The_FD

Hopefully chinese pronounciation is changing everyday! it means the languages is alive! like every other language

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L'histoire de la famille Bourdillon
Les fêtes d'Hébé
The flying dancer dancing

pluiepoco

Japanese is based on Chinese in Tang Dynasty, and MAndarin Chinese came out in later 19 century. Anyway, before 明治, Japanese also wrote Chinese, but they spoke very differently from native Chinese, but after King 明治, Japan was invaded by Westerners, and then struggled to learn from the West and became industrialised, later in War甲午战争, Japan defeated China, its former parent country and then consolidated its governance on Korea, which was also a former subordinate country under Ancient China.
I'm from Henan, and Henan natives speak a little differently from Mandarin, but almost the same except the tones of some words, that we Henan natives prefer the 4th tone so much that, you can only hear us uttering words in such a strong way as : 44444444444 (tones).

So generally speaking, in old times, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean languages were all regionalects of Chinese language, they shared the same writtings with Chinese, but as they served as dialects, people spoke them a little differently.
But later, in modern times, those countries applies new wording systems, and their languages look far different from Chinese, (but still they remained many same features), and the West or non-Chinese pals find it completely different languages, but actually they are not.

Time is joking!

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
Home of Asia, 中国语言论坛(Chinese Forum of Languages), 西瓜村

amphibole

Unfortunately I don't think Sign Language will be the international language in the future, but I really think it should be: it's easy to learn, very expressive and natural and there's no problem about spelling or pronunciation. And it's very practical too ! : under water (for divers) for instance.
Sophie.

Vinayakan

Concerning script the Indian languages have the most advantages.
For every sound there is one character and every character has one sound.
Never difficulties with spelling or pronounciation.
Further is Sanskrit the language with the longest history in the world.
Sanskrit is perfect for expressing abstract ideas. New words are easily built by root and prefixes, suffixes and affixes. These words are adopted in the modern Indian languages.
Unfortunately the British eradicated the Indian education system and replaced by the English language. They tought us that everything Indian is inferior, including language. This continues untill today.

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ವಸುಧೈವ ಕುಟುಂಕಮ್ /The world is one family / वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्

raiisha

Well i've been through the nice discussion you've had with the previous members and i really think that English will be the global language in the future as it has wider tentacles and used in all parts of the world besides its traditional home, Britain. English has got all the qualities to serve as an international means of communication. We cannot raise Mandarin or other chinese languages since these are confined only to Asia, China, Taiwan, Hong kong, Singapore and few others. Chinese has unfortunately not expanded geographically! In fact, English is the language of commerce, business, science&technology, politics&diplomacy, culture, ICT, etc. In this respect, our dear friends should be more realistic!

NAR

Hello!

I had a brief look at the previous messages and I believe that in the years to come, English language will inextricably prime as an international medium of communication. I'm afraid that Mandarin is restricted to countries which have witnessed Chinese colonisation and fails to transgress geographical barriers.

An outstanding feature of English language is the wide spectrum it offers in terms of vocabulary. It has equally become the most far-flung language of the globe, spoken and understood by over 500 million of the earth's inhabitants. Coupled with that, English language is the lingua franca in so many countries of the world!

In this light, I believe that the major factors to take into account when speculating over the choice of an international medium of communication would be the extent to which the language in question has disseminated over countries and continents, the number of countries which have a knowledge of the language and can put it into practice, as well as the vehicular load which the language carries, in terms of science, technology, literature, amongst others, as well as the influence, especially economic and political, that the language may exert, on those who use it as their own language.

DigitaL MasteR

I couldn’t agree more, it’s just about the geographical expansion within different areas and continents, English is every where and it’s being taught in many school all over the world and the number of its speakers is growing rapidly, this will continue to be the case obviously, it’s just that English is already on the top and it’s not an easy task to change that, I think that French, Spanish and Chinese are important languages, but they are not likely to be the glob language.

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It's no challenge to keep your friendship with someone;
Because true friendship exists to remain and progress.
The real challenge is finding the kind of friendship;
That is worth being Called so .
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DigitaL MasteR: Alex