English is the most prevalent around the world. Each nation has its own national language and particularly in China having the largest number of population, Chinese is used. In spite of it, English is used as a global common language when each other’s languages are different. As a reason for this, some claims that English is a “killer” language. It is important to know where English power comes from in order to figure out whether English poses a threat to other language. This essay will describe the use of languages and why English has leverage. It will also include the extinct process of a language and the practical examples so that it can be presented if English is indeed a killer and if so to what extent.
Today global population is approximately 7.2 billion. 1.39 billion of them use Chinese including bilingual speakers. The second is Hindi-Urdu accounting for 588 million. English takes the third place taking up 527 million. About two thirds of populace use only 12 languages as their national language worldwide (Ammon, n.d.). What is remarkable is that contrary to Chinese, which is mostly used by Chinese people, English is used from pole to pole. It is presumed that there are more than 6,000 languages all over the world although it is not for sure. Among them, about 577 languages are being endangered (Garburtt, 2017). In particular, roughly 500 languages are now almost extinct (Day Translations, n.d.).
For certain reasons, a language of a dominant nation can be exposed in a less powerful country. Once the indigenous people face the language of a dominant nation, they tend to deem the new language prestigious so the new language begins to subject the native language. As a result, it is endangered and then ends up extinct. That is the brief process of the death of a language. The language death can be divided into two subtypes which are language suicide and language murder. Language suicide starts from being absorbed into the new language so much so that the indigenous people eventually kill off their language. By contrast, language murder starts from adopting the new language. It initially appears bilingual community but by the time the indigenous language is not used any longer at school, virtually language murder occurs (Ekert, Johann, Känzig, Kűng, Műller, Schwald & Walder, 2014).
English, mostly, used to be a language of a dominant nation. English influence emerged from the British colonialism. During the colonial era, many indigenous languages were replaced by English through language suicide or language murder mentioned earlier. After that, American also has impacted on English influence via globalisation. They both have had political and economical power all over the world. Therefore it seems that they needed to enforce the use of English in order to keep in contact with their colonies and maintain their influence. It permeated the local language, culture and identity. That is called exploitation theory. On the other hand, globalisation also has changed even the view of a citizen of the world. Now people voluntarily communicate in English as a matter of convenience to meet other world. That is grassroots theory (Ekert et al, 2014).
English itself is obviously not a killer. There are no certain characteristics that harm other languages in terms of linguistic. However, English may look like a killer depending political and economic situation. There are some examples shown this. The first example is of Papua New Guinea. Before colonisation, Papua New Guinea was multilingual country where people had egalitarian attitudes towards each other’s languages, which were oral-based. However, their language began to change because of colonisation. British and the Australians economically and politically occupied Papua New Guinea. The colonists needed communication mean so Tok Pisin which was a mixed language using English and the local languages was developed. Consequently, the local languages disappeared. This is a clear illustration of exploitation theory (Ekert et al, 2014). Another practical example of an invasion of English is of Germany but it does not belong to exploitation theory unlike Papua New Guinea. Germany has not colonized and there was its own writing system. One of distinctive feature is that German and English have the same language roots. After Industrial Revolution, many English loan words were used in technical area in Germany. In addition, globalisation led to word borrowing in colloquial language as well. Therefore, English is used alongside German in a wider society. This is a case in point of grassroots theory (Ekert et al, 2014).
This essay explained the process of language death, the cause of English prosperity and the practical examples shown that English could be a killer. Based on this, the view that English is a killer language is seemingly convincing. However, it is a fallacy because English cannot have a will. Therefore, rather the examples show that it is not English’s fault. Humans’ vicious intention or just a pure aspiration for communication may be blamed for this phenomenon. For whatever reason, if a language mingled with other language, the language will be mangled. And then, the language will disappear with culture and identity one day.
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References:
Ammon, U. (n.d.) University of Dusseldorf, population reference bureau. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the- worlds-languages-in-7-maps-andcharts/?utm_term=.2c80f7f6ad50
Day Translations. (n.d) World languages. Retrieved from https://www.daytranslations.com/world-language
Ekert, K., Johann, A., Känzig, A., Kűng, M., Műller, B., Schwald, C., & Walder, L. (2104). Is English a “killer language”? The globalization of a code. eHistLing. 1, 107-118. Retrieved from http://www1.amalnet.k12.il/amalna/gefen/profession/English/resources%20reserve/%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C%20 %D7%A8%D7%97%D7%9C %20%20%20%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA/ENGLISH%20A%20LANGUAGE%20KILLER.pdf
Garbutt, N. (2017) How can an endangered language be a threat? Retrieved from http://scopeni.nicva.org/article/irish-how-can-an-endangered-language-be-a-threat
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