B2-37 · One Language, Many Englishes

One Language, Many Englishes

When a pilot from Brazil talks to an air traffic controller in Germany, they speak English. When a Czech student plays an online game with friends from Poland and Korea, they type in English. When scientists in Japan publish their research, they usually write it in English. With around 1.5 billion speakers, English is the most widely spoken language in the world – but only about 400 million of them learned it as their first language. In other words, most people who speak English today are not native speakers. They are people like you.

How did it happen?

Fifteen hundred years ago, English was a small language spoken by a few Germanic tribes who had settled in Britain. Its rise to global importance happened in two big steps. First, the British Empire spread English to North America, India, Africa and Australia between the 17th and 20th centuries. Then, after the Second World War, the United States became the world's leading economic and cultural power. Hollywood movies, rock and pop music, and later computers and the internet were all born in English.

Interestingly, English did not win because it is easy. Its spelling is famously chaotic – think of though, through, tough and thought – and it is full of irregular verbs and idioms. It won because of power, money and technology. If history had gone differently, the world might be learning Spanish, French or Chinese instead.

One English or many?

Because English is spoken in so many places, it has developed many varieties. Americans say apartment, truck and vacation; the British say flat, lorry and holiday. Australians shorten almost everything: breakfast becomes brekkie and an afternoon becomes an arvo. In India, where English is one of the official languages of government, people might say prepone (the opposite of postpone) or do the needful. In Nigeria and Singapore, local forms of English mix with other languages and have their own rhythm and vocabulary.

Linguists no longer see these varieties as "mistakes". They talk about "World Englishes" – a family of equal versions of one language. There is no single "correct" English accent. What matters is that people can understand each other.

English as a lingua franca

Most conversations in English today happen between non-native speakers – a Czech and a Spaniard at a conference, an Italian tourist and a Thai hotel receptionist. Researchers call this "English as a lingua franca" (a common language between people with different first languages). Studies suggest that in these situations, clear pronunciation and a willingness to explain matter much more than a perfect accent. In fact, native speakers are sometimes the hardest to understand, because they speak fast and use idioms and slang that others don't know.

Is English a threat?

Not everyone is happy about the triumph of English. Some people worry that smaller languages are being pushed aside. Of the roughly 7,000 languages in the world, it is estimated that about 40 percent are endangered, and many have fewer than a thousand speakers. Others point out that English words are flooding into other languages – Czech teenagers lajkují, sdílí and strímují – and fear that national languages will lose their richness.

Many experts, however, believe that the answer is not to choose one language, but to speak more of them. Multilingual people, studies show, are often better at switching between tasks and understanding different points of view. Speaking English opens the world; keeping your own language keeps your roots.

So the next time you feel embarrassed about your Czech accent, remember: you are part of the largest group of English speakers on the planet. English no longer belongs only to the British or the Americans. It belongs to everyone who uses it.