Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

I understated the influence of Greek. Before its role in the eastern Roman Empire, it had been a leading language because of the influence of the Greek city states (e.g. Athens and Sparta), then the empires of Alexander and his successors in Egypt, Macedonia and western Asia. Even when the east was eclipsed by Rome, Greek was still the international language of culture.

[coledavis]

[teacher4life]

[coledavis]

I don't disagree with your analysis. I am merely saying that we cannot always predict accurately and that sometimes events take us in unexpected directions.

[teacher4life]

[coledavis]

Well I did suggest that Germany is still one possibility, dependent on economics. Otherwise, no, merely consider that the unexpected will be, well, unexpected.

[teacher4life]

[spiral78]

[teacher4life]

[Sashadroogie]

I agree with Cole that Russian is not necessarily waning, though there are many comments in language guides claiming that it is a language 'in retreat'. This sentiment seems to be based on the fact that the Baltic States have all but tried to outlaw Russian there, and that it is not really taught in Eastern Europe anymore. But this ignores the fact that there are huge numbers of immigrants coming to Russia itself, from the Near Abroad in the main, who need to learn or improve their Russian, and also that Russian has arguably become the second native language of Israel. Retreat in one area, growth in another.

[Sashadroogie]

[Mr. English]

The thinking among linguists is that perhaps a dozen or so of the 8,000 or so languages we have now have will still be spoken in 100 or 150 years (assuming we survive climate change), though there is certainly not universal agreement among the linguists on this issue. Mandarin and English would certainly be among them, as would Russian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, French, Hindi, Turkish, and no doubt more I can't think of at the moment. I give you an example of how it happens. In 2006 I traveled for some time in Africa with a Cameroonian woman. Her paternal grandfather, who was then dead, spoke only a local African dialect his entire life. Her father, who is still alive, spoke only this local dialect until about age 5, then learned French as it was the language of instruction at the schools. He went on to become a French teacher, as did his wife, and they brought up all their children as bilingual speakers of French and the local dialect. The woman I traveled with learned English while she was in college, and spoke it quite well. When she and her sisters spoke on the phone at length they would sometimes begin in the local dialect as they felt it was something they should continue to be able to use, but found that before the conversation ended they had drifted into French, as they could not express themselves fully in the local dialect; they had lost some of it through disuse. The woman told me that if she ever had children she would teach them only French and English as there were no job opportunities to be had using the local dialect. Thus, from great-grandfather speaking only a local dialect the great-grandchild would not speak it at all. Language lost in under 100 years.

[7969]

[santi84]

[MotherF]