Britain takes the Challenge

After establishing the true influence of the English language on a global level, let’s focus on how the British Empire was able to establish its tongue in India. During this time period, Britain’s English represented an empire capable enough to establish itself into nothing less than a country with over a thousand million people: India. And this time, not only was population a problem, but English was now competing with 200 other tongues spoken by the people as well. What dazzles me is the way this foreign potency was “accepted” even though it was basically obligated. Their manipulation of power led a humongous country such as India to be linguistically influenced to the point where rebellions are driven by posters in English and advertisement ads are also subtitled in this very same language. With this phenomenon the English language was enriched immeasurably no matter if it was seen with a sense of pride, shame, or corruption of one’s culture. English had made its way and it was bound to stay.

This demonstrates the influence an empire poses over a “conquered” country. One that was indirectly forced to speak an idiom that went against its beliefs and religion, but it became crucial to the development of their economy and industry. The question becomes, why are descriptivist’s so concerned about the standardization of a language where change is inevitable? Listen to a native from India speak English and notice their extreme accent and burrowed words from their native tongues. I believe it is almost natural for this to happen and I do not consider it a corruption of English, but rather an adaptation.

The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Perf. Amanda Root and David Gwillim. LWT, 2003. Youtube. 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.