Will English remain the lingua franca if China becomes what everyone says it will become?

[YuriVII]

Sorry, no article, just me thinking. The line of argument is Chinese will become world language because Chinese economic influence will overtake the US and the Anglo-sphere. Therefore, businessmen and diplomats will start using Chinese to communicate to each other.

My hypothesis is that it will not, because Chinese is extremely hard to learn and is unlike any other language outside of China, especially languages of other powers. Also, Chinese isn't really spoken outside of ethnic Chinese communities whereas English is the official language of many former colonies and is also in widespread use in India. In other words, it is not confined to native English speaking ethnicities like the English, Americans, Canadians...etc. There are other reasons besides the Victorian-era British power and the current American power that English is such a practical choice.

Also look at French, even when France declined so much in power after Napoleon's defeat and again in the Franco-Prussian war, French still remained the lingua franca (lol literally) in aristocratic and diplomatic circles.

Even before that it was Latin (at least for Europe and Mediterranean) almost a millennium after the fall of Rome.

I think, that even if China hypothetically eclipses the United States (or even the entire Anglo-sphere), English will still remain because of its universal spread across India, Africa, the North American continent and Oceania. Also, because it is a relatively easy language to learn...especially compared to Chinese.

What do you guys think?

[Hounf of Culan]

If anything English will actually continue to grow in importance as China grows, any aspriring chinese bussinessman will learn English, it's already so well established as the international business language.

[Claudius Gothicus]

Yes, especially because compared to Chinese for the majority of the western influenced population English is relatively easy.

[Theseus1234]

I think most of the world would have trouble adapting to a character-based system than a letter-based system. Not to mention that getting the little inflections right is hard as hell.

[YuriVII]

I think most of the world would have trouble adapting to a character-based system than a letter-based system. Not to mention that getting the little inflections right is hard as hell.

I'm a language-nerd. I tried with Mandarin and just gave up because of the characters. I mean they are the same thing as hieroglyphs really.

[Pious Agnost]

I think any displacement of the English language by Chinese would be made up for as India's standard of living increases and more people are taught English (It being one of their official languages)

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

Chinese is far to complex for most people to learn especially as a second language. English is (relatively) easy, aside from some odd spelling rules.

[roy34543]

Chinese is far to complex for most people to learn especially as a second language. English is (relatively) easy, aside from some odd spelling rules.

Yeah, its also pretty easy to understand english, I mean even if you wipe out half the words in a sentence you can usually get what someone is meaning , And even if the correct plural word for collusus is Collosi, noone will wonder what you mean when you say Collususes .

[Exarch]

Sorry, no article, just me thinking. The line of argument is Chinese will become world language because Chinese economic influence will overtake the US and the Anglo-sphere. Therefore, businessmen and diplomats will start using Chinese to communicate to each other.

My hypothesis is that it will not, because Chinese is extremely hard to learn and is unlike any other language outside of China, especially languages of other powers. Also, Chinese isn't really spoken outside of ethnic Chinese communities whereas English is the official language of many former colonies and is also in widespread use in India. In other words, it is not confined to native English speaking ethnicities like the English, Americans, Canadians...etc. There are other reasons besides the Victorian-era British power and the current American power that English is such a practical choice.

Also look at French, even when France declined so much in power after Napoleon's defeat and again in the Franco-Prussian war, French still remained the lingua franca (lol literally) in aristocratic and diplomatic circles.

Even before that it was Latin (at least for Europe and Mediterranean) almost a millennium after the fall of Rome.

I think, that even if China hypothetically eclipses the United States (or even the entire Anglo-sphere), English will still remain because of its universal spread across India, Africa, the North American continent and Oceania. Also, because it is a relatively easy language to learn...especially compared to Chinese.

What do you guys think?

whether or not a subject is hard or easy is...entirely subjective; just because one person finds studying chinese to be hard, doesnt mean it's encessarily the case.

in my experience, the major mistake ppl make when they try to learn Chinese is that they try to treat it like learning german or french or any of the romance languages; it's a completely different language system, and if people can't grasp this basic fact and change their learning processes accordingly then of course they're going to continue finding Chinese mandarin to be hard.

ppl also say organic chemistry is hard.

bull ,

they jsut havent gotten their heads around the concepts, and likewise, once you understand how chinese works, and grasp the patterns-and all languages have patterns-then you're set.

in fact, Chinese grammar is very very similar to english grammar and there are no tenses.

whether or not chinese mandarin will be more universalised remains to be seen, although mandarin classes are growing in popularity in the USa, Australia, russia and much of the world.

[hellheaven1987]

Whatever it is, I can speak both languages well so...

[Dodge]

Whatever it is, I can speak both languages well so...

Well? at most one...

