Lulz the dominant language, if there will be one, will most definitely be chinese.

out of all things it would be chinese.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2gii2nenUg&feature=related

I'm suprised that some people think Chinese could become the "world language" one day. I don't think it ever will.

There's several reasons English has become the world's dominant 2nd language.

The main reason imo is:
It's easy to learn, speak and write compared to - say - French or German (at least as far as I can tell, as the latter one is my native language, but many foreigners who live here told me that German is a hard language, especially the writing). I assume English is also easier to learn than Chinese, not to speak of the Chinese writing barrier for Non-Asians.

The only other language I know, which is similar to English with regards to "easy access level" for western people, is Spanish. It's probably even easier than English, but I don't speak or write Spanish well enough to know for sure.

I don't think that 100 millions of people outside China will ever learn Chinese. I laugh at those parents who send their pre-school children to Chinese classes in order to give them advantages in the future (yes, those people exist). The notion that China will dominate our business world or cultures before the children of today retire is ridiculous.

As to the hypothetical OP question:
If English would ever become the world population's 1st language, I think the prevailing accent would be US.

This is only anecdotal, but from my observations over the past years among relatives/friends/colleagues I got the impression that already today many people in Germany have problems to understand British English, even though BE is taught at school. Especially those who don't speak English fluently seem to have fewer problems to understand US English.

Now if he turns out to be from New Zealand then that's just a slap in the face...

Where do you live? It's already turning out to be a serious advantage in Africa if you speak Chinese. I'm sure its the same in other parts of the world.

''I laugh at those parents who send their pre-school children to Chinese classes''

You won't be laughing when those children become your boss.

90% of Canadians sound the exact same as 90% of people from the US.  The only places in Canada that sound different is the east coast, the far north and Quebec.  Even parts of the Uk sound pretty similar to canadian and US accents.

flush n clops, 

i dont know whats with NZ and Africana people having the same bad accent(not as bad as southen american accent gezz) but if that ever happens, i will rip out my own voice box. 

those who can afford the luxary of travel got education. Its around 150 million in India, but it is growing 

China will be the largest, i should of said, because the amount of people wanting to learn english is massive, but there is an shortage of teachers.