After a recent Editors' Association meeting, we were talking about language. Sometimes called the Killer Language, English has been accused of knocking minor languages out of existence. It has gathered enormous power as an international lingua franca. Air traffic control, the entertainment industries of film and music. And now, of course, there's the internet, and all that web technology entails.
How has English gained such wide influence? Most of its grammatical, spelling and pronunciation rules are irrational; many have huge numbers of exceptions. Its vocabulary is vast. On the surface, it seems an illogical choice as an L2.
Undoubtedly there are complex historic reasons for the global spread of English. But I think there's an important attitudinal factor as well.
As I said to my editor friend, its success as an international language is due in part to "the demented inclusiveness of English." Willing to bend itself around multifarious influences from every corner of the globe, the language absorbs and adapts words, expressions and concepts with lightning speed.
Although it remains an important language internationally, French has not shown the same tendency to adapt and adopt. That, we agreed, is probably why it is no longer the language of international diplomacy.
It's hard to picture an English equivalent of the Academie Francaise. Even if such an unlikely institution were created, I doubt it would stand a chance of damping down the irrepressible friskiness of English.
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