我們都知道英語是世界使用最廣泛的語言。美國馬里蘭州陶森大學英語歷史學家Edwin Duncan博士日前稱，人們現在使用的英語將在100年后消失，被一種叫做“Panglish”的世界性語言代替。這種語言類似于母語非英語的人們所說的英語。

We know that English is the prevailing world language, and that Chinglish should be avoided. However, a new global tongue, called "Panglish", is expected to overtake traditional English in the coming decades.

The language of Shakespeare and Dickens is evolving into a new, simplified form of English that will be spoken by billions of people around the world. The changes are being driven by people who speak English as a second language, New Scientist magazine reports.

According to the report, Panglish will be similar to the versions of English used by non-native speakers.

Linguists say Panglish will lose some of the English sounds which non-native speakers find difficult to pronounce. For instance, the "th" sounds in "this" and "thin" might be replaced by "z" or "s", respectively. The short "l" sound in "hotel" might be replaced with the longer "l" of "lady".

Consonants at the end of words may be dropped. So "friend" may be pronounced as "frien" and "send" as "sen". Group nouns like "information" and "furniture" – which don't have plural versions – could vanish. Therefore, it may become acceptable in Panglish to talk about "informations" and "furnitures".

Non-English speakers often forget the "s" at the end of third person singular verbs like "he runs" or "she walks". In Panglish, people may say "he talk" or "she eat".

"By 2010, around 2 billion people, or a third of the world's population, will speak English as a second language. In contrast, just 350 million people will speak it as a first language. By 2020, the number of native speakers will be down to 300 million," the Daily Mail newspaper predicts.

Unlike French, which is protected from corruption by the Academie Francaise, there is no organization to guard the English language.

（來源：21世紀英文報第749期 中山大學通訊員陳萌供稿 英語點津 Annabel 編輯）

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