What is the future of the English language?
Author: Rishita Chourey, XII
The English Language was spoken by a small number of people in a small region of northern Europe, known today as Great Britain. Today, English is fast reaching every corner of the world. Renowned linguist David Crystal claimed in 2003 that ‘more than a billion people worldwide speak, learn, teach, and use English as a first, second, foreign, and international language’. However, with the rise of other major languages such as Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian, English is gradually losing the power and status it has historically enjoyed.
Before evaluating the future prospects of the English Language, it is necessary to dive deeper to fully understand why it became the cornerstone of communication, trade, commerce, and eventually empowerment and unification in the first degree. Tracing back to Britain’s colonial period, English was viewed by locals with contempt. It was deemed responsible for the imminent loss and death of the minority languages, a threat to linguistic diversity, and most importantly ‘a language of the oppressors’. This meant that knowing the language empowered locals to engage in business and trade, claim status, and venture into the larger world beyond their domestic playground. The spread of English enabled English-as-a-second/foreign-language-nations access to personal betterment and lucrative markets.
With the number of non-native speakers acquiring the tongue on a rise, English has changed drastically in the past ~1400 years of its use, reflecting contact with other tongues, as well as the ever-changing communication needs of people. There are a number of loanwords that English has acquired from foreign languages such as “Oboe” “Filibuster” “Commodore” from French, and “Chutney” “Guru” “Khaki” from Hindi and Urdu, distinguished registers of the Hindustani Language. Crystal estimates that around 60-70 New Englishes have emerged since the 1960s, as English has been taken into the fabric of social life, developing ways in which it reflects local cultures and identities. Prominent examples of such developments are Singlish in Singapore, Hinglish in India, and Manglish in Malaysia.
So what does the future look like for English? There are contrasting perspectives that emerge here, with one side being affirmative that English is poised to remain a global lingua franca because it adapts, evolves, and stays current, and the other negating this ideology.
Perhaps the most striking affirmative stance is that though other languages pose a challenge to the position of English in the international scene, and are projected to continue to do so in the years to come, they will presumably coexist with English. This is because while other languages have gained momentum, the West will continue to hold power and position. The Western world holds the reigns of scientific and technological progression, and judging by present trends and forecasts, it will continue to exercise superior authority to its counterparts - most prominently, Asian nations. The Chinese and Indian economies may have a leg up due to their burgeoning populations and availability of manpower, but are not yet on par with the West in terms of scientific, academic, and economic upliftment. The future, too, for these nations doesn’t appear to be particularly optimistic. As a consequence of this, English may certainly lose some strength as a steamroller language and dominant power in the global hierarchy, but is unlikely to be completely replaced and wiped out by the prosperity and boom of other languages.
The prevailing view of the other side is that the economic shape of the world is rapidly changing, and the proportion of wealth created and spent by the West (currently the economic powerhouse of the world) is anticipated to decrease markedly in the coming decades. This implies that there may be a shift of power to the East. As it is often remarked that history repeats itself, Asian languages, particularly Mandarin and Cantonese, are expected to emerge as the more economically attractive languages. These languages are projected to dominate the economic arena approximately by 2050. As preventive measures, a growing number of American parents have begun enrolling their children in bilingual Mandarin immersion schools, with the aim being the youth becoming more competent and employable in the labour market.
While the trend of the plural Englishes seems to be gaining pace, it is crucial to take into account the unmistakable relationship between language and development. Since they are inextricably linked and dependent on one another, it is quite difficult to accurately predict the future of the English tongue, given how dynamic and volatile the current socio-economic landscape that we are operating within is. The longevity of the language lies in the social, political, scientific, and economic shape of the time to come, as well as how equipped younger generations are to deal with a culturally diverse future.
Rishita Chourey, XII
Sources:
Crystal, D. (2018). English as a Global Language. [online] Culturaldiplomacy.org. Available at: http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/nation_branding/English_As_A_Global_Language_-_David_Crystal.pdf [Accessed 13 Nov. 2018].
Ravelo, J. (2018). Will Chinese be the next essential global development language. [online]
Available at: https://www.devex.com/news/will-chinese-be-the-next-essential-global-development-language-86455 [Accessed 13 Nov. 2018].
Pak, J. (2018). Is English or Mandarin the language of the future?. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17105569 [Accessed 13 Nov. 2018].
Brock, A. (2018). Will Chinese Replace English as the Global Language?. [online] VOA. Available at: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/will-chinese-replace-english-as-international-language/2554910.html [Accessed 13 Nov. 2018].
Englishlive.ef.com. (2018). How English became the global language | EF English Live. [online] Available at: https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/english-in-the-real-world/english-became-global-language/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2018].