| Future "English", she will be spoke, something else |  |  | |
| Re: Re: Begging for order in an unhegemonic context ... -- Angus Cunningham | Post Reply |  |
Forum |
|
Posted by: DWA 04/08/2008, 16:38:25  (About author)
Edit |
Angus:"..perhaps of greater influence in propelling English to its current status as the world's dominant language in trade, science, and politics derives from the need in early England to harmonize, or at least integrate into a sovereign nation, a large number of immigrants speaking a great variety of European languages. That process appears still to be going on in both North America and Britain -- but now with the arrival in addition of African, Asian and other immigrant languages to challenge with the criterion of intrinsic truth, and elaborate further, the authenticity of whatever is the constitution of the English linguistic essence" Britain's positioning on an island with some isolation from the minor squabbles on the continent may have allowed them to more advantageously shift which side of various rivalries they played from time to time. As we see also, proximity to the New World was a huge potential advantage to Holland, England, France, Portugal and Spain. Another thing for Britain, but not an exclusive one is their extended history as one identity, as the language shifted right under their feet. There is a recent article in New Scientist* (British publication), speculating on how and where English will go in the future. The author speculates that English will be greatly influenced by foreigners using their pidgin English as a second language, to the point of becoming practically unrecognisable. --As past history also tells us.. *(On cover)"Why the language we know is vanishing fast", Article title: "English as she will be spoke", p.28 New Scientist March 29-April 4, 2008, |
| Post Reply | Email Friend | Alert |
|
Previous | Next | Current page |
|
