The Globalisation of English
A
English, a West Germanic language first spoken in early medieval
England, has without question become the lingua
franca of the modern era. Having arisen in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of
England and southeast Scotland, use of the English language expanded following
British colonisation from the 17th to mid-20th centuries.
The subsequent emergence of the United States as the world super power in the
20th century further propelled this trend. Now, in the 21st
century, a language that only a few centuries before was spoken by less than a
million people is the third-most-common native language in the world, after
Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
B
Approximately 375 million people worldwide speak English as their
native tongue, although the number of English speakers jumps to over a billion
if you take into account those who speak it as a second language. This means
that non-native speakers outnumber native speakers by a ratio of around 3 to 1.
It is a first language in over 10 countries, with the United States leading the
way with 226 million native English speakers and the United Kingdom coming in
second with 61 million. It is also an official language in 60 nations and a
language of special status in more than 15.
C
But it’s important to recognise that these numbers reflect the
prevalence of not only spoken English but of written use of the language as
well. Because it is the language of international business and trade, as well
as the official language of the European Union and the United Nations, most
official documents are either written in or translated into English. The same
goes for books, magazines, newspapers and scientific writing, with a recent
survey showing that over two-thirds of the world’s scientists read in English.
The online presence of the language is equally as impressive. Of the estimated
200 million users of the Internet worldwide, around 36 percent communicate in
English.
D
Language researchers have in recent decades paid particular attention
to the phenomenon of the globalisation of English. They look to understand not
only the expansion of the language but also how this globalisation is affecting
the language itself. One of the most effective means of describing this
phenomenon was put forward in 1990 by Brai Kachuru, a professor of Liberal Arts
and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who used a
series of ever expanding concentric circles to depict English’s global
development.
E
In Kachuru’s model, the inner circle consisted of countries where
English is the native language. Such countries included Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. What all of these
countries have in common is that they map the spread of the original diasporas
of English speakers from the United Kingdom to new lands as the result of the
expanding British Empire. Thus, the inner circle has set the norms for what
constitutes English. Even though there are lexical and syntactic differences in
the varieties of English used across these countries, their differences are
relatively minor and they still represent the original foundations of the
language.
F
The second outer circle consists of countries like Nigeria, India and
Signapore where English is widely spoken as a second language. Most of these
countries were once part of the British Empire, and thus are places where
non-native speakers adopted or were forced to adopt English in order to engage
with the trade and infrastructure of the colonies. In these nations, English is
firmly entrenched in the cultural, political and social systems. They are
referred to in Kachuru’s model as ‘norm-developing’ countries, as they are the
places where English diverged and developed. The original British English
underwent several local modifications while at the same time being enriched by
imported words and changes in accent and syntax.
G
Lastly, there is the expanding circle, which is the largest of the
three circles and includes countries where English is a foreign language but is
increasingly essential for survival in the global world. They included countries from Europe, Latin
America, the Middle East, North Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and are described
as ‘norm dependent’ because they use the inner and outer circles to provide the
so-called ‘correct’ models of the language. According to the model, the expanding circle
relies on the inner and outer circles as a frame of reference for what proper
English is.
H
But many today, including linguist H.G. Widdowson, insist that this is
no longer the case. Widdowson points to a shift that occurred in the 20th
century, from the
‘distribution’ to the ‘spread’ of English. He sees the original distribution as
controlled by the colonial powers, where the inner circle passed on English to
the outer circle in a relatively controlled manner. But the spread of English
that has taken place in recent decades is uncontrolled and has been shaped by
contact among different
cultures, languages and users. And as English spreads ever outwards, the centre
loses control and we see the language multiplying into many unique forms.