The Battle of English

 Did you know that English is the universal language amongst airlines in all 157 countries of the world? That half of the telephones that ring are in English speaking countries? It is used in 10,000 newspapers around the world, and yes that includes Cairo and Jerusalem if you were wondering. It even gets to the cardinal point where European hit parades have a playlist of more than half of American songs. This only lead me to the obvious and general curiosity of finding out just how big of an influence English is. Based on these mesmerizing facts, it seems to me like it is infecting other cultures, it is invading historical media, and it is indirectly imposed so that the world has no other option than to adapt this talk. It has been called a “super dialect” by Dr. Burchfield editor of Oxford English Dictionary, but how can it be super if it's native population only makes up 4.5% of the world's.

World War II was the highlight of BBC English, but ironically American Edward Almoro was the one to call the victory in Europe on 1945, signalizing the beginning of American English. And so the battle begins. We ask ourselves this: if the British Empire was slowly crumbling and the era of decolonization had begun, why didn’t American English immediately take over? This question is easily analyzed by Prof. Braj Kachro of University of Illinois, and surprisingly makes perfect sense. Instead of a shift of British English to American English, we see the rise of native languages. It’s hard enough to picture why a country so big such as India would want to maintain a tongue that only symbolizes colonization in their history, and most importantly one that is no longer being imposed. Apparently, English has the advantage that it is and forever will be a neutral communication among these countries. It is no longer a nation’s native language symbolizing patriotism and years of foundation, but instead it has become a chain that links India with the rest of its competing English traditions. As mentioned in episode 1, the government and most offices function in English and even protesters who fight for internal affairs use an international idiom to express their demands. This is only a brief episode about the story of English, yet we already start to realize how powerful and vital it has become for the development of foreign nations across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

“An English Speaking World.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.

“ The Mother Tongue.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.