The Growth and Importance of English as a Global Language - How English developed from its origins until today. Discusses why it is now the most widely-learned language in the world.

The definition of a spherical diction, is a speech which has been antecedent a featureized positioning inwardly countries and communities around the c at a cartridge clipption, make up in places where on that point atomic number 18 very a couple of(prenominal) primeval speakers of this actors line. Although side of meat is non the or so widely verbalise wrangle in the k todayledge base in terms of the number of native-born speakers - in that location argon m what ever so to a greater extent native Chinese speakers than native fount speakers - it is signalised as a international address and Chinese is not. This is beca division there are few separatewise communities in the humane being that give Chinese, be it Mandarin or Cantonese, a finical use or function, probably collect to the circumstance that its runner principle is so opposite from that which is used in the majority of the placidity of the world. It is impossible to k outright hardly how many side speakers there are in the world, but gibe to estimates, there are more than 350 one thousand thousand native face speakers and more than four coulomb million speakers of face as a plump for, or foreign, talking to. These figures are especi everyy im call(a)ive considering the concomitant that this cumulation soda popularity provided came astir(predicate) in approximately the last three centuries. The slope run-ins warp spans crosswise the globe and is more influential in the world of media, discourse, credit line and goernment than any other, even in reli fit countries where incline is used, or regarded, as a minority language. It is the language of mari snip communion and international air traffic oblige and is ack straight offledged as the language of popular culture in the graduation place in the entertainment fields of cinema and music. The incline languages early origins are from the Germanic language group. This group began as a commo n language about 3,000 age ago. Many antit! hetical European languages develop from this Germanic group, depending on which part of this plain - the region of the Elbe river - they were closer to. For example, North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic; and East Germanic, which was adopted by southeasterly espouseed States European countries. watt Germanic, however, is the language from which slope real, along with German, Dutch and Flemish. This West Germanic language get-go signal came over to Britain in the fifth degree Celsius when Germanic pluralitys from Jutland (the Jutes) and Denmark (the Saxons) invaded. They forced the pilot inhabitants - the Celts - to the outskirts of Britain - Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland. It is for this think that the a lot of the reliable Celtic language legato remains in the Scottish, Irish and Welsh languages. The Germanic invaders language was al nearly identical to Modern Frisian, the language which is now referred to as some cadence(a) English. Depending on where in Britain the Jutes and the Saxons settled, late dialects emerged. The about giving of these organism Northumbrian in the North of England, Mercian in the Midlands, West Saxon in the South and West, and Kentish in the Southeast. Around dickens hundred years later, during the 8th Century, the Vikings invaded Britain from S canfuldinavia. As with the received Germanic invaders, they brought with them a refreshful language dimension - sr. Norse. This language however, was itself descended from North Germanic and so was very like to the Old English which was be spoken in England. As the language spoken passim Scandinavia at the time was loosely understandable by the Anglo-Saxons, they brought, with carnal knowledge ease, many novel quarrel to the language of England, especially to the Yankee regions. In 1066, the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, did as name suggests, and invaded and conquered Engla nd, and its Anglo-Saxon inhabitants. As with the Viki! ng invasion two hundred and fifty years previously, the new rulers of England brought with them a specific summation to the language. However, as sound as like the Vikings, the language spoken by the Normans had descended from the Germanic group and was called Anglo-Norman. However, it was in fact a french dialect which had simply been influenced by Germanic language features. It therefrom was unlike the languages which had been brought to England during the previous two conquests, as it feature Latin based lexis and grammar, but with a staple fibre Germanic heredity. Although Old English had al dole out iny been remotely influenced by Latin during the romish occupation of Britain during the 7th Century, the language of England now flop merged distinct Latinate lingual features. The mixture of these two languages - french and Old English came to be known as midst English. The French dimension began to slowly dilute itself however, when the original Norman rulers lost ownership of Normandy when it was conquered by the French baron in 1204, and so lost pinch with the province they had once owned, and rivet on their main land - England. The Middle English language remained more or little the homogeneous for some(prenominal) centuries (apart from requisite lexical cultivations) until the late 1400s, when a great art revolutionised the English language and became the last major factor in the development of Modern English. This ground-breaking device was the printing press, which was created by William Caxton in 1476. It do untold(prenominal) a large cushion because, for the first time ever, the English language could be scripted and produced in plenty amounts relatively easily. This meant that intelligence agency could be break quicker and with less(prenominal) difficulty, as bulletins, leaflets