Chapter 1

What is a global language?

A language achieves a global status when it develops a “special role” that is recognized in

every country. Mother-tongue use cannot give alone a global status, it has to be used by

other countries.

There are two ways :

1. it can be considered a second language, used in domains such as the governement, the

law and the educational system. English has a special status in over 70 countries.

2. it is the language that’s most likely to be taught in schools, or the easiest for adults to

approach.

What makes a language global?

The fact that a langiage becomes a global language has litle to do with the number of

people who speak it, but it depends on the power of its speakers. Without a strong power

no language can become an international medium of communication. Some people think

that English has been chosen because of its easy grammar but it has nothing to do with

that. It depends on the political and military power of the speakers.

During the 19th century British imperialism had sent English around the world, and this is

why it is the language “on which the sun never sets”; during the 20th century the USA have

become the world’s largest economy. It takes a military power to establish a language, but

an economic power to expand it.

Why do we need a global language?

In human interactions translation has played a central role for thousands of years.in

communities in which there are 2 or 3 languages multilinguism has been a solution, but

traditionally the problem has been solved by finding a common language. This could be

pidgin, a simplified languaged used by communities when they begin to trade, and it is a

combination of their languages. Only in the 20th has emerged the need for a lingua franca

for the whole world : starting from the 1945 with the cration of the United Nations, and the

other international bodies like the World Bank, because the use of a single language would

facilitate communications in these contests, and also reduce the costs.

Also people have become more mobile phiysically and electronically and they need a

global language more than ever.

What are the dangers of a global language?

1. linguistic power : those who have it has a mother-tongue will have more people than

people who have to learn it. If a global language is taught early enough and it is mantained

these people will be able to speak it as mother-togues. But this is not possible everywhere.

2.linguistic complacency : adults lose motivation to learn other languages, people who

have English has their mother-tongue become lazy. Now people, especially at the level of

industry and business are making an effort, monolingual English companies are finding

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Chapter 1 What is a global language? A language achieves a global status when it develops a “special role” that is recognized in every country. Mother-tongue use cannot give alone a global status, it has to be used by other countries. There are two ways :

it can be considered a second language, used in domains such as the governement, the law and the educational system. English has a special status in over 70 countries.
it is the language that’s most likely to be taught in schools, or the easiest for adults to approach. What makes a language global? The fact that a langiage becomes a global language has litle to do with the number of people who speak it, but it depends on the power of its speakers. Without a strong power no language can become an international medium of communication. Some people think that English has been chosen because of its easy grammar but it has nothing to do with that. It depends on the political and military power of the speakers. During the 19th century British imperialism had sent English around the world, and this is why it is the language “on which the sun never sets”; during the 20th century the USA have become the world’s largest economy. It takes a military power to establish a language, but an economic power to expand it. Why do we need a global language? In human interactions translation has played a central role for thousands of years.in communities in which there are 2 or 3 languages multilinguism has been a solution, but traditionally the problem has been solved by finding a common language. This could be pidgin, a simplified languaged used by communities when they begin to trade, and it is a combination of their languages. Only in the 20th has emerged the need for a lingua franca for the whole world : starting from the 1945 with the cration of the United Nations, and the other international bodies like the World Bank, because the use of a single language would facilitate communications in these contests, and also reduce the costs. Also people have become more mobile phiysically and electronically and they need a global language more than ever. What are the dangers of a global language? 1. linguistic power : those who have it has a mother-tongue will have more people than people who have to learn it. If a global language is taught early enough and it is mantained these people will be able to speak it as mother-togues. But this is not possible everywhere. 2. linguistic complacency : adults lose motivation to learn other languages, people who have English has their mother-tongue become lazy. Now people, especially at the level of industry and business are making an effort, monolingual English companies are finding

difficulties in expanding in areas, like east asia or east europe, where English has a low presence.

3. linguistic death : will the emergence of a global language cause the death of other languages? For now the emergence of English has caused the opposite effect, it has stimulated a strong support of local languages. A lot of people think that these movements are against those about the need of intelligibility, but the two things can co-exist. One language provides access to the global community and the other to the local community. Could anything stop a global language? Yes, if the status of global language depends on political and economical power, a change in the balance of power could change the situation. Another scenario could be to eliminate the need for a global language, that people will communicate in their own language but with a computer translating. A critical era it is difficult to make predictions because there are no precedents. despite the growth of English 2/3 of the population doesn’t use it, but there are a lot of signs that suggest that this language will be Eenglish. Chapter 2 Why English? There are two answers : 1. geographical-historical , that traces the movements of English around the world 2. socio-cultural , that shows how people have come to depend on English for their economic and social weel-being origins English arrived in England from Northern Europe and in the fifth century it spred through the British Isle, in the 12th century in Ireland and only towards the 16th century English spread outside, in North America. America The first permanent English settlement was in 1607, it was called Jamestown in Virginia. In 1620 arrived the first group of Puritans who established in Massachussets, the Pilgrim Fathers were looking for a land where they could found a new religion and free from persecution. In the 17th century a new wave of immigrants arrived and in the 18th century immigrants from Ireland arrived. In the 19th century as a result of poverty and revolution people from Europe started to arrive. During the 20 century a conflict between the need for intelligibilityand the need for identity began, and fuelled the movement in support of English as the official language.

