It's Over 9000.

This isn't another meme post or a funny article.  The title simply says this: Over 9000 languages will be lost.

It's both a tragedy and a step forward.  Surely I may be considered a pessimist for thinking like this, but hear out this train of thought.

In the steps towards technological innovation phone companies had a problem.  5 years ago many different types of phone chargers were floating around.  Each were generally specific to the model or brand of phone, and seldomly they were cross compatable.  In today's world, there's only two different types of phone chargers.  Ones that are for Apple products, and those which are not. 

The same is true of the development of all Apple products.  Instead of creating different operating systems for their devices, they have created a single operating system in which to run their hardware.  Windows 8 is a testimate to this as well.

If this is how technology behaves, then why do we expect anything different when it comes to languages?  Just like different phone chargers or different operating systems, they create a barrier in which time is in some way spent overcoming.

It's my belief that the world will all one day convert to English or Mandarin.  Why?  Well here's some facts.

- All computer coding software availible is in english.  While string variables can be in any language, it takes additional software to convert the reserved words of a programming language into another spoken language.  Granted, this would have to be done for every single computer language used today (HTML, CSS, PHP, Objective C, C++, C#, VB, Java, Javascript, SQL, mrSQL, etc...)

-Mandarin according to Vanishing Voices is the most spoken first language. 


It's a tough reality to accept, but it's the future I'm bracing for.  It's simply the pattern that has already affected everything else.

In the Parallels We Struggle to Upkeep

When the bell struck in the year 1947, the United Nations established Israel as a Jewish state.  Because of this, the Christian Palestinian community had three options: convert, brave the masses, or leave. 
When the bell struck at the age of 15, a young boy who was slightly different from everyone else had to make a choice.  Fit in, brave the masses, or find new friends.

The story of the Christian Palestinian community is not all that differen't from growing up.  Some search for a long time to find their identity.  For us, we have the upper hand in the sense that we have all of college to figure that out.  However, during this time in our lives we all will be subject to the phrase "Oh, it's just another college kid" just as the Palestinians are held to the phrase "Oh, it's just another terrorist".  While one is much more extreme in the other in reality, both groups of people will face the same injustice of being given an identity with a negative context surrounding it.

As we grow up and possiblty obtain our identity of who we are, we lose the ability to go back just as the Palestinians cannot go back.  The older we get, the more likely with each passing day our grandparents, and our parents will pass on.  Soon following, their houses will be sold to some random family so that they can continue their lives.  How can one go back at that point... do you ask them to let you into their home so you can feel nostalgia?  It all seems a tad bit odd in today's world.

Then there's yet another argument.  Does anyone ever truly find their identity?  People are constantly changing, so when is it safe to say that an identity is found?  If the answer to the question tells us that we cannot change rapidly once we find our identites, then we'd all be our ignorent members of the family who aren't quite up with the times.  That is a trap I refuse to be in.

The only identity I keep is a name.  Everything else is expendable and changable.

Joe.