English is globally dominant. But it is not always the Queen’s English, reports Anthea Garman
A German businessman visits the Middle East and meets an Arab woman. He speaks no Arabic, she speaks no German, so they conduct their relationship in English. Eventually they have a child. This child is raised speaking second language English – influenced by Arabic and German – as its mother tongue.
And that’s not an unusual situation. According to linguist David Crystal, author of English as a Global Language, right now the number of people in the world who speak English as a mother tongue (450-million including pidgin and creole-speakers) is slightly more than those who speak it as a second language (about 400-million in 70 countries).
But with another 500-million or so learning it to get ahead in life and the population growth in Africa and Asia (three times that of the United States and Britain), soon those who use English as a second language will far outnumber mother-tongue speakers.
And they’re already doing all sorts of unspeakable things to it! For one, they mix it with their own mother tongue. It’s now the norm, says Crystal, to hear pidgin versions of English all over the world. Previously “the mixed-language phenomenon was dismissed as fringe, of poor quality and used only by the uneducated, but when it’s being spoken by a judge or Minister of Education then it is attracting prestige and expressing an identity.”
The other thing these foreigners are doing is altering the “heartbeat” of English. English has a tum-ti-tum-ti-tum rhythm – think of traditional English poetry – and this is being wrenched into a rat-tat-tat rhythm – think of rap music. Does this give Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, author of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, and recipient of an OBE for services to English, a heart attack? Not at all.
“The situation is extremely messy,” he says with delight, “and about to get messier.” There has never been a language in history with such widespread distribution. So how did it happen? “Power, power, power. One reason alone: the power of the people who speak it. First military power – as a colonial power England imposed its monolingualism on its colonies. Then industrial power – during the industrial revolution all the instructions and regulations for the technology were written in English. Then, in the 19th century, economic power, which shifted from England to America. And, now, in the 20th century, the US imposes its cultural power on the world. English is held in place by this power network with its different facets.”
Add to this some politics: in the 1950s there were 56 countries in the United Nations. Now there are 184 and “all of them want to trade and talk to each other in English”, he says. And in the 1960s many former English colonies gained their independence. Understandably they wanted to ditch English. But when, like Nigeria with its 380 ethnic tongues, they had to make a choice of official language which would not cause ethnic strife, they settled for English.
So what does the future hold if these new mother-tongue speakers have no reverence for the Queen’s English? Crystal thinks that the media is playing a stabilising role. Both print and satellite TV stick to “standard English” for the purposes of intelligibility. He did a survey on July 6 1993 in which he looked at newspapers from all over the world. “Ninety percent of the grammar and language was the same.”
And, he says, satellite TV now reaches into homes in far-flung villages and shows the locals native English models speaking tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-timed English. He warns that people don’t die for the intelligibility of language, but they do riot in the streets over identity.
That’s why he is a great proponent of “Englishes” – local versions that carry culture and meaning. He doesn’t see why all English-speakers shouldn’t indulge in multiple versions of the language.
And speakers often change their own pronounciation to be understood in global forums. For instance, at the European Union, Crystal has observed English civil servants saying “Heafrow” instead of “Heathrow” and “Is zat vot you vant?” in order to make themselves understood.
He is also keenly aware that the domination of English often means the decline of many other languages. Of the 6 500 languages alive now half will be gone in another 100 years. Of these 10% have only 100 speakers, 25% only 1000 speakers. In this sophisticated age of mutual respect and sensitivity this is a tragedy, he says.