Problem

But how?

Everybody bilingual: native language + global language?

Implausible, because:

• 5-7 thousand languages in the world (Gordon 2005)
• 90% of them may vanish within the next century (Woodbury 2006)
• Asymmetric bilinguality is unstable (Schiffman 1987)
• If people can't work in it, it dies (Mufwene 2002)

Everybody monolingual except translators?

Implausible, because:

• 7000 translations per utterance
• Delay
• Cost: $99 for 75 words into just one language (Language Line)