Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Indian English back again
Sometime in the dim and distant past, I had made a post linking to a comment made by Brad that English would remain the global lingua franca in the forseeable future thanks to the huge rise in the number of Indians speaking English. Brad gets support on this theory from leading language expert, David Crystal (author of English as a Global Language). Speaking at a lecture in New Delhi, Prof Crystal suggested that Indian English would become the most widely spoken variant of the language pretty soon.
"Already, a third of Indians are speaking the language, a percentage expected to rise in coming years. With the Internet spreading English like no other tool ever, and Indians at the forefront of the IT revolution, Indian English will reach around the globe and take over from British and American forms." The professor also sees the future bright for other variations of English spoken as a second language. "I believe the mother tongue countries have had their day. It is now the turn of countries where English is spoken as a second language to take the lead,"
Prof Crystal also speaks at length on how and why English grew to become the dominant global language today.
Some 1500 million people therefore speak English today, or a fourth of the world's population - the first time ever that one language has commanded such a vast following. Crystal said this has happened because English has had all kinds of powers vested in it. "The first was political power. With the growth of the British empire, many took to English as a means of accessing political power, besides those who were forced to learn it by the colonisers," he said.
"Then you have information power, the power lying in scientific texts and manuals. Two-thirds of inventors during the industrial revolution came from English-speaking countries, and people had to learn English to make use of their inventions. Even today, about 80 percent of world's scientific literature is in English." Economic and cultural power were the other reasons. English dominated the world monetary system from 19th century itself and in the 20th century also became the foremost language of cultural expression - be it through music, cinema or literature.
"Already, a third of Indians are speaking the language, a percentage expected to rise in coming years. With the Internet spreading English like no other tool ever, and Indians at the forefront of the IT revolution, Indian English will reach around the globe and take over from British and American forms." The professor also sees the future bright for other variations of English spoken as a second language. "I believe the mother tongue countries have had their day. It is now the turn of countries where English is spoken as a second language to take the lead,"
Prof Crystal also speaks at length on how and why English grew to become the dominant global language today.
Some 1500 million people therefore speak English today, or a fourth of the world's population - the first time ever that one language has commanded such a vast following. Crystal said this has happened because English has had all kinds of powers vested in it. "The first was political power. With the growth of the British empire, many took to English as a means of accessing political power, besides those who were forced to learn it by the colonisers," he said.
"Then you have information power, the power lying in scientific texts and manuals. Two-thirds of inventors during the industrial revolution came from English-speaking countries, and people had to learn English to make use of their inventions. Even today, about 80 percent of world's scientific literature is in English." Economic and cultural power were the other reasons. English dominated the world monetary system from 19th century itself and in the 20th century also became the foremost language of cultural expression - be it through music, cinema or literature.
