The Devil
A Global Language
The English language is widespread all around the world. It’s the most common language in the world and it’s used as a lingua franca which means – language used as communication between people whose native language are different. The question is: Why was it English which became a global language? The grammar is hard, the pronunciation is hard, why this language? Why did not Spanish, Portuguese or even Norwegian become the global language?
The start of English becoming a global language started, of course, in England. English had about 6 million native speakers when Elizabeth I was on the throne and after England had defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 England could start conquer the world. Afterwards England started to colonize in every small corner of the world which seemed empty, South-Africa, Australia, India and USA were some of these lands which England were to take control of. These lands were of course populated by natives like the aboriginal people in Australia, but England had no knowledge of that, so they just claimed the land and sent prisoners there to establish a society. There were also a lot of recourses hidden in this New World, for example gold which they could find in USA or silk in India which made England a central country in trading business.
After England established herself in these countries, people had to learn English. The natives who lived there also had to learn this unknown language to try to live in peace with the “new” people who had brutally taken their land and driven them away from their normal way of living. Afterwards English started spread through these continents, through different countries and through different people. English was on the road to becoming a global language. All this happen around three to four hundred years ago when the language had no more than 6 million native speakers, now it has around 350 million speakers which is a huge number compared to other languages like Norwegian, but other countries have English as an official language which means the country uses English most in politics and such, even though they have another language as their mother tongue. India is a good example, in India there are a lot of languages like Hindu mixed around, but they have English as the official language since that is the easiest one to communicate on when you have plenty of different languages in just one country. Although English has a lot of native speakers, nothing can match Mandarin Chinese which have around one billion native speakers.
English is a global language and most of the people around the world can speak some. It is used as communication between people who does not know each other mother tongue. In video games, television and even music English is used the most, it is everywhere. When you are on vacation you don’t order your dinner in Norwegian, but you order it in English. If you are going to hit on this girl by the pool in Spain you say something nice in English. English is absolutely everywhere. Imagine a world without a lingua franca, without a communication system between other people. Imagine how our world would be if only Norwegians should speak Norwegian, if only Spanish people should speak Spanish. That world would be hard to understand, to talk about politics, to talk about technology and science, about economics and money or just to talk about life; therefore with these topics we can understand how the English language became so huge, why English is so important, because it is all about power.
Political power, the power of science and technology, economic power and cultural power are some of the main reasons why English is so widespread. Political power to talk about how we shall move forward in war or talk about all the pollution in the air, the power of science and technology to make an airplane safer and better or find out how exactly the universe was made, if there is life out there in the dark. Economic power to talk about stockings or how countries are getting bankrupt and of course cultural power, the power by the mass majority of the people, so we can understand what happens is different countries, so we can immigrate to a foreign country without having to understand their mother tongue. All this would be impossible if we did not have English as a global language, but there are so many different ways of speaking English, so many varieties.
Every country in the world has their different type of talking in English, their accent and their pronunciations. People from England, Scotland and Ireland talk differently, a doctor from USA and a doctor from Australia also has different ways of saying words. A person from India and Norway has their different style of pronouncing words. The English language is so different and so huge and it is no big shock that there are so many varieties from place to place, but what about the future? Every language changes from time to time and it is the same with English.
In the future the English language might change its way of writing words, pronouncing words. It might look like Latin for us who is used to the 21th century English, therefore think about a hundred years from now. How will it look? Will English still be a global language or will another language like Spanish or German become the next global language? If English still is the global language, what will happen to it? Will the grammar change, how will the words look? Maybe instead of the “th” in the word “the”, maybe you will write “the” letter “z” instead of “th” like: Ze. Who knows? It can become easy as that and we will just have to wait and see.
The reason behind English becoming a global language is because England started to colonize around the world and later the people who learnt English in these colonies started spreading it even farther, across the continents and to different countries. England was also big in the trading business and under the industrial revolution around the 18th century and people had to learn English to communicate. Spain who was big under the 18th century was not to be the global language since they lost the battle against England when they invaded them in 1588. Maybe if they won that battle everything would change and Spanish would be our global language today. The importance of having English as a global language is quite huge since we have a language to communicate on when one does not understand one others mother tongue.
