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Do you think English language is killing other languages?

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Question added by Duaa Saif , Translator & Copywriter , Bayt.com
Date Posted: 2015/11/19
Deleted user
by Deleted user

English is not exactly killing any Language but rather a question of who is Teaching and what Language. Its also a question of who is getting taught and what Language are they getting taught in.

 

  • Passionate English Speakers spear headed Teaching English to most  countries during the colonization periods and they taught them English but not vice versa.
  • Economic Globalization has been advanced through English mostly.
  • It is not just English dominance that is causing disappearance of many Languages, there is are many other widely spoken languages such as Mandarin in China, Spanish, Hindi/ Urdu, Arabic, Portuguese and others that are dominating ahead of niche languages thereby causing a death to those that are less spoken and less preserved.
  •  Disappearance of these other languages is because most people are less interested in preserving their grand parent's languages than in teaching their kids Languages that will help them in getting jobs in the modern world.
  • Language death does not just end there it also goes deeper into culture death and / or neutralization. 
  • For example, exclusions of smaller languages is another reason languages disappear. i speak Shona as my native language but i rarely see my language option when i am filling in forms in today's platforms (Bayt included)

Dina Khatib
by Dina Khatib , Brand and Communications Manager , Bayt.com

I think it's definitely overshadowing other languages, but I don't think it's killing them. The speakers of the language are responsible for the preservation of the language and its survival through constant writing and translation.

Abdelrazek Said Omar
by Abdelrazek Said Omar , Quality specialist , Agthia Group Egypt

Yes I think it killed other

Rasha Maarabouni
by Rasha Maarabouni , Executive Registrar , Lebanese International University

Learning English has become one of the most vital languages to learn for businesses who want to be international or travelers who want a common language to communicate with each other.

Many might think that English is destroying their culture by becoming too influential on a global scale. So right now English definitely has a strong influence and less widely spoken languages can hold their own in the world but the competition is fierce and extremely sensitive.

anayat bukhari
by anayat bukhari , Researcher, English Content Writer, Publisher , Noor Foundation

We need to explore the human history about languages to answer this question. In the near past Roman, French and Persian were the dominant languages but gradually they lost this status. Rise and fall of a language is a phenomenon which is directly related to the rise and fall of a culture and nation. English will stay in its dominant position as long English speaking nations has dominance in the global affairs. It'll lose this position when any other alternative emerged on the horizon. At the moment it seems that the future will be of the Chinese language.

Afaf Anis
by Afaf Anis , Producer , Al-Jazeera Network

English language is one of the strongest and widely spread languages on Earth, it is easy to learn compared to French or Chinese for example.

Therefore yes I think it is taking over other languages.

Ashish Garg
by Ashish Garg , Trainer Verbal, Soft Skills & Employbility Trainer , Galgotias University

Languages keep on evolving with the ever evolving humanity. English is not killing other languages, it is bringing the world together. we can also look the language as the motivator to come close. it provides a stage to make the world one single locality.

Alee Iftikhar
by Alee Iftikhar , Administration & Marketing Officer , Sunrise Marketing (Pvt) Ltd

I would narrate only one sentence "Language of any developed / living nations can be destroyed". So english language is not destroying other languages because in every era there is language of science and in today's time there is English which is language of science.

alaaeldine abd elrhem mhmoud elfashny
by alaaeldine abd elrhem mhmoud elfashny , tour leader guide , swiss inn hotels and resorts and travel agent

of course no but English be as the mother of the languages

 

Raed Alhajri
by Raed Alhajri , Airport Services Agent , Qatar Airways

Not at all because currently English is a science language at this period of time and each age had a language of science so after awhile it will be replaced by another language sooner or later...

Pradeep Sharma
by Pradeep Sharma , English Language Training Instructor , King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah (KSA)

Languages evolve, change and take new shapes over time.This phenomenon is studied in historical linguistics. English, the language we know today, didn't exist in the same form hundreds of years ago (look at Medieval English, i.e., read Chaucer's poetry, and you will come across many unknown words) and there was a time when there was no English language; this new language came up under the influence of other languages. The same may happen to other languages in the contemporary world. No language kills the other; social interactions change the form of a language to a large extant. But, of course, languages exist as long as they are spoken. Sanskrit in India is almost dead since none speaks it; Latin is dead; classical Hebrew is dead and the same may happen to several other languages if they are not spoken. Many tribal language disappear as their speakers disappear overtaken by the mainstream around them. English, at present, is not killing other languages, it only dominates them, especially in cultural, educational, and economic scenario. But if the speakers of other languages are extremely influenced by English, in course of time there is a threat they will lose their languages, if not totally, mutilated, like what is happening with Hindi in India. More than% of spoken Hindi vocabulary is not Hindi at all.             

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