Why is english such widely spoken?

[BuffaloX]

NOTE: off-topic posts split off from this (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=368126&page=5) thread (edit by ComplexNumber).


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Why do people speak English at all?
It has such bad syntax, is in many ways completely illogical.

I recommend you all learn Danish instead.
That would also make it much easier for me. :lolflag:

[v8YKxgHe]

Why do people speak English at all?
It has such bad syntax, is in many ways completely illogical.

I recommend you all learn Danish instead.
That would also make it much easier for me. :lolflag:

Well, actually IIRC aircraft pilots, air traffic control etc all have to speak English as the English language is very easy to understand (if you know it, of course!), as in - it's not hard to confuse "Yes, you're clear to land" with "No, go land at Hong-Kong instead" or something like that anyway. :)

[ComplexNumber]

Well, actually IIRC aircraft pilots, air traffic control etc all have to speak English as the English language is very easy to understand (if you know it, of course!), as in - it's not hard to confuse "Yes, you're clear to land" with "No, go land at Hong-Kong instead" or something like that anyway. :)
and the language of the web (approx 90% of all web pages are in english).

[euchrid]

Why do people speak English at all?
It has such bad syntax, is in many ways completely illogical.

Hence, the state of the world.

Notice what happens when the English send out their prisoners and other undesirables to far-off colonies in the hope of getting rid of them? They ruin the land, kill off the natives, and take over the world (I guess that means Australia and New Zealand will have their turn when the American Empire collapses).

And then they come along and complain that their former masters 'don't speak proper' - to use the Queen's English. I'm willing to give Danish a try. Can't be any more crazy.

[euchrid]

and the language of the web (approx 90% of all web pages are in english).

Are they? I thought it was: 20% English, 70% Bull*#@!, 10% Good Sense.

[IYY]

Originally, because the British empire was in control of a huge chunk of the world. Then, because the Internet was developed and first became popular in the US.

[Omnios]

Hi I came from Poland to Canada when I was 4 years old. My dad and mom studied English years before we escaped the Old Poland. My dad stated correctly English is the language of opertunity and for us it was.

[Mateo]

British Empire (largest in the history of the world) + American financial dominance = the reason.

[DirtDawg]

English is more extensive than other languages. With its huge vocabulary, it is considered one of the best languages for expressing ideas. It also easily incorporates foreign words and is easily manipulated to create new words ('truthiness', anyone?). Unfortunately, English's massive vocabulary can also make it difficult to learn for non-native speakers.

That's what I've heard, anyways.

[karellen]

many causes....british empire, then usa ascension, then the information age, interent, globalizaton and so on

[Shatrat]

I speak a few other languages and I dont really see any grammar or vocabulary advantages to English, its just convenient because of the spread of the British Empire.
Honestly, Spanish is much better than English when it comes to simple grammar and pronunciation, to learn english you have to learn thousands of exceptions to any rule.

I think if the spanish armada had beaten the english then we would be speaking spanish, and if napoleon had remained undefeated we'd be speaking french.

[Tomosaur]

English is actually one of the most robust and useful languages around. It's perfect for descriptions, explanations, literature, lyrics etc etc. Most scientific principles can be explained in English easily (with maths and such aswell), with the exception being names for things, which are often in Latin, because Latin is dead and so the name of something 500 years ago is likely to be the same, or at least very similar to, something 500 years in the future.

[Hendrixski]

Hi I came from Poland to Canada when I was 4 years old. My dad and mom studied English years before we escaped the Old Poland. My dad stated correctly English is the language of opertunity and for us it was.

Me too! I was about 5 when I came over, though my parents didn't speak English at the time. They weren't able to learn english in schoo, only Russian was taught.

English is an easy language to learn, the syntax is sloppy, and very forgiving. You can make a large number of mistakes and it is still easy to understand what you mean. In other languages a mistake can change the meaning. I say this as someone who contributes to Wikipedia in English, Polish, and French. :)

[koenn]

English is more extensive than other languages. With its huge vocabulary, it is considered one of the best languages for expressing ideas. It also easily incorporates foreign words and is easily manipulated to create new words ('truthiness', anyone?).
Wishful thinking.
The English vocabulary isn't all that extensive. At least not the "American-English" vocabulary;
And who considers English to be the best languages for expressing ideas ? Noone I know. German is often mentioned as a good language for expressing ideas. English just happens to have an accurate vocabulary of technical terms - mostly because moset engineering comes from the USA (and Japan, but that's an other story). All Germanic languages have the ability to easily create new words - that includes, i guess, Danish :)
Danish has the problem that it's so hard to understand, since danes only pronounce the first 3 letters or the first syllable (which ever is shorter) of every word - but in writing it shoiuld be OK.