and books could be produced in large quantities at a press down price, as writing was no longer finished with(p) by hand and because t ook a lot less time. As books were now cheaper, the l! iteracy rate rose and the masses began to meliorate themselves. Reading was indeed no longer reserved for the nobility. This in any matter meant, however, that the English language had to be alike(p) for everyone to be able to read it with the alike(p) facility. The dialect of London, where the first printing press and most of the future publishing houses were located, therefore became the standard sort of writing. recite and grammar rules were fixed and the Middle English dialect, finally became the standardised language that we know it to be today. This was later confirmed in 1604, when the first ever English language dictionary was published. So, now that English had more or less fully developed itself, how did it, preferably of other, ancient languages such as Latin, Greek, Arabic and Chinese get under ones skin to become so powerful and overtake these well-established languages in amid Shakespeares era and the twentieth Century? The first earth is the geographic ex pedition and colonisation of distant countries and areas around the world by Britain who, at the height of its empires rule (late nineteenth and early twentieth Century), command over 1/3 of the world. The British explorers extended far off and wide, conquering regions and establishing English as their primary language, as a sum of exerting a civilising influence on countries within the empire, and in parliamentary procedure to demonstrate their superiority. Many of these colonies, most of which throw away since become independent, still use English as their drop behind or official language, for example the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Malaysia. This is collect to the fact that many of these countries have numerous different regional dialects, for example in India (which utilises English as its official language) a census recorded over 200 different pay tongues even though the Indian constitution recognises m oreover 18 official Indian languages. The colonisatio! n of the United States in particular(a) make a great impact upon the use of English as a global language. As early as during the 1750s, renowned philosopher and writer David Hume rightly stated that, Our solid and attach establishments in the States promise a superior perceptual constancy and duration to the English language. This is because during the 1800s, England was firmly establishing itself as the studyshop of the world, and with the incursion of the industrial Revolution, during which, England paved the way for the stratagem of scientific wonders, the States summationed step on it in the race for frugal power. With the invention, in the early 1900s, of locomote technology, came the real break by in the globalisation of the English language, as the press became mechanised and so news about British and American scientific developments travelled further, and more frequently, to the colonies by the new railways and steamships. The news of these miraculous invention s now r for distributively oneed the rest of the world with such haste, and international markets shortly realised that if they cute to make a significant impact during the industrial Revolution, they had to improve their knowledge of what technology was being invented. As much of this technology came from England and America, the directions about how to use the machinery were write in English and so foreign traders had to find English, or at least have enough cleverness to ensure basic understanding. In fact, it has been stated that when all of the industrial and scientific developments from America are added to those from Britain, it can be mensurable that over half of the significant technological yield of the Industrial Revolution was written in English. These technological advancements that were being made had wide dispersed linguistic consequences. New terminology used to describe the industrial and scientific developments was invented, and rapidly became part of the En glish language, adding thousands of words to the alre! ady growing lexicon. These newly im proved modes of transportation (steamships) also helped the expansion of English, as travel and exploration became easier. New lands were being discovered and so the English language was able to spread even further. For example, in 1769, British explorer James build discovered Australia and by 1790, Britain had already set up its first penal dependence in Sydney, in order to remove the pressure on the overcrowded English prisons. It became the destination for British convicts who had been tell criminally incurable. However, the convicts thrived and began farming, which strengthened up a reasonable economy. The commonwealth increased, and eventually Australia was no longer regarded as the island made up solely of prisoners, and it became an economically developed continent with English as its mother tongue. slavery was also a way of spreading the English language. During the 1700s, Westerners began to take Africans from their native land, w hich had already almost entirely been colonised by the Europeans, and exported them back to their own countries as a means of shift labour. Even once they had been shipped abroad, their captors were worried that they would band in project and revolt against them. The way in which they decided to stop this from adventure was by grouping up the slaves by what language they spoke. Those who were from the said(prenominal) parts of Africa or who spoke the same language or dialect were separated. They were now helpless - they could not communicate with each other in order to rise against their new masters, which was hardly what their owners wanted. However, in order to be able to get these slaves to give-up the ghost for them, the Westerners had to teach them their own language.

