opinions on very long term storage and references from Google search

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Mon May 17 09:29:24 2004

>>>>> "der" == der Mouse <mouse_at_rodents.montreal.qc.ca> writes:

>> In a hundred years the world will be speaking and writing Hindu or
>> whatever dialect is popular in China and India

 der> There's actually an excellent chance, I'd say, that that dialect
 der> will be far more similar to today's English than to Maharati or
 der> Cantonese or any of the other native Indian or Chinese
 der> languages. English is already a lingua franca in parts of the
 der> world where you wouldn't expect it ...

Correct -- English is, by far, the most widely understood language in
the world. (In other words, counting both first and second language
skills.)

If you're looking at first (native) language only, English probably is
still first for the simple reason that "Chinese" is not a single
language but an inaccurate term that collects together a fair number
of quite different languages.

   paul
Received on Mon May 17 2004 - 09:29:24 BST