>>>Hi David, I read what you write but I must ask what is your point?
Will
English replace other languages?
Gerry<<<
I'll answer this: no, not in the forseeable future. Television,
computers, internet, etc. - all those things are also available in
local languages, and the trend is that new programs, etc., are
translated and adapted to new languages. Just because most software,
movies, books, etc. first appear in the US does not mean those things
are not made in other countries in other languages. There are plenty
computer programs, games, etc. that are created in France, Germany,
Russia, Japan, that first appear in their own language version and only
later get translated into English (if ever). There's nothing preventing
any other country in the world eventually taking the technolodgical
and/or cultural lead, making that country's language "cool" and useful.
And really, the only reason for the current wide spread of the English
language in the world is British colonialism. Do you really think that
outside the business elite, the scientific circles and some other minor
groups, there are lots of people in non-English-speaking countries who
routinely talk to each other in English, or watch movies in the
original, or read books in it, even though they can get it translated
to their native language?
David Hanig wrote:
> But such programs are advancing
> rapidly, so rapidly that simultaneous translation will be a familiar
> utility within a decade. As some point, we may be able to wear an
> earphone that instantly translates an obscure dialect to English (and
> back again). Fairly soon, we should be able to participate in
> multinational audiovisual conference calls in which computers will
> provide simultaneous translation.
I strongly doubt that. Such programs may become more useful but they
will not be able to instantly translate without missing some nuances or
making even more serious mistakes, until a VERY sofisticated artificial
intelligence is created. As it is, it takes years of studying language
and culture to be able to do simultaneous translation - you would have
to input a bunch of old movies, cartoons, all kinds of technical and
general literature into your computer program and even then... The only
way around it would be to have people use an artificially dry language,
avoiding any ambiguities, something that would feel like a computer
programming language. Anyway, I'm really skeptical about all this
computer translation thingy, although I'd be pleasantly surprised if I
turned out to be wrong in a couple of decades.
GK