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As English Spreads, Speakers Morph it into World Tongue. 

In India, people created the word “pre-pone” as the obvious opposite of postpone. On the Internet, a form of cyber-English has sprouted with such words as “net surfing.” On MTV Latino, the word coolismo defines hip for a continent.

Meanwhile in Britain, editors of the Oxford English Dictionary are struggling to keep up with this “morphing” of the mother tongue. What centuries of British colonialism and decades of Esperanto couldn’t do, a few years of free trade, MTV, and the Internet has. “English is probably changing faster than any other language,” says Alan Firth, a linguist at the University of Aalborg in Denmark, “because so many people are using it.”

It is believed that English is merging with native languages to create hybrid Englishes worldwide. But this uncontrolled, global germination of so many “Englishes” has some worried. English purists, led by Britain’s Prince Charles, bemoan the degradation of the language as they see it, lashing out at Americans for cheapening it with bad grammar.

However, those who seek to preserve native cultures warn that in many parts of the world, English is taking more than it is giving. Multiculturalists say the blitzkrieg-like spread of English effectively commits “linguistic genocide” by killing off dozens other languages. Education, mass media, and religion stigmatize many non-white native languages, even if they are an offshoot of English, as backward and primitive, tribal and traditional, as … dialects rather than languages.

These differing views lead to the question: Is the world taking English by storm or is English taking the world by storm?

Danish Professor Firth, who studies conversations between non-native speakers when they conduct business, says businessmen tend to be blunt, humorless, use simplified grammar, and develop and use their own English terms to cut a deal. “People develop their own ways of doing business with each other, of talking and even writing … that native speakers might not understand,” Firth says. “Surprisingly, the latter join in and start to speak that way also.”

Oxford Companion editor McArthur says the spread of English can’t be halted. The globalization of the world, mostly driven by economics, is inevitable. “It’s the [world’s] need for a unified language of trade, politics, and culture,” he says. “We’re going to lose a lot of languages around the world, but if it’s not English, it’s something else.”

Choose the correct option to complete the following sentences.

1.1. The aim of the first paragraph of the text is to show

(A) how fast the English language is spreading around the world.

(B) that the English language is changing.

(C) that as a world language English influences other languages.

1.2. Some people believe that “hybrid Englishes”

(A) enrich the English language.

(B) eradicate other native languages.

(C) destroy the true essence of the English language.

1.3. Many non-white native languages

(A) are disapproved of because they are an offshoot of English.

(B) are often dismissed as simple dialects.

(C) are considered languages in their own right.

1.4. English will probably keep its status as a global language because

(A) it’s an important tool for international communication.

(B) of the economic power of the nations that speak it.

(C) we are going to lose a lot of languages around the world.

2. Finding evidence - quote from the text one sentence for each of the statements below.

a. a variety of English has emerged from technology.

b. the expansion of the English language has a deadly effect on other languages.

 

3. For items a – j, decide which word on the right best fits each gap.

Is English a ‘Killer Language’?

Two different theories have been constructed concerning the role English can play as a world language. It can either act in an –a– manner (exploitation theory) or it can take on a neutral role enabling –b– communication (grass roots theory). Languages are merely –c–, functioning only according to the social, political, cultural and historical factors of their current society. Consequently, other than the historical circumstances which promoted the English speaking culture to a world power, there is no –d– reason why any other language could not have acted in the same way as English. Several case studies show that on the one hand English acts as a killer language. On the other hand English can be considered to be –e–, enabling different societies to communicate with each other without –f – the second language. Finally it must be taken into account that English itself is actually –g–, continually evolving and changing. The English language does not only –h– its vocabulary on other languages, but is also constantly –i– expressions from other languages and cultures as well. Therefore English cannot be said to be a killer language in such general term. English acts according to the situation at hand, this can be in a neutral or in a –j– way.

1. justifiable 2. impose    3. neutral   4. imperialistic  5. dominant 6. threatened     7. instrumental   8. adopting      9. cross-border   10. assimilating