English as a world language

Nowadays, the English language is spoken the length & 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 Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. In fact, people who speak English fall into 3 groups. The 1^st one is those who have learned it as their native language, it comprises around 400 million people, living on the British Isles, in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Canada and South Africa. The next group consists of those who use it as a second language in a society that is mainly bilingual. Finally, the 3d group includes those who use it for a practical purpose (either for business or education). According to statistical data, 1 person in 7 of the world’s entire population belongs to 1 of these groups.

However, the emergence of English as a world language is a relatively recent thing. Some 6 or 5 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 Great Britain. Through the centuries, as a result of various historical events (the Great Geographical Discoveries, waves of immigration and the process of colonization) 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 are 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 isn’t 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, e.g. we can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers, a paper to read and to paper a bedroom, etc. What is more, the openness of its vocabluary is noteworthy. English is mixing with and marrying other languages around the world. For instance, words newly coined or in vogue in one language are very often added to English as well. It can be called the most insatiable borrower, as 70% of the English vocabulary are loan words and only 30% of the words are native. 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 a lot of exceptions to different rules and it’s very idiomatic. Personally, I think that each 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, a 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’s certain logic in it, what is more it may enhance ambiguity and create misunderstanding between people.

However, E 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 affluent population, besides, it faces a quality problem, as it is frequently spoken badly and is read and written with poor fluency. 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 off 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 do agree that there’s sometimes sloppy 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 natural 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 anybody wants their language to disappear completely.