I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that English has changed so much that it was hard for some to comprehend Shakespeare. On a celestial scale, that is pretty pathetic. I assume if you're a writer, you're goal is to get your work out as soon as possible, but I am curious to see if anyone's in it for the long haul? If you wanted to write a story to people 5000 years from now, which script would you write it in? The one of ancient Egypt? Coptic? Greek? Hebrew?
I mean, I've read Billy Shakes. He ain't that difficult to parse. Also, English is the language that I know - it's not just the one I'm most eloquent in, it's the only one I'm remotely comprehensible in. It's got a lot of speakers, so I think it's probably pretty likely to hang in there in some form despite your weirdly clickbaity thread title. Why would I pick anything else?
5 000 years from now? I wouldn't imagine anyone would be speaking any language we'd recognize from today. (That said, I think Shakespeare is difficult for some readers because he's writing in verse and/or using highly figurative language--the actual English he uses isn't too hard to figure out).
In Bio of a Space Tyrant, Piers Anthony's MC says that Spanish has changed less than other languages over the centuries. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, that might be a good place to start, although 5000 years is a long, long period.
English. English is a beautiful language, and the fact you don't see that means you've not read enough. If I was to write the next Western Canon, it would be in English, not Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, but English. What is so eww about it? People have a right to support themselves, don't they?
I'd write it in American English. Because if they can't read that, fuck them. They're unworthy of my glory.
Shakespeare isn't dead, we still rehash his stories in modern English and tons of other languages. Romans didn't speak English, but we still read/watch classics. If a story is capable of surviving 5000 years, it doesn't matter what language it's in. Stories find a way.
As a consumer, I wish books were further categorized: Authors who write out of passion & authors who write to eat Quantity over quality YUCK. Garbage. Gravity is too high in this thread. I'm heading out.
Given that five thousand years ago the neolithic period was just ending, its probably safe to say that if human kind is still around it will be as unrecognisable to us as life today would be to a neolithic person
Well, don't read or buy their books, or talk to them even. ... Myself, I would organise the 'passionate' writers into a union of writers, then make them work in the air-conditioned offices writing numbers. And, as for the hungry types I would chase them into the skips at the back of fast food restaurants, hose them down afterwards, maybe, ruin all their paper poetry. Finally, my hit-squads would annihilate the smug writer-breaths scattered in their mountain communities, hidden and wearing sandals & cats & coffee & their revolting intelligence and they must be eliminated, [hear me Pacific Ocean] they are hidden amidst ceramicists and painters, folkists & other various degenerates.
Time traveller's just popped in to see me, wafted in all ethereal like from ad 7011 and telepathed (in about a millisecond come to think of it). Told me to tell yous to carry on in whatever language you like—his lot over there will have zero interpretation problems and understand all the crap (his words) they dig up. Way more so than even us, the creators of it. Said our stuff's so piss easy to fathom that even the greatest works of this time are seen, to them, as cave paintings are to us. Said the thread's folly < whatever that means. Messenger remember. Then he wafted out.
Yeah, he visited again in a few weeks' time. Msg read: @deadrats makes it, ends up in the New Yorker Xmas 2020 edition. You Sir, he fessed, knocked up something that held his attention for a yoctosecond: Cool eh. I think the billowy bit at the top is diesel fumes.
Living languages change. The only languages that don't are things like Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew and archaic Greek, which have a literature but aren't spoken anymore. They are preserved simply because of their literary or religious significance. But change in the English language has been slowed by increased literacy and printing. As much as English has changed in the four hundred years since Shakespeare died, it still hasn't changed as much as it did in the mere two hundred years before that, during Chaucer's time. And Chaucer's English is far different the English of the island before the Norman Conquest. Will it keep changing? You bet it will. But it may still resemble today's English enough to be understood. If not, it will still be preserved because of the richness of its literature, even if that literature is appreciated in translation.
Yeah passion doesn't pay the bills .... unless you an actor or a prostitute. That said its a daft distinction becaiuse most writers wouldnt write nless they had a passion for it (even those doing it to pay the bills) you've got to really want to do something to do it when you could make better money in a joe job
People in 2045 will be able to hear Churchill's speeches. People in the year 3,000 will be able to see thousands of hours of Obama footage, even if there was a nuclear holocaust and several centuries of dark ages in the interim. The ability to record speech anywhere at any time has probably made language evolution as slow as it can be.
So, what about authors like me that write stories because we love writing, but still want to make a living doing so? Do you expect the "real" authors to live in little shanties with tattered clothing, begging for scraps while they perfect their artful little opus? Because the writer that wants widespread recognition, to be able to support their family and themselves doing what they love... that's the writer that doesn't deserve your respect? I'm sorry if the gravity of the real world harms your vision for why artists should make their art. As for the actual topic, languages change. The world changes. Writers use their life experiences and understanding of language to make their stories. A writer may envision a different future in their stories, but it's foolish to try to write a book that appeals to a future market based on any metric, including the future's language of choice. If English "dies", hey, it means some linguist in 5000 years has a job translating old books. And the books they'll most be interested in translating will be the ones that represent what the world was like at the time, or had the most cultural influence. And chances are... ...those books will be the ones... ...that made the most money.
Because if you want to live a life of wealth and jaded luxury, writing is absolutely the right path. There's really no other profession more likely to produce that outcome.
English like many languages evolves over time. We don't pronounce the K in knight or knee like they did back in the day. Who knows what it will be like in the future 5000 years from now, but it will be English even if we would not be able to comprehend it in the same way that our future speakers do. And they are right to a point you cannot eat passion. You can how ever eat passion fruit. You can still write with passion, but if you don't put it out in the market to sell, passion will not put bread on the table.