The Ecology of Language Evolution and the Future of English - Essay Example

Future of English Name Course Lecture Date Introduction English is a West Germanic language, and it was first spoken in medieval England and currently it is a global lingua franca (Crystal, 2003a). Now English is an official language in approximately sixty states and it is the widely spoken language in New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia and Ireland (Crystal, 2003b). English is the third common mother tongue after Spanish and Mandarin (Ethnologue 2015). English is commonly learned as a second language, and it is an official language in countries of international organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Over the span of 1,400 years, English has developed a lot. Since the global influence of the British Empire, English was able to spread all over the world in the 17th century to the mid 20th centuries. This was made possible through books, newspapers, telegraph, phonograph records and satellite television as well as through the surfacing and growth of the United States of America as a superpower. The last few decades have been essential to the growth of English language all over the world, and it is the common language used for scientific, economic and political exchange. The historical accounts of English movement around the world; begun with the pioneering voyage in America and Asia. The expansion was further taken to the colonial development in Africa as well as in South Pacific, and it was later adopted as the official language in states that were newly independent. Discussion Futures for English in the world Based on the linguistic history it would be effective if people were cautious when predicting the future of a certain language. For example, in the middle age, people did not predict the death of Latin as the language of education but, it eventually failed and in the 18th century, no other language was viewed as being the norm of polite society as French was. However, this has changed over time. As John Adams, a founding father of the United States commented, English was predestined to be the in the next and succeeding centuries than was Latin in the last and French in the present age. In the 1800s, other people continued to echo the prediction but it was not until the second half of the 20th century when the prediction became a reality to many (Janson 2002). Languages receive global trust when they develop a unique role in their country. The idea of individual role is critical and present when a great number of people in an individual country speak English as their first language as in the case of South Africa, USA, Ireland, Canada, Britain and Australia. Based on the prolonged development of English as a first, second and foreign language, it should not escape anticipations that, a world language should be used by a greater number of people as compared to other languages. To date, English has reached this stage and individuals who have learnt it as a first language have already reached 400 million. When speculating on the future of English, people need to focus more on some indications that seem to go against the broad trend. Thus, in dealing with the future of English, people tend to concentrate on the kinds of development that hold back the growth of English in the future. There are various possibilities that can be predicted. For instance, a change in power whether in terms of economic, political, cultural and economic aspects can have a significant effect on the standing of languages for them to become attractive (Mufwene 2001). Language is an enormously democratising institution and having learnt a language, one has some rights to it. After learning, an individual may add to the language, modify it, create in it, play with it and at times ignore some bits of it. This is the course that the English language is likely to take and be influenced by people who speak it as a foreign and second language as of those who speak it as their mother tongue. Fashions are also a contributory factor in language development and have also contributed to the fall of mother tongue speakers. It is possible for a linguistic style to be acknowledged by foreign and second language learners. English is always an evolving language and language contact plays an essential role in driving change in the language. The English language has borrowed significantly from other languages such as Latin and Celtic. This permeability and hybridity of the English language allows it to expand speedily to new realms and thus explaining its success as a global language. Of the major certainty that is likely to be associated with future of English is that, with time, it will continue to evolve thus constructing and reflecting the changing identities and roles of the language speakers. As in the past, English in the future will be subjected to three major types of changes. The first change is that, though different communities, speakers or communicative domains will all be affected differently as there will be changes in the language itself in terms of the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation (Preshous 2001). The second change is related to status. In future, English may achieve different patterns and meaning of usage by the non-native speakers and may be used for a wider range of social functions. Lastly in terms of the changes that are subject to English, are the quantifiable changes for example, in the number of speakers or the usage of English as the communication language in computer-based communication. After about six hundred years in the spread of English and Latin, there were major turning points. For Latin, the language seemed to be fragmenting and English was on the onset of expansion. Future English is likely to change as no language has been found to stay still. Thus, even English can never stay the same; it must change in the future. Over time, English has been the dominant language it was recognised by many as cosmopolitan and the means of the future. Based on authors such as Grant 2002, the supremacy of American widely accepted culture has had a significant influence on a high number of young Europeans who aim to achieve the free, energetic, creative culture associated with California and who are opposed to the inflexibility that is attributed to the European societies. For example, Volkswagen, a car company in Germany, referred to one of their car models as the new beetle rather than the German equivalent neuer Kafer since advertisers thought it resonated more of a hip. Likewise, in countries such as Asia, English is mostly connected with the glamour of blockbuster pop industry and shows. Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that, English has currently dominated most parts of the world, it is implausible for English to control the world. English speakers still belong to the group under the minority of the world's population, since; some people prefer to make use of their mother tongue languages, for example, the Chinese languages that have attributes to about 1,113 million speakers (Wallraff, 2000). Over the next 50 years, English language is also likely to be misplaced from its second place to the South Asian linguistic groups that comprises of languages; Hindi and Urdu languages. Spanish and Arabic languages are slowly being adopted and used by a broad range of people though they may not achieve the same numbers as the English language has, they will be conventional languages. Additionally, there has been an increase in the number of bilingual and multilingual speakers, and mostly in English-speaking countries. Even people who use English as their first language in the US prefer to make use of different languages. In regard to these, those who are conversant with the Chinese language prefer to use it over English (Wallraff 2000). This clearly shows that, the future of other languages such as Chinese, Hindu and Arabic are in a way confident in spite of the popularity and wide recognition of the English language. Another major reason as to why English will by no means take over the world is because there is a growing anti-American reaction. Based on Wallraff 2000, he suggests that, there is a backlash in opposition to American culture and its values and that this may perhaps show the way for resistance to learn and make use the English language of the United States. Countries such as Europe, France and Germany also have organised conferences that are more focused on defending and protecting their Franco-German culture against the cultural pull of Americans. In South Africa, other linguistic groups such as the Afrikaaners are also leading a fervent battle to achieve equality with English as are many other native languages.There also exist other factors that work against the full adoption of English as the international language, and this includes; the economic, political and technological factors. Under the political factors are the possible creation of new coalitions among non-English speaking countries, and the likely rise of regional trading blocs in the Middle-East and also Asia. Based on technological advancements, non-English speaking countries can come up with a world-changing technology (Wallraff 2000). This could possibly mean that, the country could prefer to make use of their national language as opposed to the English language. The globe seems to be changing rapidly due to technological advancements, and thus it makes it difficult for individuals to be able to predict what the future holds. Though English has expanded considerably over the years, and it has been used as the international communication language, it is doubtful that it will ultimately take over the world. The total numbers of non-English speakers in the globe, coupled with the possible formation of new political trading affiliations or new technological expansion, in addition to the likelihood of a negative response to the cultural imperialism of the West, might in actual fact have a say to the decline in the increase of English speakers in the globe (Preshous 2001). Maybe English speakers ought to be a little less satisfied with learning other languages themselves so as to assist them in future communications. The future of English language is bound to a great degree to top the future of the United States. Most of the factors that propelled the spread of English steamed from America and the country containing about four times more of mother tongue language speakers as compared to other nations (Crystal 2003b). The country has been more involved in international development in the 21st century and thus exercises a great level of influence in the manner in which English is developing globally than the other regional variety. In most instances, at the discomfort of individuals from Australia, UK, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada; these countries more often than not express their worries on matters related to the onslaught of Americanism. The emergence of New Englishes suggests that, in future English will be fragmented into various mutually intelligible varieties as was the case of Latin. When such changes are noticeable within a short period, these varieties may eventually come diversely differentiated over the years, and the world could end up with a family of languages. If it is very hard for individuals to predict the future of languages, people can just speculate. It is clearly evident that English has developed over an extended period of time, and it cannot be influenced by any forms of social control (Schneider 2000). There might be a significant figure or major distribution of speakers beyond which it attest that, it is impracticable for a single alliance or group to discontinue the growth of the English language or yet manipulate its future. For instance, if there existed a social change in Britain that had affected English use in the country, it would be unlikely that, the social change would have had an impact on the world trends and as it is evident with the growing world population even with countries such as the USA which attain decreased influence in the years to come since, their population will be insignificant when compared to other countries populations. New Varieties of English The English language is more open to linguistic modifications in ways that are unpredictable. Its spread in the globe is an understandable example of this as well as the materialization of new varieties of English in various countries. About sixty to seventy version of New Englishes has emerged in different countries all over the globe. Based on estimates there are about 400 million people who make use of English as the first language while another 800 million makes use of it as a second language (Crystal 2003b). And another billion makes use of English as a foreign language. Also, people do not predominantly look at British English, and it is now seen as being a minority as