How English as We Know it is Disappearing

A new global tongue called "Panglish" is expected to take over in the decades ahead, experts say. Linguists say the language of Shakespeare and Dickens is evolving into a new, simplified form of English which will be spoken by billions of people around the world.

The changes are not being driven by Americans or Australians, but the growing number of people who speak English as a second language, New Scientist reports. According to linguists, Panglish will be similar to the versions of English used by non-native speakers. As the new language takes over, "the" will become "ze", "friend" will be "frien" and the phrase "he talks" will become "he talk".

By 2010 around two billion people - or a third of the world's population - will speak English as a second language. In contrast, just 350 million people will speak it as a first language. Most interactions in English now take place between non-English speakers, according to Dr Jurgen Beneke of the University of Hildesheim, Germany.

By 2020 the number of native speakers will be down to 300 million. That's the point where English, Spanish, Hindi-Urdu and Arabic will have the same number of native speakers, according to predictions.As English becomes more common, it will increasingly fragment into regional dialects, experts believe.

Braj Kachru, of Ohio State University - one of the world's leading experts in English as a second language - said non-native English dialects were already become unintelligible to each other.Singaporean English, for instance, combines English with Malay, Tamil and Chinese and is difficult for English-speaking Westerners to understand.

"There have always been mutually unintelligible dialects of languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Latin," he said. "There is no reason to believe that the linguistic future of English will be any different.


even I butcher English, Being southern in all...but this might be the overall cost for moving forward...

yeah, but you know how many people spoke English 200 years ago?

the fact that there is going to be an estimated two billion people speaking even partial english fluency, shows that english is rapidly spreading, rather than decreasing.

Woo yeah global language!

These things have already happened. Imagine someone from deep, rural lousiana trying to talk to someone from rural scotland. As language spreads, it changes. English was already notorious for picking up words from other languages. Just within the US I have talked to people who, while speaking english, only shared the understanding of the word what with me.

The language of Shakespeare died ages ago.

I try to use as much "Correct English" whenever I can.

I have read that there are more English speakers in China than in the United States. I wouldn't be surprised if that is true. I also heard a story about different places in India trying to fight it, as the people are forgetting their own native language for it & conducting their lives in English. I hear a lot of people in LA that do Spanglish more so than ever. I know I have my moment but I do try to us correct English as much as possible.

My husband constantly tells me what english words are really Norwegian words. I always think about the movie "my big fat greek wedding" (the dad) when he does this.

Well he is partly right, English is apart of the Germanic language. Because of the Anglo Saxon invasion of early 900, now for the Norwegian really did not effect lower England as much as they did upper Island around Scotland. Then you have you Dublin which is a Norwegian founded as one. I believe they were there for 300 year or so until a Welsh king kicked them out.

Another intresting fact the reason you get the red hair in Ireland is because of the Norwegians. True irish is black hair and blue eyes fair skined lol enough history

I recall being in France and the guy from the factory I was visiting would look for the English word for something uncommon only to find out it was the same as the French word for it.

Like Table or Omelette?

back to history... 1066 battle of Hasting Normans... I believe some time in the 1200 to 1300s didnt England had a stake at the throne of France?

I think the two oldest english words are apple and tin

there was scifi show that hint to this Firefly ( great show) that everyone spoke English and Chinese was the common language. I can see that happen now more than anything

I think English's popularity is places like India/China/Japan etc is because of its simple alphabet. Plus if you want to type easily on a computer....

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Originally Posted by Velvet-Tongue

I think English's popularity is places like India/China/Japan etc is because of its simple alphabet. Plus if you want to type easily on a computer....

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Really good point Velvet, but it is also the language business on global scale. Latin at one time was the language of business, because of Roman economic power. As all road lead to roman and for now the US and future might be China. Velvet you where on the right track, those area are becoming less of 3rd world and more apart of global market.