5 ms·

English is forever going to be the main language of the world

3 points by mcobrien 16y ago

fierarul 16y ago
Just like latin. Forever is a long time.
- ajuc 16y ago
  When we finally get AI to work language of legacy websites won't be a problem.
  - nimai 16y ago
    The problem with AI translation isn't that the AI isn't working, it's that humans don't express their thoughts as clearly and consistently as they'd like to think they do. Even a human can't create a 100% accurate translation of a text without knowing exactly what the author was thinking, and language is a very poor mechanism of conveying thoughts, based on the author's expectations of what different words correspond to in other people's minds. I do expect language to become obsolete, i.e. showing someone an illustration of something instead of describing it to them. English might be the last language in use, but its vocabulary is only going to decrease.
brazzy 16y ago
Well, something like English anyway - Expect lots of loanwords from all over the world, and lots of misspellings to become variants and eventually standard. While English has a simple script and basic grammar, the spelling is horribly inconsistent, probably worse than any other widely spoken language. I suspect that the influx of people using it as a second language will eventually wear down the resistence from horrified language conservationists.
GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
It's always entertaining to read an article by someone who hasn't got a clue about the subject they are writing about. I was truly amused to read that most people in India speak "Hindu" and that French is not spoken in Asia (I guess Viet Nam is no longer part of Asia). It's also interesting that an article about the relative importance of various languages could mention "Hindu" but not Spanish.
steve19 16y ago
People who speak bad english are considered normal. Bad english is accepted all over the world An interesting point.
zeemonkee 16y ago
Utterly clueless. Some people should stick to subjects they actually know something about. Momentum, time investment etc once belonged to Latin, French, Greek and other languages in the past. English will be replaced eventually by Chinese, Spanish, or some future language that may itself descend from English or a mixture of current languages. "Forever" ? Please. Read some history.
chink 16y ago
Readers of this article may also wish to refer to this thread about the identity of it's author, Max Klein: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050
DjDarkman 16y ago
Forever is a long long time.... This article is pointless, reading it is a waste of time. Many others have already pointed out why this article is complete bullshit.

3 points by mcobrien 16y ago

fierarul 16y ago

Just like latin. Forever is a long time.

ajuc 16y ago
When we finally get AI to work language of legacy websites won't be a problem.
- nimai 16y ago
  The problem with AI translation isn't that the AI isn't working, it's that humans don't express their thoughts as clearly and consistently as they'd like to think they do. Even a human can't create a 100% accurate translation of a text without knowing exactly what the author was thinking, and language is a very poor mechanism of conveying thoughts, based on the author's expectations of what different words correspond to in other people's minds. I do expect language to become obsolete, i.e. showing someone an illustration of something instead of describing it to them. English might be the last language in use, but its vocabulary is only going to decrease.

brazzy 16y ago

Well, something like English anyway - Expect lots of loanwords from all over the world, and lots of misspellings to become variants and eventually standard. While English has a simple script and basic grammar, the spelling is horribly inconsistent, probably worse than any other widely spoken language. I suspect that the influx of people using it as a second language will eventually wear down the resistence from horrified language conservationists.

GiraffeNecktie 16y ago

It's always entertaining to read an article by someone who hasn't got a clue about the subject they are writing about. I was truly amused to read that most people in India speak "Hindu" and that French is not spoken in Asia (I guess Viet Nam is no longer part of Asia). It's also interesting that an article about the relative importance of various languages could mention "Hindu" but not Spanish.

steve19 16y ago

People who speak bad english are considered normal. Bad english is accepted all over the world An interesting point.

zeemonkee 16y ago

Utterly clueless. Some people should stick to subjects they actually know something about. Momentum, time investment etc once belonged to Latin, French, Greek and other languages in the past. English will be replaced eventually by Chinese, Spanish, or some future language that may itself descend from English or a mixture of current languages. "Forever" ? Please. Read some history.

chink 16y ago

Readers of this article may also wish to refer to this thread about the identity of it's author, Max Klein: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050

DjDarkman 16y ago

Forever is a long long time.... This article is pointless, reading it is a waste of time. Many others have already pointed out why this article is complete bullshit.