Newsgroups: alt.politics.ec,sci.lang
From: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.mathworks.com!uunet!news.sprintlink.net!peernews.demon.co.uk!storcomp.demon.co.uk!philip
Subject: Re: English as the European language (not) (Re: Languages in the EC)
References: <3ha0n3INNmq5@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU> <MATTHEW.95Feb10133047@baloo.cpd.ntc.nokia.com> <792547038snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <donhD3wA4B.CIL@netcom.com>
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Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 17:18:20 +0000
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In article <donhD3wA4B.CIL@netcom.com> donh@netcom.com "Don HARLOW" writes:
> philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk skribis en lastatempa afisxo
>  <792547038snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>:
> >In article <MATTHEW.95Feb10133047@baloo.cpd.ntc.nokia.com>
> >           matthew@cpd.ntc.nokia.com "Matthew Faupel" writes:
> >> It is true that the educated globe-trotting elite do indeed speak English.
> >> 300 years ago though they spoke French and 500 years ago they spoke Latin.
> >> 2000 years ago it was Greek.  In each case it was the language of the
> >> (culturally or geographically) dominant nation of the time.  There's nothing
> >> that is guaranteeing English's position of dominance in perpetuity.
> >
> >Agreed. In 200 years time everyone might be speaking Chinese. Or computer
> >translation will have been perfected by then.
> >
> >OTOH, an estimated 1500 million people speak English now. It's quite 
> >possible that some time in the next century this might increase until
> >it includes 1/2 the world's population. Then English might have so much
> >momentum behind it as to be unstoppable. After all, the Latin alphabet's
> >dominance is likely to continue forever (or at least as long as people
> >read), because most people already use it and it would be too much 
> >hassle to change to something else.
> >
> A more accurate figure is probably the one given in the 
> World Almanac and Book of Facts -- a bit over five hundred million, 
> of whom about two thirds are native speakers.

The fact that estimates can vary from 500M to 1500M (I forget where I got
my figure from, I read it in a book recently), shows there is considerable
uncertainty as to how many people speak English.

Among 2nd-language users, there are big differences in ability at English.
I suspect that some of the difference between the estimates is due to a
difference in how good one has to be to be counted. The number of people
totally fluent in English is a lot less than the number of people with
some knowledge of it.

-- 
Phil Hunt...philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
Majority rule for Britain!
