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Essays on history of english language
Pioneers in linguistics
Essays on history of english language
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Lingua franca; also referred by Chirikba (2008, p.31) as; “The Working Language” or “Unifying Language”. It is a language used by people who do not share the same primary language. It’s a way to make it possible for these people to communicate between each other, as they do not share a common “mother tongue”(Chirikba 2008 p.31). Most commonly a third language learnt by all parties. So how in the long term will lingua franca factor into our global economy? Firstly we have to consider the history of its origins.
During the age of exploration, lingua franca played an extensive role in allowing European explorers to trade and communicate, in countries to which they travelled. In places like coastal Africa, parts of India and even Japan, Portuguese was the “lingua franca of diplomacy and trade” (Briney, 2013). This was due to the similarities in words, which meant it was easier for the majority of countries to learn.
Briney (2013) noted that the term lingua franca was first noted in use, in the middle ages. It described a language that European crusaders and traders in the Mediterranean created, mixing French and Italian. Although the use of lingua franca can be found much further back in history. For example due to the size of the Islamic Empire in the 7th Century, Arabic developed into a lingua franca. As the empire spread into China, India and Central Asia, the native tongue of the Arabian Peninsula became each country’s lingua franca. This is because the sheer size of the empire created a demand for one. The empire needed to be able to communicate with the territories it gained for trade and commerce (Briney, 2013).
In history most lingua franca were created by empires. It was the way for them to communicate with the cou...
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...rld has there been a language more widespread than that of English. No one can know what path it will continue to take. As discussed scholars have made predictions in history which were proved wrong by time ; Webster and Sweet.
With the world learning more languages than that of its cultural mother tongue – children now being taught English alongside their native tongue at school – It is inevitable that more and more languages will lose their significance and slowly die away. We will see English become more diverse and develop pidgins of the language within countries. Ultimately the term lingua franca will be obsolete as the world will be speaking a dialect of English from birth. David Crystal (1997p.140) has a similar view and adds, English, if it is the only language left to be learned will be the “greatest intellectual disaster that this planet has ever known”.
The millions of people who lived in the Roman Empire spoke many languages and followed many different customs and religions. But the Roman Empire bound them together under a common system of law and government. The languages of the ancient Romans, Latin, became the basis of French, Italian, Spanish, and the other Romance languages.
Around that time, because of the political power it had the Roman Empire ruled most of the continent of Europe and after it collapsed, the Romans removed their troops leaving the Latins and their language being spoken over the European continent. Latin had a very influential impact on the Celtic and Germanic language. The influence became so great it ended up being very influential to the English language. The language of English is referenced to have been started in about 449 when the Germanic tribes and their language settled on the British Isles. It is believed to be a Germanic dialect but English has adopted a large variety of their words from many different other languages.
A lingua franca is a common language that ties speakers of other native languages together. Mandarin works as this lingua franca in the way that it ties people together from countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan together, even though their home countries may have different languages. This common standard language allows businesses across these countries to communicate easily. As this lingua franca, Mandarin is growing more as a second-language. The indigenous languages of these variously cultured people still remain intact and in use, and the standard language just allows them to communicate amongst each
Language is universal, but there are different meanings and sounds, which vary from one culture to another. In China citizens speak many languages, but about 94% speak the Chinese language. The difference in dialects was overcome by the written word and eventually a version of Mandrin became the “official speech” (The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, 1996,p.304). In America there are many ethnic groups with many varieties of language. The U.S. was created through many people from different countries migrating to the new states. In the U.S. there is an “official speech” which is the English language. The language of both these countries are not only different in meaning and sound, but also reflect the way in which the people in these societies live, believe, and function.
Although it is not the most widely spoken language in the nation, it has a great role within the country itself, being designed as a Lingua Franca and, just as in the rest of the world, it is characterized by being a business and educational language since it is mostly used in
You could argue that language is the single most important aspect of human interaction. Many languages that survived for many generations are starting to fade right before our eyes. Along with the PBS documentary Language Matters, Jared Diamonds book The World Until Yesterday rise many ideas surrounding multilingualism, vanishing languages, preservation of language, and the risk of speaking a minority language. What are the links between all of these topics in todays world and yesterdays? Multilingualism is found in almost every traditional society, this is not necessarily by choice.
