one world lingua??? (was Re: Genders (was Re: Ladan and woman's speak_)

In a message dated 2000/06/07 03:32:22 AM, Nik wrote:

>I've been thinking lately about that.  It does seem possible that at
>some point in the future, only one language will be spoken on Earth.
>English seems to be the most likely candidate, but Spanish has a good
>chance too, if Latin America becomes an economic superpower, or perhaps
>Swahili if Africa becomes a major economic power.
>
    Don't rule out Bahasa Indonesia (& Malay). Bahasa Indonesia has close to
30 million mothertongue speakers & almost that many non-native speakers. It
seems to be growing in influence as Indonesia becomes more & more developed.
    Malay has 160 million speakers (official language estimate).
    [note in re: to Africa & Swahili : the Malay/Indonesian peoples are more
unified linguistically, culturally, etc. in comparasion with the
tribal/neo-tribal Africans. If anything, I hope the multi-racial/multi-tribal
South Africans eventually take over all of Africa, create an "United
Confederation of African States & Tribes". IMHO I think an Afrikaans Pidgin
has a better chance of spreading in Africa than Swahili  (personal note: I
have relatives in South Africa & Zimbabwe & Egypt.)]

    But I think there will not be one single language
chosen/developed/evolved that will be a global lingua franca. There may be an
_auxiliary_ language & it seems English -or several variations & mutations of
English - are already steadily taking this position. . . for better &/or
worse (I won't simplify the situation, but English is an imperialistic tongue
- once a colonialist language, now it invades other cultures via commerce &
Pop Culture.
    BUT at the same time it is also one of the languages with the most
mutational varieties, i.e. ranging from BBC Standard English to Hindilish to
Tok Pisin).

    zHANg