WI On January 20 1985 all Americans suddenly speak 'American'

Free-Stater 101

Freedom Means Freedom!!!
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
So at the start of Reagan second term in 1985 America literally develops it's own 'American' language that's universally different from any other language? All Americans will be affected by this and will lose all ability to speak 'English' as a first language, foreign diplomats to English speaking countries will maintain the ability to speak English but only in a second language sense. All written English in the U.S. shall also be changed to this new 'American' language.

How does this affect the politics of the U.S. in the long term?
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
Assuming computerized records change alongside written ones, "American" becomes the new lingua franca. English was partly so dominant because of the widespread British Empire but in the modern day, it was cemented because the computer industry kicked off in the US and thus all the programming languages, keyboards, etc. were all in English. This is happening right as computers really start to take off and become a critical part of everything forever, so computers are still about to take over the world and make whatever language they're first designed in the lingua franca.
 

Buba

A total creep
Before American edges out English there will be economic consequences i.e. lesser exports of US made entertainment.
But that's not an impact on the OP's "US politics" - unless you imagine some sort of American Language Exports Matter movement rioting in the streets ...

BTW - English becoming an international lingua france dates to generations pre-computers - WWI and WWII, diminished prestige of French and German, The Beatles, Hollywood talkies, inability/refusal of Americans to learn foreign languages ...
By the time 'puters came along in the '80s and '90s, English was well entrenched as the international medium of communication.
 

Free-Stater 101

Freedom Means Freedom!!!
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Assuming computerized records change alongside written ones, "American" becomes the new lingua franca. English was partly so dominant because of the widespread British Empire but in the modern day, it was cemented because the computer industry kicked off in the US and thus all the programming languages, keyboards, etc. were all in English. This is happening right as computers really start to take off and become a critical part of everything forever, so computers are still about to take over the world and make whatever language they're first designed in the lingua franca.
I didn't think of that. Do you think the disconnect from english speaking countries when the internet comes about would in anyway affect it socially?
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
I didn't think of that. Do you think the disconnect from english speaking countries when the internet comes about would in anyway affect it socially?
Oh indeed, English was well entrenched but when every computer suddenly only works in American and computers make every imaginable business, especially in the booming science and tech fields, vastly superior to it's competition your options are going to be speak American or go out of business. That's going to catapult American to the top of languages.

Edited, because Falloutman basiclaly the same second I did:
Just look at today where 25% of Internet users are Chinese, but only 4.4% of the Internet itself uses the Chinese language. What do all those Chinese internet users communicate in? English. It's still well over half the internet while the second most common language is in single-digits. In the 80s and 90s the computer situation would be dramatically more shifted towards American.

And it wouldn't just be content, the programming languages will be in American so even if you wanted to make your own computers in English, you'll have to also write your own programming language, going all the way back to at least assembly language to do it... which language will use the American alphabet so you'll need American to do so anyway. All the keyboards will use the American alphabet, all the punch cards will use American numerals, etc.
 
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Free-Stater 101

Freedom Means Freedom!!!
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Oh indeed, English was well entrenched but when every computer suddenly only works in American and computers make every imaginable business, especially in the booming science and tech fields, vastly superior to it's competition your options are going to be speak American or go out of business. That's going to catapult American to the top of languages.
True, it might also slightly affect politics due to a now lack of a cultural bridge with Britain/Australia/Canada to Europe. Social Democracy will probably be less strived for without those counties being able to interact with U.S. speakers as well.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
True, it might also slightly affect politics due to a now lack of a cultural bridge with Britain/Australia/Canada to Europe. Social Democracy will probably be less strived for without those counties being able to interact with U.S. speakers as well.
I suspect America will become much more isolationist. Not being able to understand what those crazy foreigners are saying will make it significantly easier for a lot of the less involved citizens to care, and for the news to ignore them as irrelevant. It will also make it easier to demonize non-American-speaking pundits.

This will be most pronounced immediately after the change when communications will be extremely difficult, and interpreters will be required for everything except foreign Diplomats who still speak English. American will be completely unintelligible to foreigners meanwhile, as they all still speak only English.

Over time other nationals will learn to speak American and this situation will pass. Depending on how different American is, this will either be a matter of a year or two (If it's fairly similar, say related to the Latin language group) or decades (If it's something completely new and linguistic theory basically has to be built from scratch to understand it).