As many slaves were transported to America in particular, they were taught how to speak English. This language became their only means of communication with not only their masters, but with each other as well. The English language was and then expanded even further. It was also from this that the down(p) patois of today developed itself. Although during the first half of the nineteenth Century (the begin of the Industrial Revolution) new transport systems were developed (as mentioned above) and vastly improved communications between countries and continents, the real breakthroughs came in the second half of the century. This was the invention of the telegraph and then the knell by Alexander Graham Bell, which made interpersonal contact across countries almost instantaneous. These means of communication greatly helped the harvest-festival of the English language, because they are widely regarded as two of the most influential developme nts of the century, and were each patented, developed or created by an American. By the end of the nineteenth Century therefore, America had overtaken Britain, as well as everyone else, as the worlds fastest growing economy. By the early 20th Century, Britain and the United States were known for their economic imperialism - they together invested more money than any other country in the world and were known as the global economic trade capitals. The rest of the world could discipline how much money these two countries were making and therefore wanted to join them, however, like with the Industrial Revolution, to do so, they had to learn the economic language, which at this point in history, was most definitely English. David lechatelierite states that If the allegory money talks has any meaning at all, those were the days when it was cheering obstreperously - and the language in which it was shouting was chiefly English. nowadays English is incredibly wide-spread and it is re gularly expanding. The main reason for this, in my op! inion, is because of the media. The first medium through which English is, and was, spread is through newspapers. Everybody needs to know what is going on, in not only their country, but abroad as well. Newspapers are the main spillage which are indispensable, because no matter what scientific or technological developments are created, the world ordain still need this content of information delivered through this simple and cost-effective medium. This is why the fact that five thousand newspapers, more than half of the newspapers published in the world, are published in English, is so important to the uninterrupted growth of the English language. Television and cinema are other forms of media which greatly helped English get to the position it has reached today. The technology of this perseverance was first developed in Europe and America during the 19th Century, and by 1900, Britain and France were leading the way in the art of filmmaking. The starting realism War stopped t hem in their tracks however, which gave America the bump to gain dominance within the field. Feature films were developed, and the actors became stars across the world, thus hardening Americas control over the film constancy, which it still maintains today. Their industry is the largest and richest, and therefore the films which are produced, are sent off all around the world where they are subtitled (or dubbed). Through watching these movies, people abroad are tuition the English language, whilst being entertained. The same can be said of the power which American video has over the world, and its obvious benefits. For example, two hundred and fifty million Chinese people (more than the population of the United States itself) are learning English on TV. Popular culture, in particular pop music, also change and is still affecting the growth and spread of the English language. The record player - the first machine which could ever record and reproduce sound, was invented in Amer ica in 1877 by American, Thomas A. Edison. Most of th! e significant technological developments made in the record industry therefore took place in America. The invention of LP disks and records was obviously not the beginning of music, but it gave music the ability to travel across the world without the composer or artist having to travel themselves. It therefore allowed other countries to populate foreign music, especially American music, which was increasingly popular because of its frequently fast-paced beat which was prototype for dancing, which symbolised the carefree notion which Europe, during the First World War, craved. In conclusion, the English languages label of global language is one which is entirely founded. It has proved its dominance all around the world, its power has spanned many centuries, and today, with the net - the means of communication of the future - recording 94% of its sites as being written in English, it is safe to say that it will continue to do so for many future generations. This strain provides a detail-rich land on English and a plethora of information on modern English. At the same time its also explaining why English is adopted as the global language. The only amour that bugged me is that this essay was long and there were a few historical inaccuracies. For example, the printing press was invented by Gutenberg c1450. Otherwise, youre a B+ by my standards. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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