English : the original open source language and ultimate human language

English is destined to become the official language of humanity. This is due in part to structural advantages and socioeconomic reasons I will illustrate to support my claim.

The first and most dominant reason is what I call the Hollywood effect. People in small countries, young people especially that have a choice in appetites seek the coolness that Hollywood marketing pumps out on the order of billions of dollars a year. It is newer bolder and speaks more to young people despite that they have a national language and culture that their parents use. Hollywood sells sexy smart and new in the pursuit of economic ends. Not cultural ones. But every satellite and every music video station shows young people the life they want. It's attributional envy.

The economic reasons are obvious. Today's largest economies use English based on the US superpower status. Even outsourced jobs in far away lands derive from teaching and training from English speaking staff living in Anglophone territories.  If you want to make money globally, you need to have English. In many countries, rich people hire English speakers to teach their children English. Do they know something the rest of their countrymen don't know? The richest nations are at least functional in English so it can't be a bad choice second language.

English is the language of banking, science, engineering, law, finance, in addition to Hollywood art. Most technical societeies are based in developed nations and write standards in English. Sure, sophisticated people listen to operas in Latin or Italian. But they speak English at the after-parties.

The structural reason why English will become the human language is that the history and structure of English makes it easy to use. It is simpler than German and French. It has less tenses, less conditions and it is easy to master basic English. Fluent English speakers know and use the exceptions but do not judge people learning. In addition, its harder for English people to learn the harder languages so it falls on others to learn English. Try speaking French or German in a store and watch the shopkeeper switch to English. How can they expect people to learn when they are snooty?

It's not like English people have a secret plan or illuminati aiming a strategy for global domination. It's not important to guide the language, it's just easier to use. People choose English because it makes sense.  The French have the Academie Francaise that demands people use the word couriel in French but normal people use the word e-mail. It's easier. People don't select language options they use the easiest option. That's the secret undermining factor. Instead of plotting, English-speaking people create in English and offer it to the world.

English is the original open source language. That's the insidious reason English will win. It doesn't compare to other languages. It subsumes them. It absorbed Latin terms and Greek terms as complimentary. Medicine depends on these terms and they blend effortlessly into English. It's structure is so simple it adds words faster than any other language: someone creates a new need for a word and responds by creating a new word from current word parts. Sometimes it's stolen from another language or mashed from root words. But it's created right there and promulgated. Email, after-parties, bromance, frenemy, tweaking and twerking. It is a living language that consumes all, not unlike The Simpsons consuming all of Hollywood culture and references.

Mark this prediction, it will become the dominant language of Earth.