this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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There were many lingua francas of which French was supposedly the first global lingua franca. That changed and it became English (from what I understand). We will probably see another language become the lingua franca, so my question is: should it be English? Are there better candidates out there? Why / why not?

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[–] RichieRich@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Ja, warum nicht Deutsch? Deutsch ist in Europa sehr weit verbreitet und wird von vielen Sprechern auch als Zweitsprache gesprochen. 😉

So, why is it English and not German? Because immigrants in the US decided to speak English. And there are so many people who can understand at least a few words in English. But as a German I'd prefer German, too. It is spoken by many Europeans.

Je suis désolé, chers Français, mon français est trop mauvais pour que je recommande que cela soit recommandé comme la principale chose européenne. 😂

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 2 points 19 hours ago

Pardonneh muah, ish speake nest par les languages forrinée. Toot le mond ist speeking mine sprackgghe so varoomm you speekeh anything else? Ish not geunderstand.

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[–] aleq@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It's gonna be Chinese whether y'all like it or not.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 21 hours ago

Eh, maybe, maybe not. They aren't really the juggernaut they used to be, and their birth rate is now below replacement so there's no "they'll just outbreed us" jerk to do, even.

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[–] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 day ago

No, most people are pragmatic in this case and eastern countries changed from Russian ~30 years ago so another change isn't coming any time soon.

As my parents saw the change from "it is really appreciated that you can speak English" to "it is expected that you can use it". I can tell that it is so engrained in our multinational exchange that it won't be even desirable.

[–] Vernal@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

English is mostly used in commercial now, changing it would be costly and you would need the commitment of many others people to accept a new change in how to approach the world or just Europe, it's a tipe of commitment I doubt people would be willingly to accept.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

let's all switch to Sumerian.

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[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 23 hours ago

I'll laugh my ass off if it's French, I'll really have had the bilingual easy mode languages if that happens.

[–] Lemmist@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago (13 children)

Esperanto is a nice variant: it is much more adequate that any of those chaotically evolved "natural" languages plus nobody would have an unfair advantage just because of being lucky to be born in the English speaking country.

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[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

We will probably see another language become the lingua franca

That's gonna take a while. Chinese is an unlikely candidate due to how difficult it is to learn to speak and especially read and write, despite the rising international influence of the Chinese state. And I rather doubt that Europe's Germanic-speaking countries will stop using English as a lingua franca anytime soon, it's just too easy to learn for them compared to any other possible candidate.

Let's hope it's not going to be Russian anytime soon.

Something like Esperanto would be a nice alternative for the EU, though. Maybe there's other artificial languages that are even better? I'm not well-versed in this topic.

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[–] adamhepner@szmer.info 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But what instead? Spanish? German? Esperanto?

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

I root for Spanish! Creating a bridge with my Latino friends and thus upsetting the US at the same time.

[–] remon@ani.social 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes. It's easy and already established. There is no reason to change it.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

They should just stick with speaking American.

/Dodges shoes and runs away

[–] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

Would be great to switch to mandarin. /s for all you humourless.

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