Which of the following languages do you think will become the universal language of the globe?

I don't believe 95%+ of the world is ever going to speak the same language in day-to-day use. I do believe, however, that English is the language of business.

I don't foresee it happening, nor do I think it would necessarily be a good thing.

Pig Latin.

None

dolphin

isn't english already the universial lauge on earth?

English....of course!

I don't think there will ever be a universal language in the sense of most people using it for day to day purposes. People are too committed to their own local language - the survival of Gaelic and Flemish, for example, demonstrates that. But I do think that there will be a strong trend towards a small group of "international" languages that are used for official purposes, trade, etc. The "big three" of the future (and, to a great extent, the present) are English, Chinese and Spanish, with French and German a bit further behind.

English is already a universal language, to an extent.

You think that because you come from an English-speaking country. But Chinese is spoken by more people than speak English (either as a first or second language), and there are more different countries that have Spanish as their first language than there are that speak English.

I suspect though that there are more countries in which people speak English as a second language than any other language. So for example various dialects of Chinese are spoken by a vast number of people, but not from very many countries. Spanish is the first language of many countries, but perhaps not the second language of all that many. Whereas I suspect (note that I am not stating any of this as fact, I don't know) that English is adopted by more countries than any other language. And personally I think it is that that is more relevant to which language becomes more widely used. There's also the argument (perhaps weak or just plain wrong) that the majority of countries with power speak English... obviously not all of them, but the majority? I imagine so. I've always objected to people saying things like "you think that because you come from an English-speaking country" as if their opinion must be based purely on a close minded assumption and could not possibly be based on any actual thought. In my case yes I think that, yes I come from an English speaking country and perhaps I am wrong - but I am definitely not wrong because I come from an English speaking country, if I'm wrong it's because I am simply wrong Sorry about the length of this rant.

You're probably right that more people speak English as a second language than speak any other language as a second language. And I would agree that English is the "power language" at the moment, which definitely helps it to become more widespread. My objection to Hotbabe's comment is that it's just wrong to say that English is "already a universal language, to an extent", and that's the kind of comment that's really only likely to be made by someone from an English-speaking country.

English, easily. It already is the most popular and will continue to grow. I don't know if it will ever reach 95% though. Spanish and French are the other two big ones.

Sheer number is not of as much consequence as how widespread a language is. If virtually all your speakers are concentrated in one place (for Chinese, China and adjacent parts of Asia) your language is not necessarily "international". Furthermore, how many non-Chinese do you know who speak Chinese? Not very many.

The European languages - English, Spanish and French - are widespread due to colonial legacy, and it is for this reason they are considered major international languages.

I also must disagree with your assumption that only people from English-speaking countries tend to think of English as universal. Its popularity as a second language is indicative of people's perceptions of the language. Also, consider if, say, a Japanese businessman needs to speak with a Dane - odds are they will converse not in Japanese or Danish, but English.

I live in a bilingual country and are proud to have both English and French as official languages - but I know full well that when I am abroad, in the vast majority of places it is English that is more likely to be understood than French (or any other language, for that matter.)

If it ever happens it will probably be english but I hope that it won't

The Ethnologue (http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/) has some interesting stuff on this.

From what I've seen, English.

I think that English will always be the universal language. At least for the duration of my life. Chinese would be the only other option in my opinion and only because there's a larger population of Chinese people. I think there's probably more people speaking English across the globe than any other language, but I could be wrong.

English, it has the largest vocabulary, and many, many people already speak it, or are exposed to it through the media.

Silly puppies...English will only remain a dominant language until the American Empire falls. Granted, that might be in another 1600 years...or maybe next week, who knows. Then, someone else will take over, and their language of choice will become the dominant one.

Fair enough Not sure I agree - but then I'm not sure I really *disagree* anymore either, so I guess that's something

English is the universal language, it will always be until possibly the very last days. I read an article once regarding airways and they said English is the universal language.

I hope to God the world never ends up speaking just one language. Jesus what a stupid question... Esperanto and Interlingua may be cool languages but people shouldn't give up what they learned at home for some fancy invented language. Also why the hell did you put latin and ebonics up there... what are you smoking?

Having a universal language would not necessarily mean that people would only speak one language, it just means that everyone would have a common language to use. I think its a good thing..it makes for better communication between people.

English, if any, but I really don't think that the world will ever have only one language. That would require teaching a ton of people how to talk the same.

Exactly what North79 said.. just because we'd have a common language doesn't mean that we couldn't retain our own languages.

Ebonics was basically just a joke. Latin, well it was pretty much the universal language at one time, it was just another creative option.

If yah don't like it.. oh well :)

I think by the time 95% of the world speak the same language, it won't resemble any of todays languages. It will probably be a variation of English, still called English. English continues to adopt words and change all the time. I think it will continue to change, and take on more words and phrases from other languages until it becomes the true lingua franca.

there are so many people speaking different languages. chinese is spoken by a quater of the worlds popluation nearly. most of the developing nations speak spanish, french, english or portuguese so they are likely to grow in importance. I wouldn't be surprised if in 100 years time the importance of english was nno more than say french or german is now.

Klingon. Definitely.

I don't believe the world will ever have a universal language.

I think in the future (a LONG time from now), most people will speak
several different languages. I speak 3 languages myself (English, French, and Spanish.) I dont see their ever being a -universal- language. but maybe 4 or 5 world languages. possibly English, French,
Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic.

Ebonics is not a language!! I think this survey should have allowed for checkboxes instead of radio buttons... I think English and Spanish (English because it's already the language anyone in international business knows, and Spanish because such a variety of people know it... 3rd world countries to important businesspeople).

Latin is already the universal language of science.

already has a universal language...LOVE
as for *spoken* language, won't happen.

I agree with you anonymous #2, Latin IS a universal language...many churches also conduct solely in Latin also.

I'M NOT HISPANIC BUT ALWAYS LOVED THE SPANISH LANG

American. Which is definitely a different language from English.

Good survey. Being bilingual myself (English and Spanish) I believe that in time languages will merge into one.