Why is English globally as popular as it is and will it remain so?

Amp34 · 31 Jul 2007 at 16:48

Psyk said:
Lol that's what I get for listening to teachers at school

I actually meant discovered instead of invented. Bit of a blonde moment there.

They changed it from aluminum to aluminium to conform with the norm for naming elements. So although aluminum came first it is and has been incorrect for over 100 years.

Oh and the link seems to have died a couple of minutes ago, but it is a very informative link.

D.P. · 31 Jul 2007 at 16:50

Psyk said:
Technically calling it aluminum (that's without the second i) is correct as it was invented by an american, hence they got to name it and they called it aluminum not aluminium.

No, discovered by a British man. http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

But both spellings are understandable. Aluminuim is the preferred scientific name, while Aluminum is an acceptable American spelling.

platypus · 31 Jul 2007 at 16:50

D.P. said:
No, discovered by a British man. http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

But both spellings are understandable. Aluminuim is the preferred scientific name, while Aluminum is an acceptable American spelling.

Hmm...swift edit? :eek:

D.P. · 31 Jul 2007 at 16:52

platypus said:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

I couldn't agree more. When used properly, English is such a beautiful language.

Still not a patch on French, Italian or Latin.

The liaison in french can produce far more elegant sound utterances.

platypus · 31 Jul 2007 at 16:56

D.P. said:
Still not a patch on French, Italian or Latin.

The liaison in french can produce far more elegant sound utterances.

Being able to speak all of those (although my Latin is admittedly rusty now), I disagree.

All languages are beautiful, and if spoken well, French is the most beautiful language there is. However, English is much more approachable, and it is much easier to speak well and attractively.

Psyk · 31 Jul 2007 at 17:00

D.P. said:
No, discovered by a British man. http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

But both spellings are understandable. Aluminuim is the preferred scientific name, while Aluminum is an acceptable American spelling.

Von Luck beat you to it.

My teachers lied to me :mad:

Amp34 · 31 Jul 2007 at 17:02

D.P. said:
Still not a patch on French, Italian or Latin.

The liaison in french can produce far more elegant sound utterances.

How can that be true when the english language has more words in it than any other. English is the most descriptive language in the world, one of the reasons it is also the most popular.

Sinizterguy · 1 Aug 2007 at 07:29

AdladUK said:
Because English is probably the best language in the world when it comes to expressing yourself? Be it on a technical, or social, level

No .. Its not. It depends on the situation. Sometimes its better, other times worse.

D.P. · 1 Aug 2007 at 10:30

Amp34 said:
How can that be true when the english language has more words in it than any other. English is the most descriptive language in the world, one of the reasons it is also the most popular.

English has far less words than German. And word count is pretty arbitrary, out of the 200 thousand english words we use little over 8000 regularly. and rarely over 12,000 in an average person entire life.

And despite English having so many words it misses many many other which we have to borrow form other languages (commonly french and latin).

Phog · 1 Aug 2007 at 11:07

Ghosteh said:
There was an article in some news paper not too long ago I remember about rich parents sending their children to Mandarin Chinese Language classes or something as its the most used language in the world per head(IIRC?).

Mandarin has the most native speakers (i.e. number of people that speak mandarin as a primary language). However the number of people that learn to speak English as a secondary language makes it the most widely spoken.

Raumarik · 1 Aug 2007 at 11:19

platypus said:
Are you sure about that? Mr Khan might have something to say about his place in the history books.

Shouldn't it really be Mr Kubla ? Since Khan is actually the word for King/ruler?

platypus · 1 Aug 2007 at 11:34

Kami said:
Shouldn't it really be Mr Kubla ? Since Khan is actually the word for King/ruler?

Lets just call him Genghis for simplicities sake

escape sanity · 1 Aug 2007 at 12:02

AdladUK said:
Because English is probably the best language in the world when it comes to expressing yourself? Be it on a technical, or social, level

Just out of interest, how many languages do you speak?

Arcade Fire · 1 Aug 2007 at 12:05

cleanbluesky said:
It's the language of science...

Until about fifty years ago, German was the language of science. These things aren't as immutable as we seem to believe.

Royality · 1 Aug 2007 at 12:25

I doubt Mandarin will ever become the major language of the world just because English is spoken more widely across the world (in terms of where rather than how many) and it's relatively easy to learn.

Also English is very expressive, I believe Joseph Conrad stopped writing in French because he believed that English was a better language for writing. Not to mention Shakespeare, Chaucer and all the other great English writers... better than Dante, Voltaire or Dosteovsky and all those other namby pamby foreign writers.

Sinizterguy · 1 Aug 2007 at 12:32

Royality said:
I doubt Mandarin will ever become the major language of the world just because English is spoken more widely across the world (in terms of where rather than how many) and it's relatively easy to learn.

Take a country where neither English nor Mandarin is commonly used. Both languages would be equally difficult.

In places like India where English is more commonly used, English would be easier to learn as they would get more of a chance to practice it.

Lord_Kokain · 1 Aug 2007 at 12:34

Its all down to the American hegemony during the last half century. Otherwise, within Europe itself at least, German would have been the most popular language. In fact I think it still holds its positions at least in terms of being the language with most native speakers in Europe. It was considered the working language for central and eastern Europe during the 19th century but the two world wars hit its popularity bad, both there and among people of German origin in the US.