Language Trends of the Future

Language Trends of the FutureThere are consistent trends in the past evolution of languages, and inall likelihood they will continue to change in the same fashion in thefuture.In 200 years, spoken French will have only one sound, a vowel. Allconsonants and gaps between words and sentences will disappear, leavingonly an extended „Eauuuuuuuuuuuu…“ Meaning will be inferred fromfacial expression. Written French will stay exactly the same.These consonants will not be entirely forgotten; they will migrateto Czechoslovakia, which will by that time have no use for vowels.In 200 years, the English vocabulary will be the union of all othervocabularies, but the spelling will be original.Similarly, the Japanese alphabet will be the union of all otheralphabets in the world.The Cyrillic alphabet will eventually be the same as the Latinalphabet, only backwards. A mirror will suffice for translatingRussian into Polish.Finally, in 200 years, entire books in Germany will be one word. Plusa verb at the end, of course.[From Henry_Cate_III.OSBU_North@xerox.com]