So, anyway, German has an extensive vovcabulary, can erasily create new words to accurately express (new) ideas, has a grammer that allows for nuance in expression ... so, then ... why does english dominate ?

Because

British Empire (largest in the history of the world) + American financial dominance = the reason. - but I'd replace 'financia'l with 'economic'

[ComplexNumber]

Me too! I was about 5 when I came over, though my parents didn't speak English at the time. They weren't able to learn english in schoo, only Russian was taught.

English is an easy language to learn, the syntax is sloppy, and very forgiving. You can make a large number of mistakes and it is still easy to understand what you mean. In other languages a mistake can change the meaning. I say this as someone who contributes to Wikipedia in English, Polish, and French. :)
english is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. its also one of the richest languages in the world, with more words than virtually any other language.
there was a massive study done recently that showed that it takes kids far longer to reach a certain level of proficiency in the english language than any other european language. it also explains why there are more native english speakers who are dyslexic than any other.

[Teg_Navanis]

There is no innate quality that makes English a 'better' language. English vocabulary might be more extensive in some areas, but this is a mere byproduct and not the reason for its dominance. If - for various reasons (political/demographic/economic) - another language had become the lingua franca in the world of business and science, the vocabulary necessary would just have developed in this other language instead of English.

[bastiegast]

I speak a few other languages and I dont really see any grammar or vocabulary advantages to English, its just convenient because of the spread of the British Empire.
Honestly, Spanish is much better than English when it comes to simple grammar and pronunciation, to learn english you have to learn thousands of exceptions to any rule.

I think if the spanish armada had beaten the english then we would be speaking spanish, and if napoleon had remained undefeated we'd be speaking french.

Spanish actually is spoken by more than English, just not in the western world I guess.

[Shatrat]

German is often mentioned as a good language for expressing ideas.
I lived in germany and speak fluent german and that is the furthest thing from the truth.
fortune -m "literary German"
English is a pretty ugly language as far as grammar rules and pronunciation go, but german is even worse. Latin based languages are generally the most logical, but that doesn't count for much.
English is the windows XP of languages. Popularity doesnt need a reason.

[Jussi Kukkonen]

Well, actually IIRC aircraft pilots, air traffic control etc all have to speak English as the English language is very easy to understand (if you know it, of course!), as in - it's not hard to confuse "Yes, you're clear to land" with "No, go land at Hong-Kong instead" or something like that anyway. :)

Alex, English is probably the lousiest radio language ever... I know five languages (at least a little), and I'd say any one of the other ones is easier to understand when the connection is poor and there is background noise.

[ComplexNumber]

Spanish actually is spoken by more than English, just not in the western world I guess.
it isn't.

[koenn]

There is no innate quality that makes English a 'better' language. English vocabulary might be more extensive in some areas, but this is a mere byproduct and not the reason for its dominance. If - for various reasons (political/demographic/economic) - another language had become the lingua franca in the world of business and science, the vocabulary necessary would just have developed in this other language instead of English.

Exactly. Just as Latin used to be the dominant international language quite a while ago, French used to be less than 200 years ago, and somewhere in between Arab played a signigficant role as well.

[hardyn]

and it will make another shift again in another 100years, i have my bets as to what it will be...

[koenn]

German is often mentioned as a good language for expressing ideas.


I lived in germany and speak fluent german and that is the furthest thing from the truth.
English is a pretty ugly language ... , but german is even worse. .

Ugly or not wasn't what i was talking about - and even then, that would depend on who's speaking, what they're saying, and how.

As for suitability for expressing ideas. German is often mentioned as a good language for expressing ideas, on account of the many german-speaking philosophers. Kant, Wittgenstein, Schopenhaur, Nietzsche, ... they used German to express their ideas and develop their reasoning. Not half bad, if you ask me.