[cenkiss]

whether or not a subject is hard or easy is...entirely subjective; just because one person finds studying chinese to be hard, doesnt mean it's encessarily the case.

in my experience, the major mistake ppl make when they try to learn Chinese is that they try to treat it like learning german or french or any of the romance languages; it's a completely different language system, and if people can't grasp this basic fact and change their learning processes accordingly then of course they're going to continue finding Chinese mandarin to be hard.

ppl also say organic chemistry is hard.

bull ,

they jsut havent gotten their heads around the concepts, and likewise, once you understand how chinese works, and grasp the patterns-and all languages have patterns-then you're set.

in fact, Chinese grammar is very very similar to english grammar and there are no tenses.

whether or not chinese mandarin will be more universalised remains to be seen, although mandarin classes are growing in popularity in the USa, Australia, russia and much of the world.

Who says organic chemistry is hard?

I think turkish should be the lingua franca.It is easy with basic rules that are always the same.Letters are always read the same.But turks have no big influence.

[Spartan90]

It won't for this one reason: Sure, China may eclipse America for the title of number one superpower, but the international language of all business is English, not just in America. This includes the EU, India - hell, even China.

While the majority of business and money is made in English speaking countries (America, UK), or where English is a very common second language (EU, India), Mandarin won't eclipse it any time soon.

And regardless, this is just hypothetical. China's economy is so fragile and unstable that it may, and most probably will collapse soon. Until all of us are old men and dirty pervets, America will still be up the top, even in China's best case scenario.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

Perhaps the languages will, over the course of time and China remains a dominant superpower, be amalgamated. Whether that means merely latinised chinese words representing english phrases, or the actual use of chinese characters, I don't know.

I do know that their will be full compatibility with chinese scripts and internet browsers in the future. No more of those square boxes

[MathiasOfAthens]

A map of the Sinophone world.
Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ne...hone_World.PNG
Countries identified Chinese as a primary, administrative, or native language
Countries with more than 5,000,000 Chinese speakers w/ or w/o recognition
Countries with more than 1,000,000 Chinese speakers w/ or w/o recognition
Countries with more than 500,000 Chinese speakers w/ or w/o recognition
Countries with more than 100,000 Chinese speakers w/ or w/o recognition
Major Chinese speaking settlements

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

How do you interpret that Mathias? Because, taking the US as an example, sure, it may show up as part of the 'sinosphere', but even if 5,000,0000 speak chinese (which they don't apparently), that means one in 70 speak chinese. Hardly even a large minority.

[MathiasOfAthens]

How do you interpret that Mathias? Because, taking the US as an example, sure, it may show up as part of the 'sinosphere', but even if 5,000,0000 speak chinese (which they don't apparently), that means one in 70 speak chinese. Hardly even a large minority.

I dont think Chinese will become the dominant language. Unless something unforeseen down the line weakens the United States. As long as the US is at the top or the leading Hegemonic power then Chinese will simply remain in second place. But it could go Russian too... Language of choice usually depends on the global power at the top or ease of learning. For a long time Latin was the dominating language through western Europe. After that it was French and then came English.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Sorry, no article, just me thinking. The line of argument is Chinese will become world language because Chinese economic influence will overtake the US and the Anglo-sphere. Therefore, businessmen and diplomats will start using Chinese to communicate to each other.

My hypothesis is that it will not, because Chinese is extremely hard to learn and is unlike any other language outside of China, especially languages of other powers. Also, Chinese isn't really spoken outside of ethnic Chinese communities whereas English is the official language of many former colonies and is also in widespread use in India. In other words, it is not confined to native English speaking ethnicities like the English, Americans, Canadians...etc. There are other reasons besides the Victorian-era British power and the current American power that English is such a practical choice.

Also look at French, even when France declined so much in power after Napoleon's defeat and again in the Franco-Prussian war, French still remained the lingua franca (lol literally) in aristocratic and diplomatic circles.

Even before that it was Latin (at least for Europe and Mediterranean) almost a millennium after the fall of Rome.

I think, that even if China hypothetically eclipses the United States (or even the entire Anglo-sphere), English will still remain because of its universal spread across India, Africa, the North American continent and Oceania. Also, because it is a relatively easy language to learn...especially compared to Chinese.

What do you guys think?

Keep in mind diplomatic language is not linked to real power. Latin remained the language of diplomacy, science and often trade centuries after the demise of Rome and any Latin speaking powers. China also lacks a single dominating language, unlike Victorian England, where Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gallic were already reduced to the fringes. English is also entrenched, widespread, and literally on China's doorstep and in numbers: India most notably, and China's rival for English dominance and then the small but significant cities of Hong Kong and Singapore. Then it's not far from the Americanised Japan, Australia, New Zealand and of course Great Satan itself.

At the same time the Chinese Middle Classes are increasingly educated in British and American universities, gaining real working knowledge of English whereas knowledge of Mandarin remains a specialism in the west, or limited to immigrant communities.

The intelligent question will be how will English itself change with increasing interaction with China?

[Poach]

The intelligent question will be how will English itself change with increasing interaction with China?

The letter "R" will become far more common in spoken words, while the letter "L" will all but die out?

[CarbEast]

While English might not remain the lingua franca in future(who knows?), Chinese is very unlikely to be the successor. The reason is not that Chinese scripture is so difficult to learn (even though it is quite a mnemonic challenge), but how cumbersome it is for typing in modern digital environment.