The English language is widespread all around the world. It’s the most common language in the world and it’s used as a lingua franca which means – language used as communication between people whose native language are different. The question is: Why was it English which became a global language? The grammar is hard, the pronunciation is hard, why this language? Why did not Spanish, Portuguese or even Norwegian become the global language?
The start of English becoming a global language started, of course, in England. English had about 6 million native speakers when Elizabeth I was on the throne and after England had defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 England could start conquer the world. Afterwards England started to colonize in every small corner of the world which seemed empty, South-Africa, Australia, India and USA were some of these lands which England were to take control of. These lands were of course populated by natives like the aboriginal people in Australia, but England had no knowledge of that, so they just claimed the land and sent prisoners there to establish a society. There were also a lot of recourses hidden in this New World, for example gold which they could find in USA or silk in India which made England a central country in trading business.
After England established herself in these countries, people had to learn English. The natives who lived there also had to learn this unknown language to try to live in peace with the “new” people who had brutally taken their land and driven them away from their normal way of living. Afterwards English started spread through these continents, through different countries and through different people. English was on the road to becoming a global language. All this happen around three to four hundred years ago when the language had no more than 6 million native speakers, now it has around 350 million speakers which is a huge number compared to other languages like Norwegian, but other countries have English as an official language which means the country uses English most in politics and such, even though they have another language as their mother tongue. India is a good example, in India there are a lot of languages like Hindu mixed around, but they have English as the official language since that is the easiest one to communicate on when you have plenty of different languages in just one country. Although English has a lot of native speakers, nothing can match Mandarin Chinese which have around one billion native speakers.
English is a global language and most of the people around the world can speak some. It is used as communication between people who does not know each other mother tongue. In video games, television and even music English is used the most, it is everywhere. When you are on vacation you don’t order your dinner in Norwegian, but you order it in English. If you are going to hit on this girl by the pool in Spain you say something nice in English. English is absolutely everywhere. Imagine a world without a lingua franca, without a communication system between other people. Imagine how our world would be if only Norwegians should speak Norwegian, if only Spanish people should speak Spanish. That world would be hard to understand, to talk about politics, to talk about technology and science, about economics and money or just to talk about life; therefore with these topics we can understand how the English language became so huge, why English is so important, because it is all about power.
Political power, the power of science and technology, economic power and cultural power are some of the main reasons why English is so widespread. Political power to talk about how we shall move forward in war or talk about all the pollution in the air, the power of science and technology to make an airplane safer and better or find out how exactly the universe was made, if there is life out there in the dark. Economic power to talk about stockings or how countries are getting bankrupt and of course cultural power, the power by the mass majority of the people, so we can understand what happens is different countries, so we can immigrate to a foreign country without having to understand their mother tongue. All this would be impossible if we did not have English as a global language, but there are so many different ways of speaking English, so many varieties.
Every country in the world has their different type of talking in English, their accent and their pronunciations. People from England, Scotland and Ireland talk differently, a doctor from USA and a doctor from Australia also has different ways of saying words. A person from India and Norway has their different style of pronouncing words. The English language is so different and so huge and it is no big shock that there are so many varieties from place to place, but what about the future? Every language changes from time to time and it is the same with English.
In the future the English language might change its way of writing words, pronouncing words. It might look like Latin for us who is used to the 21th century English, therefore think about a hundred years from now. How will it look? Will English still be a global language or will another language like Spanish or German become the next global language? If English still is the global language, what will happen to it? Will the grammar change, how will the words look? Maybe instead of the “th” in the word “the”, maybe you will write “the” letter “z” instead of “th” like: Ze. Who knows? It can become easy as that and we will just have to wait and see.
The reason behind English becoming a global language is because England started to colonize around the world and later the people who learnt English in these colonies started spreading it even farther, across the continents and to different countries. England was also big in the trading business and under the industrial revolution around the 18th century and people had to learn English to communicate. Spain who was big under the 18th century was not to be the global language since they lost the battle against England when they invaded them in 1588. Maybe if they won that battle everything would change and Spanish would be our global language today. The importance of having English as a global language is quite huge since we have a language to communicate on when one does not understand one others mother tongue.