English as a world language

Nowadays the English language is spoken the length and breadth of the world and permeates the areas it has never reached before. It is the language of business, science, technology, the media and communication in general, so it serves as a lingua franca in many countries. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth, and it is second only to the Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. In fact, people, who speak English, fall into 3 groups. The 1st one is those who have learned it as their native language, it comprises about 400 million people, living in Britain, the USA, Australia, NZ and parts of Canada and South Africa. The next group consists of those who use it as a second language in a society which is mainly bilingual. Finally, the 3^rd group includes those who use it for a practical purpose.

However, the emergence of English as a world language is a relatively recent thing. Some 5 or 6 centuries ago the situation was quite different. For example, in Shakespeare’s time only a few million people spoke English. All of them lived in what is now GB. Through the centuries, as a result of various historical events the English language was established as a mother tongue outside England, and exported to all the continents of the world, which lead to its present standing.

In my opinion there’re several reasons why English has become a dominant language. First of all, it is the simplicity of form. English is an analytical language, that’s why English verbs have very few inflections, adjectives do not change according to the noun and the category of gender is not distinguished. One more characteristic of this language is its flexibility, which means that without any inflections one and the same word can operate as different parts of speech at the same time. What is more, the openness of its vocabulary is noteworthy. English is mixing with marrying other languages around the world. For instance, words newly coined or in vogue in one language are often added to English as well. Besides, nowadays a good command of English isn’t perceived as prestigious but as a must alongside knowing how to use a computer and drive a car. So English is a vital key to a good job. Certainly, some people may argue that its pronunciation is difficult, the spelling is terrible and the vocabulary is totally confusing, there are many exceptions to different rules and it is very idiomatic. Personally, I think that any language is difficult in its own way. What is more a great number of exceptions prove that a language is created by people, not computers. You know language can be compared with the air we breathe, so we should take it for granted. By the way, I can’t see the point of simplifying spelling, because in my opinion there is certain logic in it, what is more it may enhance ambiguity and create misunderstanding between people.

However, English as a world language faces several problems I’d like to touch upon. Some scholars claim that English risks being destroyed by the way it is evolving. It represents a fusion of neologisms, approximations and distortions. Thus it loses its position as a language of culture. Judging by its standing in India, we may suppose that although English serves as a link language in post colonial countries, it is more popular with not numerous sloppy populations, besides, it faces a quality problem, as it is frequently spoken badly and is read and written with poor frequency. What is more, purists of other languages are trying to resist creeping of English words into their languages. As far as I know in France, where there seems to be a perennial war on Franglais, a list of English terms was published the use of which was prohibited. If the forbidden words were inscripted on a product, it was said to be kept of the market, while the manufacturer would face legal action. Unfortunately, I don’t know whether this law is still in force and how strictly it is obeyed, but I think that it was passed mainly for reasons of politics. However I concur that there’s sometimes affluent and unnecessary use of foreign terms. And I also believe that it proves that if one language is trying to take hold of other languages, it’s naturally that people would fight against it and protect their languages. Last but not least, some experts claim that what can really shatter the present standing of English and fight its monopoly in future is the Chinese language, because the number of the Chinese is expected to increase at a swift rate. Well, nobody knows for sure, but I suppose that it will take the Chinese less to master English than others to acquire basic knowledge of Chinese.

In conclusion, I believe that despite several threats English is faced with, it is unlikely to lose its position of the world language, because of the number of its speakers and its advantages over other languages. Nevertheless, I can’t say that because of the spread of English other languages will die out. Well, everything depends on people, and I don’t think anyone wants their language to disappear completely.

Variants of the English language

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 2227