[DrainBead]

NOTE: off-topic posts split off from this (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=368126&page=5) thread (edit by ComplexNumber).


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Why do people speak English at all?
It has such bad syntax, is in many ways completely illogical.

I recommend you all learn Danish instead.
That would also make it much easier for me. :lolflag:

Serious answer: Brittish empirialism.

Danish is horrible, it's not a language, it's a noise. (i am just kidding)

[linux_kid]

Um... Has anyone noticed that United States of America is the hyper-power of the world?

Here in America, we speak English, therefore everyone else is forced into it so as they may communicate with us, "The Big Brother"

[DrainBead]

Um... Has anyone noticed that America is the hyper-power of the world?

Here in America, we speak English, therefore everyone else is forced into it so they may communicate with "the big brother"

And the only reason you speak English is because of Brittish imperialism.

The reason is British imperialism not US imperialism. ;)

[linux_kid]

Here in America we voted long ago to choose english or German as our country's language, and by one vote, english was decided.

[DrainBead]

Here in America we voted long ago to choose english or German as our country's language, and by one vote, english was decided.

Well the US doesn't really have a national language and if there was a choice at the time (the time when such a choice would even have mattered) it would have been between French and English. ;)

[Ob1]

This reminds of of a joke, I don't remember how it was exactly, but goes something like this:

"The foreign student asked a teacher why she had to learn English, the teacher replied "becasue it's has 380 million native speakers and is used extensively as a second language throughout the world" the student replied "yea, but isin't that enough?"

[DoctorMO]

I believe that compared with French (controlled) and german (structured) English can acquire new words faster and has several different grammers all of which should make sense to the read/listener, this explains why english is the language of science, maths and technoledgy the reason it's the language of commerce and trade is because of emperialism.

Truth to be told the [word I can't spell because I'm dyslexic] to a world beating language is to steal as many words and grammers from both current and dead languages, stick them together in something aproching a logical fashion and beat anyone with a stick who doesn't agree with you.

Besides at least we don't have parents on it, so it's an open format.

[linux_kid]

I still think that if America did not carry on English from the British Empire, another lanuage such as German or French would become dominant.

Also, it mattered who controled Colonial America.

[Praxicoide]

The economic hegemony, pure and simple, other explanations are ideological. Language is a production, and thus it is subject to the laws that govern production. The apologist reasons given here are the result, not the cause of its dominance.

Obviously people with less power have to adjust to the person with more power.

The same applies to how Americans terraform everywhere they go through tourism. Poorer nations have to adapt and provide what the tourist wants to see. In the end, the tourist ends up never "leaving" his country.

[DoctorMO]

I still think that if America did not carry on English from the British Empire, another lanuage such as German or French would become dominant.

This is getting silly, it's not American it's called English the fact that you use someone elses language should give you a clue as to how powerful America once was compared to the British empire; the current state of play of the past 80 years is not all that important since most of the world was using English before America was powerful; this also explains why every other part of the world apart from USA, Mexico and Canada use English British as their default English (mostly as a second language). (Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Middle East = English British)

So please stop grand standing unless you really have a cause for it, I'm not particularly proud of why it is the way it is either; too much death and too much emperialism in ones past is bad for the karma.

Chinese mandarin is the most popular first language btw.

[thomashauk]

Relaxed, flexable grammar in which a mistake rarely changes the meaning. Take your title, despite of the grmmatical error, it is still so well understood no one has picked up on the "such"!

[MrHorus]

Pretty much what everyone else said.

In the times of Pax Britannica you had to know English to deal with the world's foremost maritime and colonial power and now in times of Pax Americana you need to know English to do business in the world.

[Foudre]

why is english so widely spoke, well, english speaking nations kicked *** back in the day when colonozation was around, and ww1 and ww2, so a wide influence was around, the USA really pionered industry, i don't think it really has to do with the language itself so much but more the history of the nations that spoke it. example the UN founded by english speaking nation, i mean other nations joined but the USA had the biggest say, and as compared to french or german, english has more world powers that speak it at the founding of the UN. I mean french is spoken in alot of places but who cares they have no millitary power, danish wow thats like on small region that speaks it, so not that usefull. But Mainly cause the UK and USA had the biggest influnce is why english is every where, its the new latin

[chewearn]

why is english so widely spoke, well, english speaking nations kicked *** back in the day when colonozation was around

Don't you mean "kick a lot of ***" instead. Because that was what they did back then; kick all the natives *** ;)

[EdThaSlayer]

English is:
1.Easy to learn
2.Has the richest technical vocabulary
3.Used widely in the business world today(the next language in this business world would be "chinese")
4.English speaking people created most of the computer world so that is why most programmng languages have a english type of syntax and why the web is so "english"

[izanbardprince]

Hence, the state of the world.

