Evaluating language status

•           Number of native speakers: 0-4 points

·         Number of secondary speakers: 0-6 points

·         Number of countries (and their populations) in which the language is officially used: 0-7
points

·         Number of domains of use (business, diplomacy, science, etc. …): 0-8 points

·         Economic power of the countries for which the language is an official language: 0-8
points

·         Literary heritage and social prestige: 0-4 points

•      G. Weber. 1997. 'Top Languages' in Language Monthly, 3: 12-18

                                       Proportions of users

•          World Population: 6.5 billion

•          Percentage of users of:

•        Chinese:       15%

•        English:          8%

•        Hindi/Urdu:    7%

•        Arabic:            7%

•        Spanish:          6%

•        Russian:          4%

•        Portuguese:      3%



                                      Will Chinese ever rival
                                             English?

•           Currently:

•         Many more native speakers of Chinese

•         Smaller percentage of secondary speakers

•       Difficulties:

•       Chinese is a tonal language

Ø Foreigners find tones difficult to master.

•       The Chinese writing system

Ø Alphabetical systems are easier to learn

•       Motivation …

Ø Does China want to share its language and culture?

•       Difficult to change the existing status of English and French

                                        Language Histories

•          When did Chinese begin?

•        -- time immemorial

•          When did Finnish begin?

•        -- time immemorial

•          When and how did English begin?

•        in the 5th century AD on an island off the coast of north-west Europe.

•        a West Germanic dialect brought by invaders

•        originally nothing like modern English

                                      Development of English

The original W. Germanic dialect was augmented by:

•            Scandinavian words (9th-10th cent.)

•         Northern skirt – Southern shirt

•            Norman French (after 1066)

•            Gaelic (dour, whisky), Welsh (v. few words)

•            Latin (the language of scholarship)

•            Greek (17th-19th cent, science and philosophy)

•            Dutch nautical terms (skipper, schooner, yacht), Czech (pistol), Hungarian (coach),
Australian Aborigine (kangaroo), etc., etc.



                                          'Inkhorn Terms'

•            In the 15th-16th centuries more that 40% of the vocabulary of Latin was adopted into
English:

•          ingenious, capacity, mundane, celebrate, extol, dexterity, illustrate, superiority,
fertile, contemplate, invigilate, pastoral, confidence, compendious, relinquish, frivolous, verbose

•            But many of these learned terms did not survive:

•          exolete: disused, obsolete; effete, insipid.

•          fatigate: to cause to become tired.

•          illecebrous: alluring, enticing, attractive.

•          ingent: vast, immense, very big.

•          obtestate: to bear witness, or call as a witness.





                             Some English Words borrowed from Chinese

•           tea and its variant char  [茶]

-- an old borrowing (16th century)

•           feng shui 风水

•           gung-ho  功夫

•           mah-jong 麻将

•           wok          锅

•           yin and yang   阴阳

•           kiasu

 -- from Southern Chinese dialect, “ a person who is perceived as greedy or grasping and anxious
not to miss any opportunity” from Chinese words  [怕输] meaning ‘scared to lose’







                                       Standards for English

•           Pronunciation of ‘bath’: /bɑ:θ/  OR /baθ/?

•           Lexical choice: envision or envisage? EG:

•         We now have the chance to build the world envisaged by the founders of the UN

OR SHOULD IT BE -

•         We now have the chance to build the world envisioned by the founders of the UN

•           Grammar:

•         Too radical of an idea OR too radical an idea?

•         Between you and I OR between you and me?

                                          Conclusions (1)

•          English today is a plural phenomenon:

•        Plurality of origins

•        Plurality of purposes and uses

•        Plurality of nations and users

•        Flexible and pragmatic

•       The arcahic spelling system is a comparatively minor drawback, compared with German word
order and inflections, Czech inflections, Chinese tones



                                          Conclusions (2)

•          English today is not the language of any one nation.

•        It does not belong to anybody.

•          English has become the mutual property of the whole world.  It is an international,
interdisciplinary medium of communication.