How technology and globalisation are changing language as we know it.
In our everchanging lexical world, where languages twist and turn, and sometimes bend over backwards or die out to suit trends, cultural changes and technology, the future of the spoken and written word is difficult to predict.
Around the World
The influence of globalisation is operating in quicker and more complex ways, and creating a more connected world than ever before. This multi-cultural epoch that we live in affects language in significant ways, for wherever we go, we bring our language with us.
As the impact of the major global languages increases, it continues to pressurise local languages into adapting, and year by year we are seeing more languages bowing out. The extinction of many of Taiwan’s indigenous languages – from Ketagalan to Siraya – is a direct reaction to the spread of Mandarin in the country, and presents a hard hitting reality for many local languages that this may also be their fate.
But could this extinction of local tongues follow suit on a global scale? Linguist, educationalist and communications professional Teresa Tinsley does not believe that the world will return to a ‘pre-Babel’ state where we all speak one major language. Some linguists suggest that either English or Chinese will form the world’s lingua franca. In fact, many of the major languages inter-breed with the local colloquialisms and create a variant form of that language.
Denne historien er fra AG 120 2016-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
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Denne historien er fra AG 120 2016-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Revealed Doctor Yellow
Japan Railways' special lemony Shinkansen is a rare sight to behold
The Mighty Yellow
Over 5,000 kilometres long and flowing through nine provinces and autonomous regions, the Yellow River is China's second largest, after the Yangtze, while its basin is deemed the cradle of Chinese civilisation
Wildlife Big Yellow Beauty
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All That Glitters Is Gold
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Conservation Yellow in Peril
While the demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine is putting seahorses under pressure, it is damaging non-selective fishing that is driving depletion
History Spiritual Rebirth
During the Spanish Golden Age, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific, arriving in the Philippines in 1521 and claiming the islands for Spain. But by converting the first Filipinos to Catholicism, Magellan also instigated the Christianisation of the entire archipelago, a spiritual rebirth celebrated through the two most important festivals in the Philippines - Fiesta Señor and Sinulog.
Green Dreams
With its tea plantations and rice paddies, dense jungles and expansive forests, the region is well known as a green paradise. But many of the most impressive Asian landscapes have names you may never have heard of. Journey with us as we reveal just some of the incredible locations that make the rest of the world green with envy!
Life On The Edge
In the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, in the remote northern Russian Far East, indigenous ethnic groups like the Chukchi and the Yupik live in the most extreme conditions, hunting seals in their traditional kayaks as they have for millennia
The Karakoram Anomaly Decoded
For decades, scientists have believed that glaciers in the Karakoram Range are defying the trend of those across the globe-resisting glacial melt due to human-induced global warming. But as we trek up the Karakoram's second-longest glacier in July, as the United Nations announces the world's hottest ever month on record, does the melting ice beneath our feet suggest the so-called Karakoram Anomaly is slowing? Or is there a ray of hope it will continue to delay the inevitable?