Now the official language is Hindi and English is an associate official language. Young people see it as the language of cultural mondernity. Former colonial africa the Dutch were the first who established in Africa , by 1914 Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium and Britain had divided the continent in colonial territories. After the second world war there was a repartitioning of the territories and a confiscation of the territories of Italy and Germany. English arrived in the 15th century and by the 19th century the increase of commerce and anti-slave trade activity had brought English to the african west coast. English now has an official status in 5 countries:

SIERRA LEONE, the first groups arrived from Britain, Nova scotia and Jamaica and an anti-slave trading base was created.
GHANA, it became a crown colony in 1874 after a successful expedition against the Ashanti to protect trading interest 3.GAMBIA, english trade started during the 17th century and now it is a member of Commkonwealth.
CAMEROON, it was divided in two ares one British and the other France, the two parts emerged as single countries and both languages arwe official.
NIGERIA, it is one of the most multilingual countries, with 500 languages. A British colony was founded in Lagos. There is also one American influence in LIBERIA, which is the african’s oldest republic, founded through the activities of Americans who wanted to establish a homeland for slaves. Several modern states gave English an official status when they became indipendent : Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbawe. The kinds of English in East africa are different from those of West africa, they have a lot in common with South african and Australia English. South-east asia and the South pacific british influence began with the voyages of sailors during the 18th century. English became the language of power and a British educational system was introduced.
SINGAPORE, a bilingual educational system was introduced, with English as an unifying medium. It is important in the government and the media. A new variety called Singlish evolved.
MALAYSIA, after the indipendence the official language has become Bahasa Malaysia, and English is taught as a foreign language.
HONG KONG , English with Chinese has an official status but over 98% of the population speals Chinese, but have competence in English

PAPUA NUOVA GUINEA, people speak Tok pisin, an English base pidgin. A world view the position of English is the result of two factors:
the expansion of British colonial power
the emergence of the USA as the leading economic power in the 20th century the linguistic Braj Kachru suggested to think at the spread of English as three concentric circles, representing different ways in which english has been acquired and is used :

the inner circle: refers to the traditional bases of English ( USA, UK, Ireland,New Zelanda, Australia,Canada)
the extended circle, involves the early spread of english, where it is a second language.
the extending circle, involves nations in which english is taught as a foreign language, even if they they don’t have a history of colonization from the first circle. The cultural foundation Richard Mulaster in 1582 felt the need to defend English against who believed that it shouldn’t usurp Latin. In his opinion English was the best language to utter all arguments. But it was not widely used, a lot of people spoke Celtic languages. David Hume in 1767, at a time when French was used for international diplomacy, saw in America the key to the future success of English. In the same period John Adams said that English was destinated to be the language of the world because of the increasing population of America and its connection with all nations. Political developments because of the power of the British Empire English seemed the strongest language. The language was a symbol of political unity. Many countries after indipendence, especially in Africa, chose it as their official language. It was a unifying medium within the colony and it reflected the bond between the colony and the home country. Access to knowledge by the beginning of the 19th century Britain had become the world’s leading industry. Most of the innovation of the industrial revolution came from Britain., and this had linguistic consequences : the new terminology of technological and scientific advance were in English and who wanted to learn it had to learn English. By the end of the century America had overtaken Britain. The technological output was written in English and 45% of people were working in an English environment. Access to knowledge was helped by the new means of transportation that brought people closer and developped the distribution of newspapers.

America overtook Britain becoming the leading provider of english language services abroad.

cinema: the new technologies which followed the discovery of electrical power altered the nature of home and public entertainment. In Europe, France and Britain provided an initial impetus to the development of cinema. When sound was addes English become dominant in the movie world. Despite the growth of the film industy in other countries the english language remains the most used.
Popular music : other than cinema, the new entertaining technology that developped at the end of the 19th century was the recording industry, especially in the USA; all the major companies had english language origins. Music spread the English language around the youth rapidly, and many people came in contact with the language in this way. Every country has its popular singers, that sing in their language, but to break through the international arena they have to sing in English. international travel people travel for a lot of reasons: holidays, business, pilgrimages etc.. and every travel has linguistic consequences. the leading tourism earner and spender is the USA. Most tourist spots have signs, menus in English, also safety instructions on flights are in English. Also the military had a role in the spread of English, the presence of an army has an effect on the inhabitants who come into contact with their language. The presence of the US and British army in many areas has brought people into contact with english. International safety language as come to be used as a means of controlling international transport operations,especially on air and water. The use of a lingua franca has proved of great worth. English has been recognized as he language of the sea, and a project was set up to create “Seaspeak” an essential english for international maritime use. The official use of English as the language of the air started after the Second World War. The leaders of the Allies spoke Englush, most pilots and aircraft manufacters did. A standard language, with restricted phrases and vocabulary was invented : “Airspeak”, to avoid accidents and ambiguity. Over 180 nations use it. Education english is the medium of a lot of the world’s knowledge, especially in science and technology and a person is more likely to have access to the latest thinking by learning English than an other language. The English language teaching business has become one the major growth industries in the world. People involved in it in a consultation said that according to the them English will remain the dominant language in communications, the essential language for progress and the world’s language for international communications. Communications if a language is truly a global language it will be apparent in those services that deal with communications. Statistics show that ¾ of the world’s mail is in English, and also 80% of

