MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mandarin replaces English as the main language

English worldwide as the main language is declining surpassed by Chinese, and in half a century Arabic, Hindu languages and Spanish will also be ahead, forecasts scientist David Graddol.

According to an article published in the latest edition of Science, given current demographic changes and new technologies, mandarin has consolidated as the world's most spoken language.

By 2050 Spanish that has grown steadily since 1950 will be spoken by 6% of the world population, while English will drop from 9 to 5%. However, Arabic, Hindu, Urdu spoken in India and areas of influence, plus Bengali, Tamil, and Malaysian will be even more popular.

"We're going through an extraordinary period of linguistic history. After centuries of evolution the language system has reached a crisis point and is rapidly restructuring", says Mr. Graddol a linguistics expert who works with the British Council.

In 1995 English was the second language behind mandarin and in many countries a multi-language population is becoming quiet normal.

According to the latest US census, 20% of the American population speaks a second language, the vast majority Spanish, followed by Chinese.

The idea prevalent in the XIX and XX centuries that English would be the dominant language is "out of fashion" according to Mr. Graddol.

English is still the second language in Europe and compulsory in many continental schools. However in Asia companies are looking further into the horizon and have included mandarin as a second compulsory language.

Mr. Graddol also points out that even when many languages tend to disappear, "others will emerge with a hybrid component which will help maintain the global diversity. And as with the different forms of English, the big cities will see the blending of languages and the acceleration of changes".

But English will continue to have a major impact in the creation of the new linguistic world order, with generations becoming fluent in two and more languages, underlined Mr. Graddol.