THE WORLD’S MOST COMMONLY SPOKEN LANGUAGE IN 2050: FRENCH

The world’s most commonly spoken language by the year 2050, according to a study by Natixis, an investment bank, will be French. French is currently ranked sixth among world languages, after Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic. But it is gaining speakers quickly and, the study reports, will be spoken by 750 million in 2050, up from 220 million today. The reason why: French-speaking populations are growing faster than English- and Mandarin-speaking ones. French is spoken in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria and 28 other countries – which happen to be some of world’s fastest-growing nations. In Africa, French is the official schooling language of countries with increasingly high fertility rates like Mali in the north, and Guinea, Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo in the sub-Saharan region. A demographic boom in these African states could bump the world’s percentage of French speakers from 3 percent today to 8 percent by 2050. Meanwhile, China and many English-speaking countries are likely to experience a demographic slowdown, which could lead to an expected decline in the number of English speakers – from 8 percent to 3 percent of the world’s population. For Mandarin, a drop from 10 percent to 8 percent is anticipated.
* Great, my 7 years of high school French is about to pay off.
* Sounds like French will be spoken by more people, but not by people who count.
* Relax, by 2050 we’ll only communicate with text messages and as you know, they don’t follow any language.
* Wait, 220 million French speakers will increase to 750 million? I think my BS meter just went off.
* 750 million out of 8 billion people by 2050? Doesn’t sound like a real solid majority to me.
* For an investment bank, this Natixis outfit sure has some lousy math skills.
* I’m taking my fortune somewhere else to invest.
* Just once before I die, I’d like to see a study that makes some sense.
* What’s the French expression for, “I’m not buying it”?