#panglish

[mcp53]

Panglish? http://wp.me/s1cu1Z-panglish "English as it is spoken today will have disappeared in 100 years and could be replaced by a global language called Panglish, researchers claim.

[hoonio]

The one global language: Panglish?

English will turn into Panglish in 100 years - scrapped from Telegraph UK

English as it is spoken today will have disappeared in 100 years and could be replaced by a global language called Panglish, researchers claim. New words will form and meanings will change with the most dramatic changes being made by people learning English as a second language, says Dr Edwin Duncan, a historian of English at Towson University in Maryland, in the US. According to the New Scientist, the global form of English is already becoming a loose grouping of local dialects and English-based common languages used by non-native speakers to communicate.  By 2020 there may be two billion people speaking English, of whom only 300 million will be native speakers. At that point English, Spanish, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic will have an equal number of native speakers. Dr Suzette Haden Elgin, a retired linguist formerly at San Diego University in California, said: "I don't see any way we can know whether the result of what's going on now will be Panglish - a single English that would have dialects... or scores of wildly varying Englishes, many or most of them heading toward mutual unintelligibility." How long will it take to find out? "My guess, a wild guess, is less than 100 years."

This language itself has changed quite a lot in just couple of decades. Considerable amount of newly created words come from advancements in technology, in result of transition in lifestyle. Also, many of them originated from slangs or mispronunciations by minorities, who is not necessarily minorities in population. As the article points out, the global language of English is expected to experience more of these as globalization brings people of different cultures closer and migration becomes more frequent. Because these derived words are often colloquial, those who learn English as a second language will have to pay a close attention to these.

In my point of view, most people, especially Koreans, tend to spend their time learning topics that are far from their motivations. The ultimate goal of learning a new language is to be able to utilize what they have acquired, not to get a higher score in language proficiency examinations or other periodical evaluations. So, I would like to advise to all readers not to rely too much on academic lectures or textbooks written by intellectuals or dorks, but rather try to spend more time with popular cultures, such as conversations in Hollywood movies or pop lyrics.