This question came to my mind because I live in a predominantly Western World where most news, media, and information align with what the United States is doing (and saying). Almost all movies on television are from Hollywood, and major news channels are broadcasting similar things as you can see on CNN and NBC.
Virtually all music is recorded in English, even though the singer does not speak native English.
Now you may ask – ok, but what does that have to do with the topic of this post. Well, there won’t be any impact for everyone who is currently born, but if we think about the not-so-distant future (say 1000 years), things could get “complicated.”
Note that this hypothesis or argument can also be made about the Chinese group of languages. Nonetheless, let’s dive into more details as the “final” language is not important; the important part is the argument that perhaps in the future, one language will prevail.
First, we need to note that data concerning the number of people who speak English in the world is somehow unreliable. However, even with the ballpark number, we can see the trend. One trend is related to the number of native speakers, and one is associated with the overall number of people who can speak English and understand it, but it’s not their native/primary language.
In the world, it is estimated that there are around 360 million native English speakers. Countries with a majority of native English speakers are as follows: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
English Speaking Countries
On the other hand, the list of countries where English is an official language (or one of the official languages) is much longer: Botswana, Cameroon, Fiji, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Now that’s a pretty significant number of countries. Yet in how many countries do people speak and understand English really well, and how many people in the whole world can speak English?
There are different calculations. However, most statisticians agree that around 2 billion or 1/4 of world inhabitants speak English. That makes English the most prominent language by the number of speakers.
Good enough, but one would say this is far away from the overall world population of 8 billions. And indeed, it is very far. However, in just a couple of hundred years, many things could change.
For sure, English currently appears to be in an unassailable position in the modern world to become a global language where most of the world population will speak some form of it.
In the Middle Ages, Latin seemed to be set as the language of education and culture, as did French in the 18th Century. But circumstances change, and several factors might precipitate such a change once again but this time in favor of English winning not just the battle but the whole war.
I already mentioned some of these circumstances: Hollywood, movies, music, news, propaganda, et cetera…
So, let’s imagine that the current trend and English/Western propaganda continues for additional 200 or 300 years. Everybody will probably have devices (potentially implanted) that will translate languages instantly.
Those devices are available already, but they are not yet widespread. The majority of games, television, and music will be in English. Babies will be born and bombarded by the English language (as they are currently by bizarre cartoons). Now imagine that politicians worldwide agree that one government is the only solution to current problems.
Then that one-world government needs to speak the same language. The first choice would then probably be English.
Many countries and languages would for sure fight against the official usage of English for years and years. But as more and more schools open where English is the official language, more people and more governments would decide that the simplest way to continue living is to use the English language as a baseline.
Distant Future Predictions
If that happens to 80% of the population (or even 60%), then the war is over – the English language has won. Looking at an even more distant future, say 1000 years, probably no one will even remember any other languages. Maybe even English will not exist then, as some kind of machine language will prevail.
Potentially with technologies like Musk’s Neuralink, we will not even speak since we will possibly have the capability to read each other’s minds in one way or another. Not my words; Elon Musk indicated that in one conversation.
And it’s not that this is not happening already in some way.
Remember when people talked in person for hours or even on the telephone. Now, this is mostly gone. Everybody is typing on their mobile phones, even when they are sitting together in a bar.
The language used in those typing sessions is becoming more and more poorly written, with the combination of thousands of silly memes and words. Continuation of this trend could very well lead to a universal language.
Many languages are now forgotten, and perhaps many more will be.
Young people in the year 2500 will probably learn in their history books about some archaic languages such as Croatian, Norwegian, or Choctaw. Ok, the latter one, traditionally spoken by the Native American Choctaw people of the southeastern United States, is already mostly forgotten.
But that only adds to the point I’m trying to make. One thing is certain; the language map will undoubtedly change. And with current globalization trends, this will be in favor of two to three languages.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the question of whether the world will ever speak one language is a complex and evolving narrative. Current trends in globalization and technological advancement suggest a gradual movement toward linguistic convergence. English, as a global lingua franca, plays a pivotal role in this process, facilitated by the rapid dissemination of information across borders. The rise of artificial intelligence and machine translation will further accelerate the breakdown of linguistic barriers, creating a more interconnected global community.
Nevertheless, the preservation of cultural diversity and the emotional ties to native languages pose significant challenges to the idea of a single global language. History teaches us that languages evolve and adapt, often influenced by practical utility and societal needs.
While predicting a specific timeline for a universal language is uncertain, the signs of linguistic shifts are already present in today’s world. The future may witness a coexistence of one or a few dominant languages.
Which languages will hold that position, we cannot know, but as stated at the beginning of the article, there is a good possibility that English and the Chinese group of languages will be on the throne.
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