Multilingualism on the Net :: Languages Technology Papers

Multilingualism on the Net What will be the effect of the lucre upon natural languages in the 21st century? It is widely accepted that, generally speaking, any in the buff media change languages. For example, the prevalence of TV has dramatically homogenized spoken accents everywhere the past few decades. Young people tend to speak in almost the same way as TV casters, and local dialects and accents hang on only among the speech of older people. This TV effect, however, is insignificant as comp atomic number 18d with the spacious effect of print media on languages over the past few century years. The prevailing print texts, especially newspapers etc., enabled millions of people who had never met each former(a)wise to think about the same topics in the same language, thus creating a sort of community identity. This community identity was transformed into national identity, upon which in turn the nation-state was established, as discussed by political scientist Benedict Anderson 1. Print languages argon widely acknowledged as standard national languages, for which dictionaries are edited, and lessons are given in schools. On the other hand, other languages gradually diminishd. Since the grocery economy requires any printing business to have a sure amount of readers, print languages tend to be limited to so-called study languages spoken by millions of people. In short, the number of written languages on the public decreased after the arrival of print media. What, then, will the arrival of the Internet bring about? ---- Roughly speaking, we can predict two perspicuous directions. The first unrivaled is English monopoly. The Internet has originated in the coupled States, and it is self-evident that at present most international correspondence takes place in English. This is partly for the historical reason that the Internet has developed as a communication tool for the researchers of science and technology whose common language is English. presently general people in addition to science and technology researchers oft utilize the Internet, but English is still the dominant language if one wants to look at foreign Web sites or send email across state borders. Therefore there is the possibility that, sooner or later in the 21st century, English will become the resole common language for international communication, thereby accompanying the inescapable decline of other languages. In this case the term orbiculateization means the hegemony of English-based, United States-centered single culture spreading all over the world. On the other hand, however, we may expect the second direction where various cultures in diametrical countries thrive and interchange with each other, resulting in fruitful and plural global culture.