Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Quite possible, indeed, but I think the English language 400 years from now would still be pretty recognizable to us. I absolutely love that Bob Bridges brought out some Chaucer, but I think our change from that era, some 600 years since, was due to circumstances different from those that will attain in the future. I'm mostly sure I might be proven wrong by then, but I don't see anything like the invasion of Normans or the great "vowel shift" dramatically changing English anytime soon. Most new words never gain enough widespread recognition, and it's incredible, in light of the evolution of language, just how similar the American-English language is now to the American-English language of the late 18th century.

However, I could see Mandarin having a huge influence on the English language in the future. It's pretty much beyond argument at this point that English is the de facto world language, especially for international business. But as China gains more economic clout, its primary language will gain much more influence. And since American-English has a history of appropriating foreign words into English — which makes our language that much richer — I think American-English 400 years from now could be some mostly-English, partly-Mandarin blend (much like many Bollywood movies, in which characters pepper their Hindi with English words and phrases). On the other hand, if the Copenhagen Diagnosis (available at http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/) turns out to be correct, it's more likely our descendants will be speaking "Porpoise" in 400 years.