…uncool … You think that India is not exporting the Indian pop culture?? What a insular thing to say. The bollywood movies are hugely popular around the world, extremely in the developing markets. Of course for the Americans and similar they are not exposed, but what percentage of the world population are they? > [@RickJay](#): > > They all spread for the same reason. I’m not sure why one is more surprising than the other. > > By far, the one with the most impressive track record is Latin, but in fairness, it’s the oldest. In a thousand years we’ll see how English is faring. As AK84 says: [quote=“AK84, post:72, topic:791531”] The spread of Arabic is quite surprising since it happened mostly _after_ Arabs had ceased to be a major political power. [quote] The replacement of the native arabic speaking dynasties by those speaking Turkish etc. > [@](#): > > A language which has suffered a relatively recent precipitous decline is probably Farsi/Persian. There was a time, not 150 years ago that it was widely spoken from the bay of Bengal almost the Atlantic Ocean and almost all the way to Central Asia. > Even a 100 years ago it was much more widely spoken than it is today. ?? Atlantic?? ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/80 "2017-07-20T20:53:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > And French. There was a time when any educated Westerner would be expected to know French. And I think that could apply to much of MENA, too. Russian would be a good example too. During the Soviet era there was a huge volume of scientific literature published in Russian, for example: that went into sharp decline with the collapse of the Soviet economy and subsequently the collapse of scientific funding. Russian also used to be a commonly taught second language in the Warsaw Pact states. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531/81 "2017-07-21T03:44:28Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Here is an [interesting clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjW3rSZ6Ovs). The news anchor sounds typically middle Canadian, the reporter has a bit of an east coast accent, and the folks being interviewed are typical Newfoundlanders. Wow that Newfie accent is unique, I’d never heard it before. It has elements of some really hard to understand Southern American dialects and some less “prestigious” British Isles dialects all kinda mushed together. I could actually understand them but it wasn’t easy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-whole-world-eventually-speak-american-english/791531.md?page=5)