Notice what happens when the English send out their prisoners and other undesirables to far-off colonies in the hope of getting rid of them? They ruin the land, kill off the natives, and take over the world (I guess that means Australia and New Zealand will have their turn when the American Empire collapses).

And then they come along and complain that their former masters 'don't speak proper' - to use the Queen's English. I'm willing to give Danish a try. Can't be any more crazy.


First of all, the United States will not simply "collapse".

Secondly, Australia and New Zealand buy the bulk of their military equipment as US hand-me-downs, and maintain a fairly DEFENSIVE force, I don't think they're capable of revving up the war machine and taking the fight to anyone, if you define "superpower" as military power, they have no chance.

The next superpower will be the People's Republic of China.

The western countries are pouring cash into China, and China is building their military up and building new weapons, and a space program, and those are really the gauges of defining a superpower.

With the politics like they are in the former USSR right now,I wouldn't be surprised if there is a new Soviet Union in the future, allied with China.

[Detonate]

For many years, I was in a position that required I speak with people often that use English as their second language. One of the biggest problems in communication was their lack of knowledge of our slang. We English speakers use a lot of slang and words with double meanings to communicate in an informal setting. As an example, if I told someone who is a non-native American English speaker that they needed to "shape up" before going out on a job interview (I was an employment counselor) they would not understand what I meant. I learned to be very careful to avoid terms that would not be understood, even though the person had a good understanding of our language.

Floyd

[linux_kid]

Ok, Chinese is the most spoken language (period)
English is the most international language (period)
English is NOT an easy to learn language (period)
German is also used by aircraft pilots (period)
To add a word to English is not hard (period)
Lastly,
If you go to an international conference, the most likely language to be spoken is English (period)


I simply stated facts, correct me if I'm wrong. But I see no reason to carry on this conversation.

[Foudre]

Well the US doesn't really have a national language and if there was a choice at the time (the time when such a choice would even have mattered) it would have been between French and English. ;)

well english is now by act of congress the offical language, not like it matters for anything really though

[xyz]

In a way, English started to become widespread because of World War II.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I blame England, curse you England! ;)

[diskotek]

there are many reasons, first is about posession of the power.
and when first exist it leads mostly to cultural emperialism.

the dominant culture is british & than american culture (i'mnot if we can call it anglo saxon). like from the literature to the popular culture. everybody knows "jack bauer" or smthng else.. or can "singin in the rain" etc.. (ok, please don't stuck to my examples, think in general)..

of course this is related with scientific improvements, inventions also (yes in most of the languages technological terms are same). but as we see this also can be related with posession of power in the world.

in europe where the native biritish speaking people are not the majority, but most of the europeans communicate through english (like here in ubuntu forums). this language is also a platfrom that we share...

i saw few entrys about "english" is not the best language... like german is better for philosophy.. farsi literature is also nice. but i don't mind this.. i mind the communication between cultures in frame of respect. for example i learnt some greek... but i unfortunately see the impact of english in both greek & turkish. i think new communication age make this processes faster also...

language is te most importnt thing, because we understand & construct our worlds by it. (hehe ok i won't start from saussere, gadamer, barthes , derrida etc.. :) )

i can not judge or i can not figure out any better solution...

[mostwanted]

English is definitely the international lingua franca of today, but it was not always so. It's a consequence of the current political situation of the world.

At the beginning of nineteenth century French was seen as the international language. International congresses were in French, diplomats spoke to each other in French, French was a primary second language of many people. France blocked a League of Nations decree supposed to make Esperanto the official language of the institution, because French was the dominant political language in the world and the French did not want to see it lose its influence.

Then came the first world war and France most lost most of its influence in the world. But only after the Second World War, has English come to dominate the international scene.

I see English and Chinese as the two major languages of the future.