english

Will English always be the international language forever?

If you look at the history of Europe, the first continental language was Latin. Time passed, and the centre moved north, to France. For a while, French was the international language, the language of diplomacy, etc.. That’s why the Latin phrase lingua franca, which nowadays usually means English, literally means the French language. Anyway, as time moved on, the Sun King faded, and the centre moved north again, this time to the UK (with some help from the US). English is currently the international language. But time doesn’t stop, it will move on, and the centre will move again. But to where?

Consider this: the basic unit of computing, of information science, of boolean logic, is the bit, holding a value of either yes or no. Quantum computing, among other things, enables multiple values to be held in a bit, in a qubit. One quantum bit holds more than two values. Now, back to languages. Historical movement suggests the next international language will come from a country to the north of the UK. But which? One such country has a language with one word for no, but seven words for yes. You could say their language is qubitic. That’s why, I suggest, technological and historical inevitability mean the next international language will be Icelandic.

Originally posted on quora.