English language dominance to be curtailed by ‘machine translation’
The global march of English as communication medium of choice for business, education and entertainment could be brought to a juddering halt if the predictions of a language expert come to pass.
Nicholas Ostler, author of the Rise and Fall of World Languages, said that the greatest threat to English isn’t Mandarin or Spanish – but “machine translation”, the projected ability of hand held devices to translate any given text or speech in real time.
This might seem far-fetched given the often amusingly primitive translation tools available today, such as Babelfish, but the rise of voice controlled software such as Siri show that the field is rapidly progressing.
Ostler said: “Everyone will speak and write in whatever language they choose and will understand.
“The most plausible future for English is that it will continue to be spoken as a mother tongue [in English-speaking nations] but its position as lingua franca will be overtaken by technology as more and more people live their lives electronically.”