The unprecedented global spread English has experienced in the last years has paved the way for changes in the sociolinguistic profile of the language. In addition to the fact that new varieties have emerged, the number of functional domains in which English plays a role has increased significantly (Sharma, 2008). Currently, English is not only a tool serving national purposes, but also a language institutionalised in several former British and American colonies, and a lingua franca used worldwide. This phenomenon has raised concern about the classification of World Englishes, as well as, about the need to adapt English Language Teaching (ELT) to the new reality. Assuming Kachru’s Concentric Circles Model, this paper will argue that pedagogies based on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) would be more consistent with the functions of English in Expanding-circle countries than native-centered teaching methods. With this objective, this essay will first give an overview of Kachru’s model, secondly, it will consider the implications ELF methodologies have for classroom practices, and, finally, the advantages and drawbacks of such a pedagogy will be evaluated.
Language is a fundamental communication tool between different social and cultural regions. Friendships, cultural groups, political parties, organizations, families and cultural groups are founded through a language . Without this medium of conversing and exchanging ideas, great business ideas that have yielded billionaires would be futile.
Spoken on all five continents French is considered to be a world language (Ball, 1997).1 With over 220 million French speakers across the globe, French is ranked the sixth most widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic.2 It is also regarded as an international language of reference, being one of the working languages of the United Nations as well as the sole language used for the deliberations of the Court of Justice of the European Union. 2 Furthermore it holds official status in 28 countries. It is important to mention that this ‘world language’ status is not a recent phenomenon.3 The rich historic past of the French language saw French spread from Northern France to England during the 1066 Conquest; to the Middle East after the Crusades and from the seventeenth century onwards to North America, Indian Ocean, Oceania, Asia and Africa during the development of overseas trading-posts and colonisation (Battye et al., 1992).4 Focusing on Northern Africa and North America, in particular French speaking Canada, this essay will aim to discuss through comparison the sociolinguistic situation of the French language by considering the linguistic dynamic in which French operates and historical, political, social and cultural questions.
The English language arose from the early Anglo Saxon inhabitants in ancient England and spread to Scotland and other European countries via the British Empire and later to the United States through colonial political and economical influences. It later dispersed to other parts of the world through these same influences to become one of the leading languages of the world. It has over the years developed by adopting different dialects to create a language, which is the standard lingual Franca in many countries. The rapid growth of the English language and its adoption by different cultures across the globe is sufficient ground to make it the global language.
Since the establishment of the British Empire, the spread of English language has been experienced in many parts of the globe. The success can be attributed significantly to the colonization activities that the empire had embarked on. They would train the indigenous community English language as they suppressed the local dialect. This massive spread is termed as lingual imperialism (Osterhammel 2005, pp. 14). The English language has become the first and second language of many nations across the world, and this makes it an international language. The native’s proportion to the non-native who speaks English cannot be compared with nations in the isle of Britain and far are speaking the language .considering that more than 70%
...nology is moving ahead at the speed of light. With all this advancement comes the inevitable need for a language that unifies the world. The need for a common language to conduct our business and economic affairs, and our need to communicate internationally on political and world interventions has made English the leader in world languages. It is not the language spoken first by most, but it the language that the world uses when it comes together to communicate.
It can be seen that English has become a global language, which is determined by lots of factors like history, culture and daily usefulness. Because of these factors, the number of people who speak English is still increasing now. English, as a significant part of social life gradually exerted profound impacts on education, job hunting and international communication. Also, it provides the whole world with a chance to share ideas and communicate freely. We are quite curious to see the further development of English as a lingua franca in the
The spread of English where it used as a foreign and/or a second language may be compromised if it is replaced by another language such as Chinese or Spanish. For example, if China continues to gradually dominate the world economically, politically and technologically, its language could replace English as the major foreign language taught and learnt in various countries’ education systems because they b...
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.