The situation will initially give Americans a brutal advantage, not only do they have the most powerful calculating tools in the world, espionage and the like won't work because nobody else on the planet can understand the language. This will hurt American espionage too, of course, but as all the people in the universe who are bilingual American/X are American citizens, they will have a massive head-start on training American spies to speak Russian/Chinese/English etc. compared to other nations who have zero ability to train their spies to understand American at first.

Overall this probably leads to an America that is more isolationist, more powerful, and has an inflated sense of self-worth compared to the rest of the world. Europe will probably have less American support, and have to put a lot more of their budget into self-defense against the USSR which will hamper their growth considerably.

The anime boom of the 80s and 90s is likely to be delayed a decade or more because there will be nobody available to write subtitles for some time.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
You know I am going to disagree with everything said here. Especially since posters are trying to alter the scenario, to suit their own bias. I say the USA actually looses out big time, due to the fact that they no longer speak the language of trade and that it will take a long time for them to tool over, and once trade is properly reestablished a long time to actually get their export economy up and running again. And this is going to absolutely destroy Hollywood's international influence too. And yes Europe is going to have to take care of itself and even become more economically self-reliant to defend itself against the soviets- and I'd say it might actually screw the USA since by the time their are trading again the Euros will be producing what they need. I think the Western Anglo countries are actually going to be in for a very good time, since the USA is now disconnected from global trade since they cannot properly communicate anymore, and the language of global trade is English. And now we also need to remember that this is going to seriously hamper immigration to the USA as well, since one there is no longer the benefit of English being spoken there, two there is going to be an economic recession, three there actually needs to be an infrastructure to teach the language be developed and so on.

Computer programming language is not going to magically change outside of the USA, because that would be fucking absurd and is torturing the scenario like a detainee at a CIA blacksite. It would be far more reasonable to say that it is all handwaved and that other countries are not effected at all since it is entirely out of the scope of the scenario. I'd actually say that this actually spurs innovation in other countries since the USA no longer is going to outcompete them and their will be a serious need for replacing American products.

What I think happens is that the United States suffers immensely from this, and is severely weakened- likely giving the Soviet Union a new lease on life, since they now have breathing room. And allowing it to continue to antagonize the USA for years to come. I say that this ends with this being seen as an almost biblical occurrence, the narrative becomes that the USA was struck down and their language confused as punishment for their hubris- because seriously it does sound like the Tower of Babel. The USA is going to suffer, since this is a massive shock to their country, and everyone is going to suffer as well due to the interconnected the world economy is.

And American is definitely not going to become popularized, since it is different than any other language. Which means there is no common ground to base any learning from, it is going to be utterly alien. And as Fallout said, it is going to be universally different, so it probably as per his statement it is going to be very much alien. And if it is that alien, it will be eminently difficult to learn it. Which I think reinforces any divine punishment narrative.

So tl;dr, I think given the fact that is going to be an enormous shock and going to mess with the trade of a country very much reliant on it, this is going to give the USA a very hard time. And since people tend to have a habit of interpreting things in a religious lens and the very nature of this scenario, I think there are going to be people who will see this as divine punishment. Especially since the language is so radically different, and cuts them off from the world.

@Fallout-Man101 This is your scenario, you shouldn't let people make shit up and alter it. Especially since the scenario getting altered as such makes it hard to actually debate. I can actually cite clear examples if you wish, and explain why I believe it to be unfair or against the spirit of your scenario.
 

Buba

A total creep
@Hlaalu Agent
I agree with most of your post.
"Hollywood" i.e. US made entertainment takes a small hit - and I suspect the movie industry is least affected, as movies are subbed or dubbed anyway.
1985 is early days of computerisation - so American might replace English. But just as well use of English may continue through inertia.
American replacing English as international lingua franca? Probably never. Universally different makes it more difficult to learn by people who know languages with Greco-Roman-Christian cultural background, as there are no shared Greek and Latin loanwords. But this does not change anything for native speakers of Chinese, Hindu, Arabic etc.
Before WWI you knew French or were identified as "ignorant peasant". If you were into the sciences knowing German was a Good Thing. The interwar period saw some inroads of English into this setting, yet still pre-WWII not knowing it was not big deal.
It was WWII which pushed English into the limelight. Still it took several decades to establish itself, IMO becoming the international language in the 1960s because reasons.
Come 1985 and the US now uses a different language? Sucks to be you :)
There is extant infrastructure to use English and to teach it - training tens of millions of teachers to instruct in American? That would take decades ...
 
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