Notes

An estimated one and a half billion people nearly a quarter of the world's population now speak English and the number is growing. For about 450 million it is their first language. But for over a billion people, English is a second language essential to both their professional and personal lives. English is increasingly the language of choice for business, science and popular culture. Three-quarters of the world's mail, for example, is written in English, as is up 8o% email. Chinese may have more native speakers but no language is spoken in so many different parts of the world Why is English so dominant globally? There are no obvious linguistic reasons. The grammar is complex, the and spelling eccentric. languages grow stronger do not because linguistic advantages. A language becomes powerful when a nation becomes powerful. This power may be military or cultural or economic or in the case of the USA all three. people think that they will benefit economically, they will soon learn complicated grammar. Another key factor is flexibility. English has an ability to grow richer by easily generating new words and absorbing useful vocabulary from outside. Words from more than 15o languages have been incorporated into English. Spelling and pronunciation are so capricious precisely because the language has taken in these foreign influences. This flexibility does not come so much from the language itself, but rather from the open-minded attitude of English-speakers. However, as the language spreads among non-native speakers, it will inevitably be transformed to satisfy regional needs. Local vocabulary, slang and pronunciation will replace existing British and American usages. In the future English could fragment into mutually unintelligible spoken forms, the way Latin fragmented into Italian Spanish and other languages. New Englishes are, in fact, already spoken There are already dictionaries of Asian, Australian, Caribbean and South African English, which contain words no 'native' speaker would recognise.