Lingua inglese (global language)

English as a global language

English is new. The language continues to make news daily in many countries. A language achieves a global status when it develops a special role recognizable in every country. No language has ever been spoken by a mother-tongue majority in more than a few countries, so mother-tongue use by itself cannot give a language global status. To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities in two different ways:

Official and priority status

1. A language can be made the official language of a country using it as a medium of communication and even for educational systems. The role of an official language is today best illustrated by English, which now has a special status in over 70 countries.

2. A language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status. Children are most likely to be taught.

There are several ways in which a language can be official. It may be the sole official language of a country, or it may share this status with other languages. And it may have a “semi-official” status, being used only in certain domains.

Language status

It’s important to make a distinction between first, second and foreign language status. Because of these three developments (first, second, and foreign), it’s inevitable that a global language will come to be used by more people than any other language. English has already reached this stage.

Why a language becomes global

Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful.

Language exists only in the brains and mouths and ears and hands and eyes of its users. When they succeed, on the international stage, their language succeeds. When they fail, their language fails.

English, in order to explain why it is now so widely used, has less grammar than other languages. But a language doesn’t become a global language because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it was once associated with great culture or religion. These are all factors which can motivate someone to learn a language. A language has become an international language for the power of its people, especially their political and military power.

English was “in the right place at the right place at the right time”. By the beginning of the 19th century, Britain had become the world’s leading industrial country. By the end of the century, the population of the USA was larger than that of any of the countries of Western Europe, and its economy was the most productive. British political imperialism had sent English around the globe.

Why do we need a global language?

Translation has played a central role in human interaction. In communities where only two or three languages are in contact, bilingualism or trilingualism is a possible solution. But in communities where there are many languages in contact, as in Africa, this solution is not possible. The problem has been solved by finding a language to act as a lingua franca or “common language”. Sometimes when communities begin to trade with each other, they communicate by adopting a simplified language, known as a pidgin, which combines elements of their different languages.

The need for a global language is for business and communities, and it is here that the adoption of a single lingua franca is most in evidence. People have become more mobile, both physically and electronically. People often talk of a “global village”. These trends would be taking place if only many countries were talking to each other.

Dangers of a global language

The benefits from the existence of a global language are considerable; but several commentators have pointed to possible risks. Perhaps a global language will cultivate an elite monolingual linguistic class. Perhaps those who have a language at their disposal will be more able to think and work quickly in it, and to manipulate it. Perhaps the presence of a global language will make people lazy about learning other languages. Perhaps a global language will hasten the disappearance of minority languages.

If a global language is taught early enough and if it is maintained continuously, the kind of linguistic competence is a real and powerful bilingualism. If we want to take the risk of foreign language learning seriously, one of the key principles is “the earlier the better”.

A global language can eliminate the motivation for adults to learn other languages, maybe for the lack of motivation to learn other languages, fuelled by lack of money and opportunity, but also by lack of interest, and this might well be fostered by the increasing presence of English as a global language.

The process of language domination and loss has been known throughout linguistic history. No one knows how many languages have died since humans became able to speak. This is an intellectual and social tragedy. When a language dies, so much is lost. A language is the repository of the history of a people. It is their identity. Once lost, it can never be recaptured. Language is a major means of showing where we belong, and of distinguishing one social group from another, and all over the world we can see evidence of linguistic divergence.

Could anything stop a global language?

An alternative method of communication could emerge which would eliminate the need for a global language. The chief candidate here is automatic translation (“machine translation”). If progress in this domain continues to be as rapid as it has been in the past decade, there is a possibility that it will be routine for people to communicate with each other directly, using their first language, with computers “taking the strain” between them.

Why English? The historical context

Historical and socio-cultural answers

Why is English the global language? There are two answers to this question:

• Geographical-historical answer: English reached a position of pre-eminence thanks to the movement of English around the world, beginning with the pioneering voyages to America, Asia, and the Antipodes.
• Socio-cultural answer: The way people all over the world have come to depend on English. The language has penetrated deeply into communication and entertainment.

Origins

English, as soon as it arrived in England from northern Europe, began to spread around the British Isles. After the Norman invasion in 1066, many nobles from England fled to Scotland, and the language spread throughout the Scottish lowlands.

America

The first expedition from England to the New World was in 1584, but it was a failure. The first permanent English settlement dates from 1607. The colonists called their settlements Jamestown (after James I) and the area Virginia (after the “Virgin Queen”, Elizabeth). Further settlements quickly followed along the coast. Then, in 1620, the first group of Puritans established a settlement at what is now Massachusetts. The group was extremely mixed.