compared to the various forms of Englishes that are being spoken in the world. A good example is the American and British English. These two varieties of English have some words that are diverse and whose spellings are not the same. The divergent English was evident when the first settlers arrive in America. There are words that are known in USA but at the same time they remain unrecognised in Britain. Pronunciation and spelling of words seem to be in the change process (Nunberg 2000). There are also other forms of Englishes that identify the inner circle. These include English that is spoken in Australia, New Zealand, Irish and Welsh English. The other variety of English is the one that of countries that are grouped in the outer circle, some varieties have emerged in distinctive ways in the recent decades. Good examples of these are the English speaking people in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and it is commonly referred to as the South Asian English. The other group is composed of countries that were formally colonised by the British in West Africa and East Africa (Bamgbose 2000). There are other emerging varieties of English that have been noted in some parts of South East Asia and the Caribbean. The new varieties of Englishes are somehow like vernacular languages that are recognised in individual countries and also on an international scale. Instead of the language affecting thousands of people it affects people in millions. The varieties are foreseeable to the result on the spread of English language on a global scale. The international varieties of English are therefore expressing their national identities and thus reducing the conflict between identity and intelligibility. The revision in New English is connected to the aspect of new vocabularies, formations of words, meaning of words and idiomatic and collocation phrases (Crystal 2003a). New words are likely to be motivated by cultural domains as the new English speakers try to themselves trying to adapt to the language with the aim of meeting their communicative needs. Implications of new technology for global spread of English New technology has played an essential role in the spread of English language globally. Globalisation has led to the interconnectedness opt people from various corners of the world. Thus, there seems to be an urgent need for a common language that people can use so as to communicate with each other. This has been enabled by the technological advancement that has taken place over the years for example the emergence of smartphones and other social media sites such as facebook and twitter. New technologies such as the printing technology enabled the spread of English in that book and articles on English would be printed and this would help tutors with materials to teach the language to those who did not know it (Crisell 2002). Computer-mediated communication is a significant feature of globalisation and resultantly, the Internet has also become an essential linguistic medium. The internet has added some advantage to various human aspects such as the learning and spreading of languages such as English. Technology advancement has also impacted significantly on the lexical, syntactic and phonetic standards of the English language as well as the great importance tutors and learners should put in place in regard to the use of the correct language. The global technology has showed the way to the cropping up of English shortened terms that are applied to the chat groups and the social media sites. With the broad range of auditory models that have been available, through the use of satellite television it makes it easier for New English to stir in diverse directions within the same period. Conclusion In conclusion, it may seem impossible to come up with a confident prediction in regard to the future of English language. The discussion has offered various reasons as to why English may not dominate the future as people tend to be focusing more on their native languages. The discussion is also clear that there are various varieties of Englishes that are being used, and new ones are likely to develop in the future. The materialization of English with an authentic international occurrence consequently has an implication which surpasses this scrupulous language. For the reason that there are no standards for languages to achieve this level of utilization in instances when they do not consider Latin, which was in logical terms a global language when the globe was smaller in size, no one can be able to explain what occurs to them in such conditions. The discussion of the future of English as a result offer a new testing-ground for sociolinguistic suggestions which beforehand had merely local soundness, and a area where one is likely to come across new types of facts which might one day inspire a universal re-conceptualization of that topic. It has also been argued if English was to follow the trend of Latina ad French since currently the two languages have a lesser influence on the globe, the next languages that are likely to spread and be used in various parts of the world are Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Hindi/Urdu. Thus, though English may make it to the future, there will be different varieties and this making it less dominant all over the globe. References Bamgbose, A 2000, Sociolinguistics in West Africa, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. Crisell, A 2002, An introductory history of British broadcasting, 2nd edn, Routledge, London. Crystal, D 2003a, English as a Global Language, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Crystal, D 2003b, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Ethnologue 2015, Summary by language size, viewed 5 June 2015, . Grant, T 2002, European business survey, Grant Thornton, London. Janson, T 2002, Speak: a short history of languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mufwene, S 2001, The ecology of language evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Nunberg, G 2000, ‘Will the Internet always speak English?’, American Prospect, vol. 11, no. 10. Preshous, A 2001, ‘Where you going ah?’, English Today vol. 65, pp.46–53. Schneider, E 2000, ‘Feature diffusion vs. contact effects in the evolution of New Englishes: a typological case study of negation patterns’, English World-Wide vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 201–30. Wallraff, B 2000, What Global Language? Viewed 5 June 2015, > Read More