Searching for the hereafter of Word Englishes is a disputing project for bookmans all around the universe every bit good as the subject of changeless treatments and arguments between linguists. The ground for this is really simple and yet so complex. The hereafter is unpredictable! All the more so, when it comes to a invariably altering capable such as linguistic communication. However, bookmans have ever tried to calculate possible future scenarios of many types, despite the fact that cipher knows what the hereafter holds. Questions such as: “ What linguistic communication ( s ) will be spoken in the twelvemonth 2050? ” and “ how will linguistic communication germinate in the following 20-30 old ages ” have been pulling bookmans ‘ attending for some clip now, with changing consequences. In a clip in which people all around the Earth attempt to pass on with each other ( more or less successfully ) via the cyberspace, it seems natural that there is traveling to be a linguistic communication which should be apprehensible to all those who use it. After the intense spread of English over big parts of the universe during the last century, many bookmans believe that English will remain the figure one ‘trading linguistic communication ‘ . But what makes a planetary linguistic communication? Is it likely that the primacy of English will stay? Or is it besides possible that languages such as Mandarin, Spanish or Arabic will go the future languages spoken in the universe? Possibly in the hereafter, wholly different linguistic communications will originate and we are heading for a hereafter in which ‘mixed ‘ linguistic communications such as Singlish, Konglish or Spanglish will do their manner into the text editions for pupils of foreign linguistic communications.
The purpose of this paper is to sketch the development of the English linguistic communication and why it became such an of import ‘lingua franca ‘ for today ‘s society. Therefore, I am traveling to briefly analyse possible grounds for English going the ‘global linguistic communication ‘ of today every bit good as analyzing a few fluctuations of English, developed in recent old ages. Furthermore, I am traveling to discourse the importance of individuality, applied to linguistic communication, and how linguists classify the usage of English around the universe. Finally, I will hold a close expression at the future positions of the English linguistic communication with a particular focal point on its international usage as a ‘trading linguistic communication ‘ among non-native talkers and the use of English in the World Wide Web.
2. Why is English so of import?
No one inquiries that English plays an of import function as a global trading linguistic communication and has hence obtained a considerable position sing the communicating between people who do non portion the same female parent lingua. There are legion states which carry out their international concern minutess about entirely in English ( even if it is non their ain female parent lingua ) . So, what is it that made English to what it is today? The inquiry is whether English possesses certain characteristics that make the linguistic communication particularly suited to function as a ‘lingua franca ‘ . Harmonizing to Jean Aitchison ( 2001 ) , a good known British linguist and professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford, it is non the features of the English linguistic communication system that made English go the lingua franca it is today, but the distribution of power, dating back to the British Empire, a clip the British Isles were the major colonial power. In the article Aitchison makes the point that “ At one clip French was the linguistic communication of power and prestigiousness, and Latin was besides widely admired as fixed and house. ” The ground for English is going the universe linguistic communication it is today is “ all about the power of the people who speak it ” ( BBC News: Internet + English = Netglish: 2001 )
In conformity with Aitchison I want to present another British linguist, whose findings in this peculiar field of surveies must non stay unmentioned, viz. David Crystal. Crystal, who is the writer and editor of over 100 plants about the English linguistic communication provinces in his book English as a planetary linguistic communication that what truly makes a planetary linguistic communication is decidedly its talkers. He farther on explains that it is non the figure of native talkers of the peculiar linguistic communication but who these talkers are. ( 2003: 7 ) Crystal straight relates the assertiveness of a linguistic communication to the power of the people who speak it and emphasizes his point by giving the illustration of Latin – the chief trading linguistic communication during the Roman Empire.
In the instance of Latin it is really improbable that people of that clip could hold imagined that it would lose its position of being a planetary linguistic communication and – even worse – being a dead linguistic communication by now. Therefore it is, harmonizing to Crystal, the political and military power, every bit good as its economic, technological and cultural influence that made English a planetary linguistic communication.
Crystals executions besides explain the, to my head, instead confounding figures of the tabular array below. As the below chart suggests, English ranks merely at forth topographic point of the most widely spoken linguistic communications in the universe, which made me inquire why it was English that established as a planetary linguistic communication. To understand this evident contradiction I had a closer expression at the tabular array below and critically analysed the informations.
Top 5 Languages by Number of Native Speakers
Data beginning: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th erectile dysfunction. ( 2005 )
A
Language
approximative # of talkers
Where is it spoken as an official linguistic communication?
1.
