Will English retain, increase or lose its current global position?

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Title: Will English retain, increase or lose its current global position?

Name: Sabrina Sardar

Number of Words: 2552

Registration Number: 01149305

Two powerful countries, that are United States of America and United Kingdom speak English as a first language. It is the most dominant language in the world and has expanded from the British Empire and America’s hegemonic power over the rest of the world to the unique technology (internet) that has been introduced by North-Americans (Crystal, 1995:106-107).

English is spoken by many people. The approximate figure that speaks English either as a first language, a second language or learnt as a foreign language lies from 750 million to 1 billion people which is nearly a quarter of the world’s population. The people’s interest in learning the English language has increased to the extent that it has become the most important language. It is used for communication within the political sector as well as the public sector (Quirk, 1968:7-9), (McCrum, 2002:9).

Although English is spoken by many people in the world, the question still arises as to whether it will continue to be the most dominant language for the future. This will be largely dependent upon the population who speak English as a second language or as a foreign language, who will determine whether or not English will remain the most dominant language in the future.

The English development began at the time of the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain in the 5th century and they spoke a language, which was ancestrally spoken by the Germanic people. These people were the first English speakers, even though their language (Old English) was very different from Modern English. This event signalled the growth of the English Language (Albert, 2002:46-47, 51, 158).

From the year 1150 to 1450 was the Middle English period, where major changes had taken place to the English Language. There were not as many English speakers during the Middle English period as there are today. The ‘Battle of Hastings’ occurred in 1066, when the Anglo-Saxon rulers of England fell to the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror. The conquest affected the vocabulary and the grammar of the English language, causing a loss of words and adding French and Latin into the English vocabulary which also reduced the English language to an ‘analytic one’. After the Norman invasion English was not treated as being of any importance. The Latin-writing and French-speaking authority ignored English and considered it a poor language. English was not compulsory to learn, although it remained the language of the protest and dissent (McCrum, 2002:44), (Albert, 2002:158).

The Modern English is from the year 1450 to the present. The spread of English to the status of a ‘world language’ began in the 16th century. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 (1558-1603) the number of English speakers were only five to seven million mother tongue English speakers, most of whom lived in the British Isles. In 1952, the number of mother tongue English speakers increased to 250 million during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, where the largest majority living outside of the British Isles were in North America (Crystal, 1995:92).

The English language later spread across to the outer circle, that are countries of non-native speakers, which included such countries as India, Kenya and more than 50 other territories. This was considered to be the second stage of the rise in the number English speakers. These countries that were colonized by Britain were linguistically affected and many other countries adopted English as a second language (McCrum, 2002:11), (Crystal, 1995:107).

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The ‘Expanding Circle’ continues in several other countries, including China, Russia and many more. These countries have realised the importance of learning English as a foreign language, even though they do not have a history of colonisation. These countries have shown that English is a priority in terms of a foreign language although it is not the official language.

During the nineteenth century, the English language became an international language influencing other countries, such as China. In the 20th century English took on a global position. The reason for the expansion and supremacy of English are due to ...

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