stored information. The chief lingua franca of the internet is English even if non-english users of the internet are more, the most high quality content is in English. The right plece at the right time in the 17th and 18th century English was the language of the leading colonial nation, in the 18th and 19th century the leader of the industrial revolution : Britain. In the 19th and 20th century it was the language of the leading economic power : USA. As a consequence English emerged as a first language in industries that affected society: communications,education,transport. Two events have ensured its global status :

the movement towards political independence, out of wich English has been chosen by several states and has a special status. 2.electronic revolution in the USA where English was at the right place. The development of computers was in America, and the first ones used English, now other languages are available, but English has an influence. Chapter 5 the future of a globl language the first impression is that the future of English is asured, but we have to be cautious, in the Middle Ages no one would have thought about the death of latin. There are several possibilities: a change in the balance of power for example. The rejection of english people of a country could feel antagonist about English, and reject the option to give it a priviledged status, as an official or foreign language. And this would make English less credible as a global language. It is inevitable, in post-colonial era, that there should be a reaction against continuing to use the language of the colonial power. The arguments are all to do with identity, people want to use their mother-tongue and they don’t want another language imposed on them. There are also economic arguments: a country could see its economic future operating more on a regional than a global level, and decide to devote resources to a local lingua franca. The need for intelligibility and the need for identity pull people in diffferent directions : the first group motivates the learning of an international language, the second motivates the promotion of ethnic languages. This brings to conflict, that coulod be avoided by promoting multilingual policies. Contrasting attitudes : the US situation the future of English is bound with the future of the USA since the country influences the way English is developing. If the military and economic power of the USA would change, there would be consequences for English. Even if the language is spoken by over 95% of the population, some people are threatened by the emergence of other dominant language, because of the number o immigrants. English supporters want its status to be guaranteed. The Bill Emerson English language Empowerment Act allowed the use of other languages in some ares like public health, safety services, teaching, policies for international trades. There are a lot of arguments on both sides :

and the status of their languages. In multicural countries the amount of loan words is higher, like in south afrcia.

code switching : the increase in code switching is one of the most noticeable features in which New Englishes are emerging. Mixed varieties are found everywhere and they have fun nicknames like Spanglish, Tex-Mex or Franglais. They are complex becuase they are not clearly defined, with a clear grammar and lexicon and phonology. Sometimes it can be chaotic, at an extreme a sentence could use so many words from a contact language that it becomes unintelligible for people outside its community.
other domains: pragmatic and discoursal domains need to be taken into account. There is a lot to say about phonology, English is a stress based language but the contact with other languages changed the situation. Most of the New Wnglishes are syllable based; when the two varieties come into contact there are problems in understanding. But it is not likely that American and British english will become syllable based, because those varieties are not prestigious for now. It is likely that L2 speakers will become competent in both types of speech. The future of English as a world language to have learned a language gives you rights in it, you can add to it, modifity etc. english can be modified by those who speak it a second language as well. Words used in local communities could start to be used at the prestigious levels of society and then on a national level. These people who are important in their own communities start travelling abroad and the words diffuse on an international level. In the past using these varities was seen as ignorant but not anymore. Regional varieties are used at international levels. The problems encountered by these new englishes are the same encountered by the older varieties, the view that there can only be one english. If people who use mixed varieties will become influential attitudes will change and they would be accepted an english family of languages? The forces of the past 50 years, which have led to so many new englishes, suggest that English will fragment into unintelligible varieties. The need for identity, that has made new englishes different,could be balanced by the need for intelligibility, that has made them similar, through the use of Standard english. To have an autonomous language policy there are two criteria: the community has to have a single mind about the matter, and they have to have enough political and economic clout to make the decision be respected outside; but this happens rarely. Ebonics, english spoken by african american didn’t satisfy these criteria. There is one example, where a variety acquired a different name : SCOTS. Inside the European Union we can find a variety known as “Euro English”, and English politicians find themselves pulled towards it for a process of accomodation. In the future it is possible that a new form of english “ world standard spoken english” will arise. People will speak their dialect inside their country and when meeting people from other countries they will use WSSE. The use of WSSE will solve the problem of the conflict between identity and intelligibility. A unique event

we don’t know what will happen, we can’t make predictions because a language has never been spoken so widely but it the balance between the need for intelligibility and identity is fragile and a change in the politic and economic balance could change the situation.

English as a global language. David Crystal, Appunti di Linguistica Inglese

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