English As A Global Language

English as a global language and its future

English as a global language

The english language nowadays is without doubt called the global language, mainly because of its popualrity around the world. But this language has a long history that dates back to 1500 years ago with the mixtures of the Anglo-Saxons dialects.
Since those times, english has evolved, transformed andtherefore it has been used in many parts of the world as a tool for communication. Before becoming a global language, it became the dominant language used in Great Britain during the Middle Ages; and furthermore it went on to become the established language in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. But the twentieth century was the time when english really became a global language, and byglobal it is understood that it spread to all parts of the world. Therefore, it became a worldwide means of communication and the language achieved other names like “World English” and “General English”.
English first arrived to North America in the 1600s with the first english speaking colonies. But soon the amreicans developed another type of english that differed from the one used inEngland. The english used in these american colonies was different mainly in pronounciation (with the use of the”r” sound after vowels like in “north). Pronounciation was not the only difference, since the people settled in these lands invented new words to describe topics like food, lifestyle and vegetation. When the USA became independent from Great Britain in 1776, even more differences emergedbetween the dialogues used in both countries. These differences continued throughout the years, eventually leading into two complete different dialects known as General American (the dialect used in USA) and Received Pronounciation (the dialect used in England).
But the British Empire and the english language did not expand only to America. Moreover, during the 1700s the British Empireexpanded to India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The british established their language quickly in these colonies, and Australia and New Zealand where soon under the power of the British Empire because they were populated only with indigenous population and therefore they could not fight against the industrialized empire of England.
Regarding Africa and India, the British ruled theseterritories for many years, imposing their language to these natives. English was imposed here as an administrative language; spoken as a mother tongue by the English settlers and a second language by the native population. The type of english spoken in these colonies also evlolved over time into a slightly different dialect than the one used in England, just like the American english did. It isimportant to mention that even though these colonies have become independent from British rule nowadays, most of them still have english as their official language. Australia, Newzealand and South Africa are examples of countries that still have english as their official and dominant language.
So as we can see from all of these colonies established by the British Empire, the english language wasquickly developing into the notion of a global language. It is important to point out that english is considered as a global language not because it is the language most spoken in the world. The language spoken in China, Mandarin, has probably more speakers than english does. But still, english is considered as an international and global language due to its political and economical importance inthe whole wide world. Even in places where the British kingdom has not had that much influence, english is taught as the most important foreign language. Such is the case in many countries of western Europe. In addition to this, this language is also an essential part of the curriculums developed in many countries that do not even speak english as a first or second language. This is the case of...