100 years: The EU has made English the default language across most of the union. Small nations went first as inter Union migration obliterated the ability for these countries to teach their local languages fast enough. Far right groups tried to preserve their languages, but they’ve largely been demoted to secondary status in their own communities to English, like Irish Gaelic. The last internal holdout is French, Spanish, and Portuguese as there is enough external demand of the language. French language law mirrors Quebec law, Spain and Portugal aren’t harsh about it.
I don’t see that much shift in the Americas except the possible loss of French. Mexico may become more English speaking as more Americans move to Mexico for lower cost of living, especially with retired populations that won’t learn Spanish. Spanish in the Americas may standardize as cross-border media becomes bigger.
I expect Africa to be in a three way struggle between English, French, and Arabic as the lingua franca.
I expect languages to standardize in Asia, but I expect that India and Pakistan will choose non-English languages.
Spoken, live languages? Very damned few. Archived languages? We might do pretty well.
In my lifetime I’ve seen accents disappearing in America. Doing tech support in the early 90s, I played a game of guessing what state a person was from. Did quite well! I could almost always match their accent. (Midwestern was my kryptonite, very generic.)
We’re seeing regional accents and dialects disappearing very quickly due to the internet, and formerly, TV in general.
For example; I haven’t heard a deep Cajun accent in ages, unless I look for it on YouTube, and even then it’s mostly intelligible. I talked to people 25-30 years ago I could not comprehend, and I’m good at languages!
Another example; Go watch Steel Magnolias from 1989. (Great movie BTW!) That deep, propuh, Mississippi female accent is all but gone except for the oldest, and those women only use it amongst each other.
In any case, English seems to rule the internet, a modern lingua franca, don’t see that changing any time soon.
There are definitely still people with deep cajun accents but they likely never leave south Louisiana.
In any case, English seems to rule the internet, a modern lingua franca
Oh yea. I can’t imagine the alternate timeline where I was stuck in Mainland China and, not only firewall issues, but also the massive language barrier on top of that.
100 years: A lot of smaller languages will only be available from recordings. Less than a hundred language being still in use.
200 years: Maybe a dozen still being spoken: English, Chinese, Hindu, Spanish, French (they stick to their own language like crazy, at the total expense of communication with anyone around), and a handful of others. Everything else will be archived.
Well, when Fr*nch will endure due to the almost religious fervour of their speakers, than German must too. Both countries origin story and who is considered part of the nation is founded on who speaks the language.
In comparison to the French, the Germans are a rather malleable bunch. At least then you ask something in English you get an answer instead of a silent death stare.
Once we get good, universal real-time translation, we might start to see a new proliferation of local languages. And of small groups inventing their own cryptolects for privacy, trying to evolve them faster than AI can keep up.
100 years: same amount as today minus a couple of dozen where no children currently speak them. Some people born today will be alive in 2125. (And I’m envious Idon’t get to see the future)
200 years? There is conscious effort to preserve minority languages , so hopefully the extinction slows down.
I mean, how many of the languages in 1925 exist today? What about 1825? That’s your answer for the most part, that is to say: most of them save for endangered languages and successful genocides.
Ah! But you’re not accounting for radio, then television and now the internet. Mass communication is squashing languages and dialects and accents flat, while at the same time working for archival purposes.
Language is always a local phenomena. I suspect the golden age of the internet will enshittify rapidly creating increasing islands of local. Even as the population collapses due to climate change/ecological overshoot, I suspect more divergence. A fracturing of language and community.
I think there’ll be one sinorussolatinglish trade language and 5k highly localized dialects of our current languages.
dedass gonbe sum nu1s2
12
12
So you’re saying Cantonese, being the top 11 most popular, will survive?
Lets hope…
Yep! For 100 years.
But in 200 years, it’s down to 9 languages. And number one (by a lot) is Simlish. It’s a long story.
It’s a victim of an intentional extermination campaign, isn’t it? So maybe not Cantonese.
Oh btw. I think some variants of Yue-Chinese are already near extinct. Taishanese (台山話 Taishanese, not to be confused with Taiwan) My parents are from Taishan and we were born in Guangzhou, so my parents never spoke Taishanese to us… cuz we lived in Guangzhou. Like… Cantonese had a higher “Prestiege” than Taishanese… I mean Guangzhou is a City, it urban. Taishanese is rural, its a bunch of villages. So yea… they only speak Taishanese to my grandparents and I think my parents sometimes speak Taishanese to each other. Then they turn to me and my brother and they just speak Cantonese. I later noticed that and it felt kinda odd lol. Like a different social circle, like the older people are people I can’t relate to, they have a different tongue. Like when I was younger I didn’t even notice the distinction and sort of mixed some Taishanese sounds into my Cantonese, but then I later realized it was two different languages lol. Apparantly my brain didn’t really distinguish it and I thought they were mutually intelligible.
Anyways, I could underatand Taishanese, but don’t feel comfortable speaking it. I never spoken it, because I just speak Cantonese and my maternal grandmother would understand it anyways. So… yeah… that’s how languages die. They never taught me, there is not much materials. Not really any TV Shows like Hong Kong TV and Movies. So… yep… Taishanese is a dying language. And anyone speaking Taishanese is rural… so… very conservative… and I don’t like conservatives… so… yeah… oopsie, language dead…
Cantonese, however, I’m more warm towards Cantonese compared to Taishanese. HK people are very progressive. So I like it more. HK loves freedom, so… in a way… using Cantonese is defiance against the CCP.
But I think my parents didn’t speak Cantonese to me because on my dad’s side, there are relatives from Hong Kong… so maybe they didn’t want them to think of us as rural peasants? But then again, we did live in Guangzhou, so that was probably already a reason enough in of itself. Some immigrants to western countries don’t even teach their kids their native tongue… so there’s that.
Overseas Cantonese Speakers Unite!
大家一齊講廣東話！
Oh wait, shit, the 2nd Gens are already abandoning the language…
Oh well… 🤷♂️
Rip, it was fun while it lasted.
There will be one day no one will be able to listen to 海闊天空 and actually understand the lyrics with their ears.
So sad…
I’d say around 3000 by 2125 and 1000 by 2225.
!remindme 200years
In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, we may fiii-iiind 🎶
So, it’s not only me that does that…
