How and why did English come to be a global language?
How Did English Become The “Global” Language? - Eurocentres Blog Eurocentres Blog
It was not the first language of European colonialism; Portuguese and Dutch left the continent earlier. So something must have happened more recently to give the language its unique international status. While Europe was rebuilding in the years after , the USA boomed. American businesses picked up where the British East India Company had left off centuries before, taking English around the world as a language of trade.
The influence of American business, combined with the tradition of English left around the world by the British Empire, have made English the number one language of international trade in the 21 st Century. English is now the most spoken foreign language in 19 of the 25 EU Member States where it is not an official language. The 6 states where English is not number one also show the importance of politics in language policy: Russian is the most spoken foreign language in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; Croatian the most commonly spoken in Slovenia; and Czech the most spoken in Slovakia.
But the cultural legacy of the post-war decades is also very important to the growth of English as a world language. As well as sending money across the Atlantic, the USA provided the soundtrack through rock and roll, jazz and, later, disco and hip hop. Hollywood movies became global sensations and American television series became cultural reference points. American culture was everywhere, radiating confidence and success; just the things for a world that had been ravaged by war.
The hippy movement came from San Francisco and London. Music festivals including the Isle of Wight and Woodstock became iconic for a whole generation, whether English speakers or not. Advertisers pride themselves on riding the cultural zeitgeist; creating consumer desire through making products sexy. One of the ways they do this is through using English words.
Many examples of English in advertising come from multinational companies, who wish to keep their message consistent across markets, but some examples are local firms looking for that elusive element of glamour that English can bring. Of course, this happens in English too: Bands release their work in English to reach the largest possible audience.
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This invisible pressure to produce creative works in English adds to the cultural momentum the language developed in the second half of the Twentieth Century. The style-conscious language of extreme sports is English: The global power of the USA coincided with the birth of popular computing, and English is the language of the technological revolution and the internet.
Consider a keyboard for example; they are designed for Latin characters, so speakers of Asian languages particularly use complicated techniques to enter words. What happens inside the devices is also dominated by English. People in British colonies who wanted an education would receive that education in English.
Artists who want to reach the largest audience for their work can do that in English. If you want to trade internationally, you will need to speak English. People learned Latin then for the same reasons they learn English now: In music, if a band wants to become popular or famous, they will produce their work in English as well.
And then there are sports—American-invented sports today like BMX and skateboarding, and even basketball, have an entire vocabulary in English, and many of the best athletes in those fields are English-speaking—even if they have been recruited from abroad! This created an entire lexicon for computers and technology that was invented in English. Computer keyboards are suited for writing languages using the Latin alphabet, and the hardware for all our smart technology uses English words that have become commonly used around the world, as there was no other alternative in place when the technology spread like fire to the corners of the Earth.
The world of science is also dominated by English for much the same reason: Now that English is so widespread across the internet, on the radio, in schools and in the business world, it is hard to escape. It is not a guarantee of success, but it certainly does help!
Some people long for the days when every country spoke their own language, and English was an eccentricity for language experts. But one thing is fairly certain: But for how long? Are you learning English for work or pleasure? Have you noticed an increase in the use of English in your country?
How did English become the world’s most spoken language?
Which brings us to the next point: We love to hear your comments! Why are there so many English accents and dialects?
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