How can the Internet affect global language?

A very interesting question. However to answer this question we must first agree on what we mean by global language. To my mind global language signifies a language used by large number of people from different countries across the Globe to communicate with each other. Currently, the language that serves this purpose is English.

Then this question can be re-framed as, "With increasing use of Internet, will English continue to be the global language, and if so what kind of features or changes can be expected in the English used for global communication?"

Currently I do not see even a distant second competitor to challenge the position of English as the global language. There It is quite certain that for a long time to come English will remain to be the global language. However, wider use of English across the Globe in general, and for Internet communication in particular is sure to modify English language in many ways.

As it is, all languages evolve and change with time. Also, all languages have variations used by used by different sets of people. English is no exceptions to these rules. The English of Shakespeare is so different from English of today. Actually I have seen copies of Shakespeare dramas translated in to modern English. Also, there are many different variations of English spoken in by different people. For example we have American English, British English, Indian English, and so on.

Now we have already seen development of what may be called Internet English. I believe this type of Internet English will become more and more popular and, over a period  will replace all different variations of English. No one can predict with certainty the exact nature of this kind of language, but certain trends are clearly visible, which are described below.

• It will be more of the language of young people. This means that a lot of what what we consider the slang of young people will evolve in to the mainstream language.


• It is a language of people in hurry. People are more likely to use short word, short sentences and abbreviations.


• Share of written communication as a proportion of total written and spoken communication will increase. With this the tendency to be more formal in written communication will reduce and there will be less difference between written and spoken language.


• There will be lot of communication between people of different geographical regions. This will result in fewer dialects of English being used by different people.