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>what would be the alternative? Mandarin seems the most likely candidate. There might come a day when most Indo-European languages merge into a variant of Engl
by Mountain_Skies 5y ago
>what would be the alternative?
Mandarin seems the most likely candidate. There might come a day when most Indo-European languages merge into a variant of English while Mandarin, being from a different language family, becomes the only other major human language, with both borrowing from each other to some degree but not merging. Given the large number of languages that exist now and their degree of connection to the cultures that spawned them, in some ways it's difficult to believe that most could fall to the side but the trend of English as a second language almost everywhere is pretty strong. At some point people might simply stop bothering to learn their culture's formerly primary language.
- dmurray 5y agoMore or less what happens in Firefly, though it's not explored in detail.
- bradknowles 5y agoThat was the retcon. The real reason that they spoke a pretend version of Mandarin was so that they could say things that would otherwise get stopped by the censors. They used it as their cursing language, among other things.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> More or less what happens in Firefly, though it's not explored in detail. Though the process is hinted to be very much top-down political, in that the Union of Allied Planets flag is a very obvious direct blending of the USA and PRC flags.
- 5e92cb50239222b 5y agoOh no. As a non-native English speaker I'd rather forget and learn English all over again than touch Mandarin. My life is too short for that.