English from being a national language to a global language

English from a nation language to a global language
During the course of a few centuries, English has developed from being a nation language spoken only by people in the British Isles to being an international language spoken by nearly 2 billion people. In this article I’m going to write about the factors that played a role in making English a global language.

The English language is today known as one of the most powerful languages in the world.
The fact that English today is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world has a lot to do with the establishment and extensiveness of the British Empire. About in year 1600 was the language only spoken in England and in southeast Scotland, and the number of people who spoke English was about seven million. In the early 16th century England started to build up an interest for colonization, and since Englishmen immigrated and established colonies silently, was also the language they spoke, spread over big parts of the world.

When the British Empire was at its highest in year 1920, it covered around a quarter of all land and of the worlds population. In addition to Great Britain, the Empire also covered current countries known as Canada, Australia, Pakistan, India, other small Asian states as Ceylon and Singapore, and big parts of Africa. Today is the English community spread over the world, and English is the main language in countries as Ireland, USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

The first people to settle on the North American continent came from Asia 35,000 years ago. Then much later from the 10th century, the Vikings discovered America. But more importantly was the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the following century and a half various European nations sent out expeditions to explore the New World, mainly Spain, France, England and Portugal. However, it was the English colonization of the region along the Atlantic coast that became most significant for the development of North America.

The first permanent English settlements were established at what became Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The colonist suffered extreme hardships, and by 1622 only 2,000 remained alive of the more than 10,000 who had arrived from England. But because of its tobacco trade, the Virginia colony soon entered a period of prosperity. In 1620, the Puritans came from England to America to search for religious freedom. They sailed on a ship called The Mayflower to New England were they established the Plymouth Colony witch is now called Massachusetts. Several other English colonies were established over the next decades, such as South Carolina, North Carolina, New York and Pennsylvania.

By the time of the French and Indian War, the population had risen to approximately 1.5 million and there were 13 colonies. The American revolutionary era began in 1763. Americans protested vehemently at the idea that the Parliament in London could pass laws upon them, such as levying taxes, without any of their own elected representatives in the government. At the same time they rejected the idea of expanding Parliament to represent them. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted a Declaration of Independence, which now rejected the British monarchy in addition to its Parliament, and established the power of the new nation external to the British Empire. The Declaration established the United States. English became the official language in the United States of America. Today 91% of the population in the United States speaks English as their first or second language.

After World War II and the development of the atomic bomb, there was widespread agreement that humankind could not afford a third world war. Therefore, the United Nations was established to replace the flawed League of Nations in 1945 in order to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social, and humanitarian problems. English is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The Secretariat uses two working languages, English and French, but English is all together the most used language in the UN. There are about 45 nations in the world who use English as their first language and about 470 million people all over the world that can speak it.

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language”, and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aeronautical and maritime communications. English is not just the official language of the United Nation but also many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences.

Today this increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death. Some people think this is good and some people think its bad. English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole.

Sources:
Compendium – Engelsk VG1
Wikipedia