World English (was: Fictional auxlangs as artlangs)

<deinx nxtxr> wrote:
[snip]
>
> Yes, English as a world standard will erode away even the bigger of the
> local languages over time as the local languages become less useful.  It's
> just a matter of how long it will take.
Welsh is still going well enough after some one and half millennia of
coexistence with English on this small island. If Welsh can manage it, I
don't see why others cannot (If I thought you & I would live long enough
I was hazard a sizable wager that there will still be Welsh speakers
about at the end of the current millennium).

> I'm betting on Spanish to have the
> longest staying power.
I see - altho there are far more speakers of Chinese and of Hindi than
there are of Spanish? Do you really think these people with their long
history will supinely give way to English? Also I find it very difficult
to imagine that the Arabic speaking world will simply keep Arabic for
reciting the Qur'an and use English among themselves as their daily
language.

No - I suspect the world will remain multilingual, tho the number of
languages will probably decline.

--
Ray
==================================
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
CENEDL HEB IAITH, CENEDL HEB GALON.
(A nation without a language is a
nation without a heart)
[Welsh proverb]

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