ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE

1. affected the syntax of other languages

1.1. Swedes now make plurals by adding -s, after the English model, rather than by adding -ar, -or, or -er, in the normal Swedish way

2. French also recognize the global importance of English

3. India

3.1. English was adopted as a foreign language not out of admiration for its linguistic virtues but as a necessary expedient

4. Translation

4.1. people have been trying for over a century to devise a neutral, artificial language

5. linguistics authorities,

5.1. the best hope of a world language lies not in devising a synthetic tongue, which would almost certainly be doomed to failure, but in making Englishless complex and idiosyncratic and more accessible

6. Professor Randolph Quirk, president of the British Academy

6.1. “It would be ironic indeed if the millions of children in Germany, Japan and China who are diligently learning the language of Shakespeare and Eliot took more care in their use of English and showed more pride in their achievement than those for whom it is the native tongue.”

7. English is the most global of languages

7.1. people who speak English as a first language at anywhere between 300 million and 400 million

7.2. English is spoken as an official language

7.2.1. second language by perhaps as many as 400 million people globally

8. meaningless phrases on clothing are invading the English-speaking world

9. People is speaking English is a separate language

9.1. creoles in the world

9.2. University in England, the world has sixty-one such creoles spoken by up to 200 million people

9.3. Problem: person speaks English or simply thinks he speaks it.

10. U.S. News & World Report [February 18, 1985],

10.1. no more than 10 percent of the people are capable of writing a simple letter in English.

11. English

11.1. English words are everywhere

11.1.1. sometimes they are adapted to local needs

11.1.1.1. Borrowings

11.1.1.1.1. Relentless worrower is Japanese