Future of English

English has established itself as a world language. Like no other language English dominates different aspect of our lives. These aspects are culture, politics, finances and many others domains related to public and international life. I will have a look at some scenarios such as English losing the status of a world language or English becoming a so called dead language. I will consider English not only as a world language, but also as a language of culture. In fact, I will have a closer look at English as a vehicle of culture and international relations and how these two provide scenarios for the language itself. Another scenario treated in this essay will be the scenario of English replacing all the other languages. In the end I will see if the English language has a future or if like so many other things its future is not predictable, because our world is in a constant change.
In A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, we find a sort of definition for a dead language. ‘When a language ceases to change, we call it a dead language’(Baugh & Cable, 2002, p.2). This is interesting and as an example they give Classical Latin which is considered a dead language. Could English await the same fate and become a dead language in a distant future? It might be possible if some conditions are met like another language replaces English in all the sectors mentioned above in the text and when people gradually stop speaking English. Nevertheless it is highly improbable that English will become a dead language in some near future. English like other ‘living’ languages is changing constantly. New words come into the language by borrowing, some words are replaced by others and this process makes the language ‘alive’. ...

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... that I will see if English has a predictable future or not. Although I often used words like improbable or unlikely, these words don’t indicate a certainty. Even a word like impossible can be proven wrong, with this I mean that History has showed us so many times that something considered impossible did happen. What I want to say is that the future is not predictable. The future can be influenced with each action and for a language while being ‘alive’ the future is even more uncertain. Even though there are many possible scenarios for English, they are not certain and it can be that not even one of these scenarios actually happens. As I said above in the text, as with so many things the future cannot be foreseen and this applies to the future of English.

Works Cited

Baugh, A. C., & Cable, T. (2002). A history of the English language. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.