Declared: English is no longer an ethnic language. It is the world's language now because, for one, the world needs it: a common mercantile language. Trade requires some kind of pidgin, to do the deals. And it needs to be a language that's nimble, big-hearted, will accept anything; not stuck up or conservative.
People lament the hegemony of English. That's like lamenting the hegemony of hammers for driving nails. The adoption of English as the world's language isn't an act of cultural imperialism. Face it: not all developed languages were created equal. English is the right tool. It is a practical, pragmatic, average person's language; and always has been. The academy never got its mitts on it, despite generations of stick-wad grammarians who paled and fainted at the sight of sentence begun with a conjunction.
Whilst not wanting to decry English, I would like to argue the case for Esperanto as the international language. It is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states.
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.
Esperanto is a relatively young language. It has a bright future ahead.
Posted by: Bill Chapman | September 21, 2008 at 03:51 PM
I'm kind of enjoying listening to French right now ...
Posted by: Jim Rattray | September 21, 2008 at 06:26 PM