Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Disagree

What's likelier is the evolution of English into a classical language - which lends its vocabulary to other languages exactly as Latin and Greek did in the past

It may still remain the mother tongue of large sections of UK, US, Canada, and Aus. But not beyond that

https://twitter.com/sagatu_manishi/status/1153610994817495040

The only people who have "given up" their mother tongue, and picked up English as their MT over the past 400 years are the migrants from Europe to the New World (be it US, Canada, Aus)

German is the most common ancestry in US. Yet most German Americans speak English

In part this has happened because most of the Founding fathers in the US were Anglo Saxon. And the incipient American State was v much English speaking

As other European migrants did not maintain endogamy in the new world, they lost their lingual identity

But besides the three major new world outposts of US, CA and Aus/NZ, very few people elsewhere have picked up English as their mother tongue

Hardly any in India for instance

Sub-saharan Africa to a limited extent, I grant

In an Indian context, the growth of English as a "mother tongue" is unlikely

Unless of course endogamy collapses in a big way - with very high labor mobility and inter-regional marriages

Even in that case, it remains to be seen what will be the link language among couples who marry across regions?

E.g. When a Tamilian marries a Bengali? What is the mother tongue in this household? English? Or Hindi?

From personal observation it is sort of 50-50 at the moment

I am not sure if Hindi or English will eventually win, in such scenarios.

I suspect it will remain 50-50...though I think Hindi will have an edge over the Germanic language in such households