I’m wondering, why exactly did the English language become so popular? Was it really because of 19th century Victorian Era industrialization? Well, looking into the Wikipedia article on the subject, that’s basically it. That and British Empire colonization.
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Spread_of_Modern_English
“Latin is a dead language.” Latin use to be the lingua franca, before English took over. Why did Latin fall? Basically, it had to do with the fall of the Roman empire.
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language
Now, I”m wondering. Which language is the oldest language? Could it be Chinese? Mandarin is another word for Standard Chinese. And in fact, Mandarin is the second most popular native language, after Spanish. English comes after Mandarin as a third, but English is probably the most popularly used language in the world when counting learned speakers.
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese
Chinese comes close to being the oldest. It is by far the most popular old language still in modern use, if you exclude some of the modernizations such as Simplified Chinese. But by far the oldest language still used in its original form and still with appreciable popular use Tamil. Plus, being of Indian origin, and with Indian culture showing no signs of slowing down, the language has a formidable future ahead of it.
20150908/http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/24988?ref=W_Ask&utm_source=Ask
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_numerals
I don’t think many people still use the Classic Greek language in a modern context. Otherwise, Greek would have been a candidate for consideration.
Another interesting find. Kanbun, like at work, right?
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinese
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun
What about Arabic? Well, that’s comparatively new to the others. Not quite old enough for me.
20150908/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic
Side note. I’m impressed by UCLA’s open computing facility. They run Debian GNU/Linux. They give everyone mechanical keyboards. They give everyone server space. They really know how to do things.
20150909/https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/
20150909/https://hello.ocf.berkeley.edu/