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How English as we know it
is disappearing ... to be replaced by 'Panglish'
DAVID DERBYSHIRE
UK
Daily Mail
Thursday, March 27, 2008
It is English but not as we know it.
A new global tongue called "Panglish" is expected to
take over in the decades ahead, experts say.
Linguists say the language of Shakespeare and Dickens is evolving
into a new, simplified form of English which will be spoken by
billions of people around the world.
The changes are not being driven by Britons, Americans or Australians,
but the growing number of people who speak English as a second
language, New Scientist reports.
According to linguists, Panglish will be similar to the versions
of English used by non-native speakers. As the new language takes
over, "the" will become "ze", "friend"
will be "frien" and the phrase "he talks"
will become "he talk".
(Article continues below)
By 2010 around two billion people - or a third of the world's
population - will speak English as a second language. In contrast,
just 350 million people will speak it as a first language.
Most interactions in English now take place between non-English
speakers, according to Dr Jurgen Beneke of the University of Hildesheim,
Germany.
By 2020 the number of native speakers will be down to 300 million.
That's the point where English, Spanish, Hindi-Urdu and Arabic
will have the same number of native speakers, according to predictions.
As English becomes more common, it will increasingly fragment
into regional dialects, experts believe.
Braj Kachru, of Ohio State University - one of the world's leading
experts in English as a second language - said non-native English
dialects were already become unintelligible to each other.
Singaporean English, for instance, combines English with Malay,
Tamil and Chinese and is difficult for English-speaking Westerners
to understand.
Full
article here.
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