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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 the vocabulary).
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 as bungalow
(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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