Linguist says Spanish will surpass English

A linguistic study that appeared recently in Science magazine is receiving plenty of attention in the Spanish-speaking world. The report, written by British linguist David Gaddol, indicates that not only will the use of English decline in coming years, but that the number of Spanish speakers worldwide will increase to 6 percent by 2050 — significantly ahead of English at 5 percent. But Spanish isn't the only language expected to grow in use — Mandarin is already the top language in terms of number of speakers, and Arabic and Hindi-Urdu are also expected to be ahead of both English and Spanish in their use. The idea that English will become a dominant world language is out of date, Gaddol says. (A summary of the study can be viewed at the Science site; free registration is required.)