English is an international language
Ans. “The English language“, observed Ralph Waldo Emerson, “is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven” The English language surrounds us like a sea, and as the waters of the deep it is full of mysteries. English is an international language
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The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist, Five hundred years later, English, incomprehensible to modern ears, was probably spoken by about as few people as currently speak Cherokee (a tribal dialect) and with about as little influence.
Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the sixteenth century, when William Shakespeare was in his prime, English was the native speech of between five and seven million Englishmen and it was, in the words of a contemporary, “of small reach, it stretcheth no further than the British islands.
English as an international language
Four hundred years later, the contrast is extraordinary. Between 1660 and the present, in armies, navies, companies, and expeditions, the speakers of English-including scot, Irish, Welsh, American, and many more- traveled into every corner of the glove, carrying their language and culture with them. Today, English is used by at least 750 million people, and barely half of them speak it as a mother tongue.
Also, Read Rise of Standard English (click) & American English (click)
Some estimates have put that figure closer to one billion. Whatever the total, English at the end of the twentieth century is more widely scattered, more widely spoken, and written, any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.
Discuss the claims of English to be an international language. The statistics of English are astonishing. Of all the world’s languages (which now number 2700), it is arguably the richest in vocabulary.
The compendious Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and a further half-million technical and scientific terms remain uncataloged. According to traditional estimates, neighboring German has a vocabulary of about 185,000 words and French fewer than 100,000. English is an international language
About 350 million people use English vocabulary as a mother tongue; about one-tenth of the word’s population, scattered across every continent surpassed in numbers, though not in distribution, only by the speakers of the many varieties of Chinese.
Three-quarters of the world’s mail and its telexes and cables, are in English. So are more than half the word’s technical and scientific periodicals, it is the language of technology from Silicon Valley to Shanghai. English is the medium for 80 percent of the information stored in the world’s computers.
Nearly half of all business deals in Europe are conducted in English. It is the language of sports and glamour, the official language of the Olympics and the Miss Universe competition. English is the official voice of the air, of the sea, and Christianity; it is the economical language of the World Council of Churches. Five of the largest broadcasting companies in the world (C.B.S, N.B.C., A.B.C, B.B.C., CBC) transmit in English to audiences that regularly exceed one hundred million.
Essay about English is an international language
English has a few rivals, but no equals. Neither Spanish nor Arabia, both international languages have this global away Another rival, Russian, has the political and economic underpinning of a world language, but far from spreading its influence outside the Soviet empire; it, too, is becoming mildly Colonized by new words known as Russlish, for example, seksapil (sex appeal) and noh-khau (know-how). English is an international language. Germany and Japan have in matching the commercial and industrial vigor of the United States, achieved the commercial preconditions of language power, but their languages have also been invaded by English, in the shape of Deutschlish and Japlish. English is an international language
The remarkable story of how English spread within predominantly English-speaking societies like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand is not, with the benefit of hindsight, unique. It is a process in languages that are as old as Greek or Chinese.
The truly significant development, which has occurred only in the last one hundred years or so is the use of English taking the conservative estimates, by three or four hundred million people for whom it is not a native language. English has become a second language in countries like India, Nigeria, or Singapore, where it is used for administration, broadcasting, and education.
In these countries, English is a vital alternative language, it often unifies tertiaries and diverse population. When Rajiv Gandhi appealed for an end to the violence that broke out after the assassination of his Mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, he went on television and spoke to his people, in English. In Anglophone Africa seizures of power are announced in English.
English is an international language
English as a foreign language is used in countries, like Holland and Yugoslavia, where it is backed up by a tradition of English teaching, or where it has been more recently adopted, Senegal for instance. Here it is used to have contact with people in other countries, usually to promote trade and scientific progress, but to the benefit of international communication generally.
An Indian writer in English is read in more countries than a poet writing in an Indian language. A Dutch poet is read by a few thousand, translated into English he can be read by hundreds of thousands.
English is an international language paragraph
English has emerged as a global phenomenon. It can well claim the status of a world-language more legitimately than Esperanto-a language designed to be a world-language by experts. While Esperanto is almost spoken by a few corers of people, English is used as a first, second, or foreign language in various corners of the world.
This has recently inspired the idea that we should talk not of English but many Englishers, especially in the Third world countries where the use of English is no longer part of the world countries where the use of English is no longer part of the colonial legacy, but the result of decisions made since independence. English is an international language
English has just claimed to be an international language. First, except for Chinese, it is spoken by the largest number of people. Secondly, it is a very rich language. It is the richest in vocabulary among modern languages. Of all world-language, English probably has the vocabulary which is the most copious, heterogeneous, and varied.
Thirdly, English has masculine qualities. It is free from pedantry. Some form of pidgin English or Corbel is easily understood. Fourthly, it is a library language, with the largest number of publications.
Fifthly, it is a library language, of trade and commerce and also of the Olympics and the United Nations Organization. Next to the United States, the vast subcontinent of India is the oldest outpost of the English language on earth.
Discuss the claims of English is an international language
What Hindi is India, English is to the world. About one-tenth of the world’s population uses English. Hence, English should be developed as the language of international co-operation and harmony. “Nation shall speak peace unto nation” through the medium of English.
After 1945, after the surrender of Hitler’s Third Reich to the combined allied armies, the dominant voice in the English speaking world was no longer British but American. For the next generation and more, the enormous strategic economic and cultural interests of the United States institutions like UNESCO are NATO, and corporations ensured that the English language would survive and flourish long after its parent culture in England could no longer sustain it.
As we move towards the twenty-first century, it appears for the first time that speakers of the mother tongue would be outnumbered by non-native English speakers: African, Indians, Chinese, and Malays.
As we approach the year 2000, English, the legacy of the Empire, is the de facto international language of the Third World. In four continents, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and the vast ocean-basin of the pacific, it is an official language in some thirty-four countries, from islands as far apart as Jamaica and Singapore, to states ranging from Sierra-Leone to the vast sub-continent of India.
The seeds of English have been scattered far and wide. We can imagine the existence of a World English for global communication. The English of Carlyle, Trollope, and Thackeray was scattered far and wide. One legacy of the British Empire is the Third World’s continuing dependence on English as the expressive language. here English is an international language.
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