Language of the Future

[pi3.1415926535...]

What do people think the language of the future will be (both coding and speaking)?

I think that Mandarin, German, or English (Almost certainly for the near future). I think that python will become even more important, though if the world language becomes something other than English, it might be translated, though typing in a logographic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram) language would be difficult.

[uRock]

I have my money on Spanish.

[odiseo77]

As for natural languages, maybe Mandarin or Spanish. As for programming languages, I'm not sure (I'm not a programmer).

[mmsmc]

german, used to think it was java(as it ran every internet application) but they have recently gone downhill, so now i am not to sure, ill take a wild guess COBOL :)

[themarker0]

I'm gonna say C++ and Either Spanish or a new formed language.

[Khakilang]

India or Chinese since they have the largest population around the world. I am not sure about computer language but Python seem to be very popular.

[Lucradia]

I believe that once we use nanomachines in our bodies as a norm, we will have broken the language barrier with automated translation systems (IE: A mechanical babelfish of sorts.)

[Gerontion]

No idea about programming languages but English will remain as the default international language for the foreseeable future. It's easy to get started (though, admittedly, difficult to master) and it's got huge momentum (it's alleged, for example, that there are 300-odd million Chinese learning English). Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, etc are obviously regionally significant but I very much doubt that any of them are going to displace English in the foreseeable future.

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I think that Mandarin, German, or English


german

Really??? Why would anyone want to learn German? They all speak depressingly perfect English already.

[lisati]

Locally, I'd place my money on a Polynesian language. I speak a mixture of Samoan and NZ English at home. At work it's mainly English and Māori.

For programming, it could be something that is to C++ as C++ is to C, sharing a common heritage, but sufficiently different to be called a language in its own right.

[pi3.1415926535...]

Quote:
I think that Mandarin, German, or English
Quote:
german
Really??? Why would anyone want to learn German? They all speak depressingly perfect English already.
One would want to learn German because; firstly it is one of the most logical European languages, secondly Germany now has one of the largest economies in the world (fifth), and finally because they have great scientific industries, which are the future.

[Chronon]

English is already pretty universal. It seems to be the de facto language of science and I don't see that changing any time soon. I have been told that Mandarin lacks the precision necessary to discuss rigorous scientific ideas. Apparently, they use English for science.

[Gerontion]

^^ There are good reasons to learn German - Goethe and Kant, for example - but I'm not sure the reasons you give are good reasons why it'll be the language of the future. How many German academics don't speak/write English? Not many, I'd imagine. And likewise for business. And when you've got an installed user base of a billion - give or take a few hundred million - with complete geographical coverage, any competitor has its work cut out and I very much doubt German - or Mandarin or Arabic or Spanish - is up to the job. The situation is similar-ish to Latin in Europe; a thousand years after the collapse of Rome, Latin was still the international language of Europe because...it was the international language of Europe.

[waloshin]

For Canada, Tagalog will be the biggest language in the future.

[Hedgehog1]

omg, r u kddng?

My fear is the texting will take over, and real language will be forgotten.

c u l8tr!

Today's kids are tomorrows adults. We are DOOMED!!!!

:D

[GabrielYYZ]

i really hope it's not spanish...

i speak spanish everyday (it's my 1st language) but i hate it with a passion. i'm hoping for english with varying accents, but, most probably, nationalism would make that impossible.

if people were more pragmatic, we'd all be speaking English anyways. it's an easy language to learn + most people speak it to varying degrees which = easiest to adopt universally.

but, alas, this is just a dream...

[Kimm]

It seems to be the de facto language of science and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Not to long ago, German was the de facto standard for Science. Before that, Latin ruled, so you never know.


IE: A mechanical babelfish of sorts.

Excuse me, but I'd like to get on paper? My remaining smell, you know ...

[jfreak_]

India or Chinese since they have the largest population around the world. I am not sure about computer language but Python seem to be very popular.

India is not a language, its a country. If you are referring to the language Indians speak, its difficult to see any one of them(there are more than 18 languages spoken) getting world domination...

[kukker32]

Python have also become my choice of programming language..
and i hear more and more poeple choose poepel as favourite..
so i think thats the future

[mkendall]

India is the largest native English-speaking nation, population-wise.

[Spice Weasel]

This is a question for people that know all three languages and travel a lot: If you know English, Chinese and Spanish, can you travel to just about any country and manage to communicate well?

[daniel_w93]

As a German, I don't really see how German can become an international language...it's freakin' hard to learn! There are even Germans that don't really master it.
As for it's accuracy, I don't see it. Most IT related matters should be discussed in English cause there just aren't any accurate and/or comfortable expressions in German.

