OT: the world's ten most influential languages

Saoirse · **Posted:** Sun 29 Jul 2012 12:55 pm

Tá sé seo suimiúil. There is some interesting information here, although you'd have to be pretty dedicated to read it all.

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/we ... -weber.htm

A memorable line is:

'It should be a sobering thought, however, to any triumphalist impulse that in 100 AD Latin looked set to dominate its slice of the world forever.'

Of course, that was before technology brought everyone into each other's sitting room.......

Errigal · **Joined:** Fri 09 Sep 2011 2:06 pm **Posts:** 715

Saoirse wrote:

Tá sé seo suimiúil. There is some interesting information here, although you'd have to be pretty dedicated to read it all.

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/we ... -weber.htm

A memorable line is:

'It should be a sobering thought, however, to any triumphalist impulse that in 100 AD Latin looked set to dominate its slice of the world forever.'

Of course, that was before technology brought everyone into each other's sitting room.......

Suimúilíssimo

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Saoirse wrote:

Tá sé seo suimiúil. There is some interesting information here, although you'd have to be pretty dedicated to read it all.

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/we ... -weber.htm

A memorable line is:

'It should be a sobering thought, however, to any triumphalist impulse that in 100 AD Latin looked set to dominate its slice of the world forever.'

Of course, that was before technology brought everyone into each other's sitting room.......

I wonder how far Chinese has jumped up the ladder since the 90s.

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

Maybe more people are learning it now, but Chinese is commonly used in only a few countries. It won't become a vehicular language like English. I don't think so. For instance, if a Russian man has to communicate with a Brazilian man, he won't use Chinese, but rather English. The number of learners of Chinese is growing in the world, but it's not huge.

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Lughaidh wrote:

Maybe more people are learning it now, but Chinese is commonly used in only a few countries. It won't become a vehicular language like English. I don't think so. For instance, if a Russian man has to communicate with a Brazilian man, he won't use Chinese, but rather English. The number of learners of Chinese is growing in the world, but it's not huge.

Fair enough

Somhairle Óg · **Posted:** Mon 30 Jul 2012 10:39 am

I want to pick up another language after Irish, but I can't decide between French & Spanish. Interesting to see French more influential than Spanish even with far less speakers. Personally I'd love to learn French as I love the country, but Spanish would be more handy in terms of speakers and countries to visit.

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

It depends where you want to travel... People often say "it's useful to know Spanish" or "you'd better learn English rather than Irish" etc. But all that depends on what you want to do and who you want/need to talk to... I almost never needed to use Spanish in my life, while I use Irish and Breton everyday. So no language is useful by itself, it depends on your needs or projects

If you plan to go to France, you'd better learn French because many people don't speak any language apart from French here, most French people only know basic English

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OT: the world's ten most influential languages

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