Mandarin Chinese
Native: 873 million
2nd: 178 million
Sum: 1.051 billion
Official: People ‘s Republic of China, Republic of China, Singapore
2.
Hindi
Native: 370 million
2nd:120 million
Sum: 490 million
Official: India, Fiji
3.
Spanish
Native: 350 million
2nd: 70 million
Sum: 420 million
Official: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States ( New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela
4.
English
Native: 340 million
Sum: 510 million
Official: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong ( People ‘s Republic of China ) , India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
5.
Arabic
Native: 206 million
2nd: 24 million
Sum: 230 million
[ World Almanac est. entire 255 million ]
Official: Modern Standard Arabic: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen. | Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal
National: French sudan
Note: These figures combine all the assortments of Arabic. Some information beginnings, e.g. CIA World Fact Book, World Almanac, Ethnologue, dainty these assortments as separate linguistic communications.
Given these Numberss, and taking Crystals accounts into history, one can see that the huge figure of states ( exactly 64 provinces ) in which English is considered to be an official linguistic communication have resulted in the fact that English is, what it is today. The assortment of civilizations every bit good as the economic dependance of these states on the English speech production universe, explain why it is necessary to utilize English as a tongue franca, particularly in a globalized economic system.
Another ground for English being so successful is the fact that the United States gained considerable influence, economically every bit good as politically, in the late 19th and beginning of the twentieth century. Still, English is considered to be the linguistic communication of successful concern people, populating, as it were the ‘American Dream ‘ so that many people believe that talking English will somehow guarantee international success. Not to bury that there is still the belief of English being the linguistic communication of the modern and ‘hip ‘ as it is in the German speech production states and as carefully developed slippery advertisement schemes try to do us believeaˆ¦ .
It is estimated that more than half the universe population will be “ competent ” in English by the twelvemonth 2050. But it is likely that this new signifier of “ World Speak ” English will be really different from the linguistic communication we understand now.
Harmonizing to Jennifer Jenkins the sum of English talkers increased from 1603 to the start of twenty-first century from 6 million to 2 billion people all around the Earth. Owing to this fact it is a logical effect that over the clip there was a certain alteration in linguistic communication in order to the assortment of types of people utilizing English in their mundane lives. At the minute there are over 75 counties where English is spoken either as a native or as a 2nd linguistic communication. This is about a 3rd of the universe ‘s population. Nevertheless at that place has to be a differentiation of talker of English as a first severally 2nd linguistic communication and talkers of English which merely use it as a tongue franca. The treatment whether English as a planetary Language is a “ gift or a expletive ” ( RossA Smith, Cambridge Journal ) is hence to my head perfectly justified.
As David & gt ; Crystal points out in his The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Language the ground of English being the figure one planetary linguistic communication is that it is spoken in more than 60 states.
Here ‘s a listing of the 10 most popular linguistic communications spoken worldwide, along with the approximative figure of primary or first linguistic communication talkers for that linguistic communication.
1. Mandarin Chinese – 882 million
2. Spanish – 325 million
3. English – 312-380 million
4. Arabic – 206-422 million
5. Hindi – 181 million
6. Lusitanian – 178 million
7. Bengali – 173 million
8. Russian – 146 million
9. Nipponese – 128 million
10. German – 96 million
Assorted beginnings were used to roll up this listing of the most popular linguistic communications of the universe but the primary beginning was the CIA World Fact book
Ethnologue: Languages of the World
An encyclopaedic mention work cataloging all of the universe ‘s 6,909 known life linguistic communications
English is besides the linguistic communication of planetary communicating
Refering English he says that it was on the right topographic point at the right clip
In the 17th and eighteenth century, English was the linguistic communication of the taking colonial state — Britain.
In the 18th and nineteenth century, it was the linguistic communication of the leader of the industrial revolution — besides Britain.
In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth it was the linguistic communication of the taking economic power — the USA.
English emerged as a first-rank linguistic communication in industries which affected all facets of society — the imperativeness, advertisement, airing gesture images, sound recording, conveyance and communicating.
: “ At one clip French was the linguistic communication of power and prestigiousness, ” she says, “ and Latin was besides widely admired as fixed and house. ” The rise of English, she says, is “ all about the power of the people who speak it ” – foremost as the linguistic communication of the British Empire and now, in a somewhat different signifier, of American corporations, advertisement and pop civilization. It is estimated that more than half the universe population will be “ competent ” in English by the twelvemonth 2050. But it is likely that this new signifier of “ World Speak ” English will be really different from the linguistic communication we understand now.
