The Future of Language

I often wonder about the future of language.

And yes, the singular “language.”
In 2003, Hollywood released Code 46m a film that discusses something very similar to what I’d been wondering about. The movie takes place in the not-so-distant future with people “inside” and “outside” of a very controlled system in which “papeles” (papers in the pidgin language everyone speaks) are required for authorization. All of the characters speak a language that is essentially English, but with different words from Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Mandarin… For example, people greet one another in Mandarin, saying “Ni Hao.” Everyone has a “palabra” as a password and can get “Outside” if they have their “papeles.” Couples say “Ti amo” to one another and when William (Tim Robbins) is asked if he has children, they ask him “Chico or chica?”

A lot of sentences are put together like these:
“You ever live afuera?”
“Did you have a cerveza?”
“I can’t find my cosa!”

Will the world communicate this way in the future? And if so, in a not-so-distant future? I actually feel that with the growth of “Spanglish” (and other combinations of languages), we are already on our way…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 6:26 pm and is filed under For the Spanish Translator, Spanish Language Translation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.