Finally any language that permits words like these (Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenüber tragungsgesetzparagraphen) in their law-books should be excluded from any discussion about linguistic world domination :P

As for programming I'll go with python

[Tristam Green]

English is already pretty universal. It seems to be the de facto language of science and I don't see that changing any time soon. I have been told that Mandarin lacks the precision necessary to discuss rigorous scientific ideas. Apparently, they use English for science.

and aviation

[Breambutt]

My money's on internet gibberish with lots of abbreviations nobody but the speaker knows of as the recent excuse for talking like a drooling vegetable seems to be "languages evolve" even when trying to have a sensible discussion, as if the old "it's just the internet" wasn't enough.

[Sean Moran]

I maybe a little oneiric in this dream, but after all this time, I reckon that multi-lingual is the way of the future.

English will be around for a very long time if you want to post a letter and have someone land it in a plane as airmail, or if you want to understand ASCII code or write HTML, so there's a foundation that will take more than a few gernerations to overtake.

Hindi and Mandarin have the strength in numbers, so knowing those as well as English will never see you out of work. All except for one thing ... The Philippines. Already the most multi-lingual nation I have ever come across, so that is how I believe Tagalog is the most likely base language to oneday surpass English.

(By English, I mean the English that comes from England too. Hollywood is great to watch and listen, but B-grade to read.)

[ki4jgt]

A mixture of Java, C++, and Python

As for spoken I don't think we will ever get rid of our natural languages, but Esperanto would be a great go between (Not saying that would happen - but it is easy to learn)

[3Miro]

Spoken languages: everyone would speak English as the official International language (it pretty much is now), then everyone would have a second language depending on which country they were born.

Computer languages: unless we see a major change of architecture (and I mean really major, which is unlikely), then C/C++ would say. It will be complemented by a few scripting languages, Python is growing now, I don't know if it is will stay that way.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Languages do not get formed from whole cloth like that. Obviously both Esperanto and Klingon are exceptions to this (and there may be a couple others I'm unaware of) but typically languages evolve and morph and merge. That's really how all the romance languages came about, and from them and some of the germanic ones came English.

Something tells me it's not going to be Spanish, but more likely a hybrid of English (because it's the universal language), Chinese, and Hindi. There are more Chinese and Indians than there are peoples of any other ethnicity or language, and both China and India will, in time, likely come to dominate through the scales of their respective economies, based on population base and other factors.

[Cuddles McKitten]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

say "Everyone will speak in Perl.";
exit 0;

[Simian Man]

I really hope that, in the future, the world has better education systems and most people will know at least two languages.

As for computer languages, who cares? They are all largely the same thing.

[JDShu]

People need to remember that what you think its proper English today would have been gibberish a century ago. Similarly any language in the far future is likely to be gibberish to us now, although it might still be called English. Language changes.

Programming languages in the near future will probably continue to be Java and Python for most applications. Far future, it seems to me that we may have whole new programming paradigms (can anybody tell me why I'm wrong?) to deal with and therefore a new language to deal with that.

[jerenept]

Spoken/Written language: I'd say English.
Programming: Java, C/C++, Python and dotNET.

[danbuter]

I don't see anything replacing English anytime soon. It's the garbage collector of languages. If Chinese has a great word for something, English will take it into the alley and mug it and steal the word.

As far as programming languages, I wish it was Perl, but the design-by-committee Perl6 is dead in the water.
I bet it will be a language that can easily utilize multi-core processors.

[obithius]

"I don't see anything replacing English anytime soon. It's the garbage collector of languages. If Chinese has a great word for something, English will take it into the alley and mug it and steal the word."

Exactly, English isn't really a language it's more a collection of languages. Was watching The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a Swedish film, and was astonished at how many words I recognised. If the Indian or Chinese economies come to dominate the world in coming centuries, English will pick up a few more cans and join the party.

[Gerontion]

English not only steals from other languages, but because of its high status, it's also remarkably good at displacing words in other languages (in fact, rather more than just words). I live in Thailand and a good portion of marketing and advertising here uses English words, often written in English, when there are perfectly good Thai words which could just as easily be used. For a large chunk of the population, watching the TV ads or picking up fashion magazines, is a bewildering experience (not least because almost always, even if you understand English, it doesn't make any sense). Imagine if your local newspaper decided that it would be cool to put all the headings in Amharic or ad agencies decided that making TV advertisements with liberal sprinklings of Tatar would give them the edge.

[aG93IGRvIGkgdWJ1bnR1Pw==]

Spoken: An agglomeration of English and local languages that increasingly resembles US english as local languages and cultures are globalised and assimilated.

Programming: C. The kids can play with java and objective C dialects to run fart apps on overpowered cell phones, and neckbeard sysadmins may have gigabytes of python and perl scripts, but most real programs and OSes will still get written in C.

[Docaltmed]

Esperanto ftw.

[aG93IGRvIGkgdWJ1bnR1Pw==]

Esperanto ftw.

I think constructed languages are a failed concept, but as far as they go, Slovio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovio) and Folkspraak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folkspraak) have far more "familiar" speakers than esperanto and are much easier to learn even if you're from a foreign language family, which isn't the case with esperanto.