How the English Language Became the World’s Language.

English is the world's leading international language. It is the principal language spoken in Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and some other countries such as Uganda and Botswana. About 320 million people speak English as their first language - about the same number as Spanish, but less than Mandarin Chinese or Hindi.

The total number of English speakers in the world is estimated to be about 460 million - second only to Mandarin Chinese.

English is the main second language in India, South Africa and many parts of Africa and Asia. But - more and more - it is also the language of international commerce, of business, of diplomacy and of tourism.

But how did English reach this special position?

Mostly, it was a result of chance. Britain was the world's most active colonial nation in the 19th century, and British explorers and colonists took their language with them wherever they went. English became the official language of most of Britain's colonies. In the 20th century, America has been the world's most powerful nation - and Americans have brought the English language to other countries of the world.

The importance of American international corporations has made sure that English has become the international language of business; and Hollywood and the music industry have made sure that it has become the principal language for the media and showbiz. But other factors have helped with the international development of English too.

Over a thousand years ago, when the roots of modern Europe were being formed, western Europe was divided into three sections: in the East there were people who spoke Slavonic languages, in the middle there were people speaking Germanic languages (including Scandinavians), and in the south and west there were people speaking "Romance" languages, derived from Latin. In the far west of Europe, there were also people speaking Celtic languages, such as Gaelic.

In those days, England was a Germanic country; its people spoke a variety of languages including forms of Danish and Anglo Saxon, as well as some Celtic languages. In 1066, England was conquered by the Normans, from France, who brought with them their own langage - Norman French - a Romance language.

In the centuries that followed, the old Germanic languages mixed with Norman French to produce a new language, English, which was thus rather different from other European languages. It was partly Germanic (particularly the grammar and structures), partly Romance (a lot of thevocabulary). The Celtic languages remained alive in Cornwall and other parts of the British Isles.

In other words, English is at the dividing line of the two principal families of language used in Western Europe today. Most people in Europe today can recognise something of their own language in English.

For example, if you speak a Germanic language (German, Dutch, or a Scandinavian language), you do not need to have learned much (or even any) English to understand this sentence:
The man forgot to water his garden last night

Anyone who speaks French or Spanish or Italian, should be able to understand this English sentence without too much difficulty:

Indicate if you have a difficult problem. As English is half way between two different language groups, speakers of other languages have often found it easy to communicate in English, even without paying attention to grammar!

Nevertheless, grammar is important; for without grammar, no language can survive. Grammar is the cement with which the bricks of language are held together. Without it, even messages in simple English can be quite impossible to understand.
Just look at the importance of word order in these simple examples, which are entirely different in meaning:

The man the woman saw was hungry.
The man saw the woman was hungry.

Or look at the radical difference in meaning between these two sentences:

This is a story forgotten by Charles Dickens.
This is a forgotten story by Charles Dickens.

In recent times, as English has become a global language, used in different places all over the world, it has become a much richer language than in the past. It has picked up new words from other cultures, other languages, such asbungalow (from India), détente (from French), kebab (from Turkey), potato (from American Indian) - plus a lot of modern slang from America.

Today, both grammar and vocabulary are still changing. There is no such thing as "official English"; neither Britain nor the USA has anything official like the "Académie Française" to decide what is acceptable and what is not. The most accepted sources of reference are the famous English dictionaries - Websters for the USA and the Oxford English Dictionary for British English. Like other dictionaries however, they are descriptive not prescriptive - i.e. they describe language as it is used, they do not tell people what they can or should say or should not say.

Today's English is different from the English of 100 years ago; it is pronounced differently too - and no doubt, it will be even more different in 100 years' time.


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Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language.
ENGLISH has displaced rivals to become the language of diplomacy, of business, of science, of the internet and of world culture. Many more people speak Chinese—but even they, in vast numbers, are trying to learn English. So how did it happen, and why? Robert McCrum’s entertaining book tells the story of the triumph of English—and the way in which the language is now liberated from its original owners.
The author’s knack for finding nuggets enriches what might otherwise seem a rather panoramic take on world history from Tacitus to Twitter. Take the beginnings of bilingualism in India, for example, which has stoked the growth of the biggest English-speaking middle class in the new Anglosphere. That stems from a proposal by an English historian, Thomas Macaulay, in 1835, to train a new class of English speakers: “A class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals, and in intellect.” At a stroke, notes Mr McCrum, English became the “language of government, education and advancement, at once a symbol of imperial rule as well as of self-improvement”. India’s English-speaking middle class is now one of the engines of that country’s development and a big asset in the race to catch up with China.
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Bit by bit, English displaced French from diplomacy and German from science. The reason for this was America’s rise and the lasting bonds created by the British empire. But the elastic, forgiving nature of the language itself was another. English allows plenty of sub-variants, from Singlish in Singapore to Estglish in Estonia: the main words are familiar, but plenty of new ones dot the lexicon, along with idiosyncratic grammar and syntax.

Mr McCrum hovers over this point, but does not nail it. English as spoken by non-natives is different. The nuanced, idiomatic English of Britons, North Americans, Antipodeans (and Indians) can be hard to understand. Listen to a Korean businessman negotiating with a Pole in English and you will hear the difference: the language is curt, emphatic, stripped-down. Yet within “Globish”, as Mr McCrum neatly names it, hierarchies are developing. Those who can make jokes (or flirt) in Globish score over those who can’t. Expressiveness counts, in personal and professional life.

The big shift is towards a universally useful written Globish. Spellchecking and translation software mean that anyone can communicate in comprehensible written English. That skill once required mastery of orthographical codes and subtle syntax acquired over years. The English of e-mail, Twitter and text messaging is becoming far more mutually comprehensible than spoken English, which is fractured by differences in pronunciation, politeness and emphasis. Mr McCrum aptly names the new lingo “a thoroughfare for all thoughts”. Perhaps he should have written that chapter in Globish, to show its strengths—and limitations.

Source: The Economist