...ogy, diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music and advertising. Over to-thirds of the orlds scientists read in English. Three quarters of the orlds mail is ritten in English. Eighty per cent of the orlds electronically stored information is in English. Of the estimated forty million users of the Internet, some eighty per cent communicate in English, but this is expected to decrease to forty per cent as speakers of other languages get online. English is an easy language. There are no accents, the tenses of verbs are simplified and the adjectives are invariable, says Gustavo O. after three years studying it at school. Anaelle S. agrees ith him but she finds the many different ays ords are pronounced and the spelling difficult to cope ith. Nicolas de F. finds it interesting and cool because through it he can understand many films and songs. You need English to travel around the orld - its a language almost everybody understands - so its easier to communicate ith people from different cultures, says Daniela K. . According to Aldebaran D., you must speak English if you ant a good job especially if you ant to ork ith computers. English is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. By year 1000, the English language consisted of approximately 40 000 ords. Noadays, the number has gron to more than 500 000. If e calculate the average of ords created per century, this comes to 46 000. A great number of ords found in the English vocabulary as borroed from Latin, French, Lo German, and the Scandinavian languages. e also kno that some periods ere more fertile than others invasions, contact ith other cultures, inventions, technological progress, music, fashion are some of the factors hich have helped to enrich the language. British colonialism in the 19th century and American capitalism and technological progress in the 20th century ere undoubtely the main causes for the spread of English throughout the orld. From around 1750 to 1950 the British Empire covered about a quarter of the globe. It as one of the most poerful empires the orld has ever knon. The colonies gradually freed themselves but about fifty countries chose to keep a connection ith Britain by belonging to the The British Commonealth. English is spoken all over the Commonealth either as a native or an official language, and the British monarch is the symbolic head of the association. The USA has played a leading role in most domains for the last hundred years. At the end of the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th, it elcomed millions of European immigrants ho had fled their countries ravaged by ar, poverty or famine. This labour force strenghtened American industries and development. The Hollyood film industry also attracted many foreign artists in quest of fame and fortune and the number of American films produced every year soon flooded the market. Before the Treaty of Versailles1919, hich ended the First orld ar beteen Germany and the Allies, diplomacy as conducted in French. Hoever, President ilson succeeded in having the treaty in English as ell. Since then, English started being used in diplomacy and gradually in economic relations and the media. During the II orld ar, America intervened both militarily and economically to save Europe from chaos. From then onards, the United States have consolidated their cultural, economical and technological poer inventions, rock and roll, the first man on the moon, the revolution of the Internet, the countrys groing prosperity and commercial aggressiveness have contributed to the further expansion and importance of English in the orld today. The Oxford English Dictionarys ne edition ill come out in 2010.The Chief Editor of OED , John Simpson, has issued an appeal for ne ords There is no longer one English - there are many Englishes. ords are flooding into the language from all corners of the orld. The internationalisation of English may bring ne possibilities for native speakers of the language In his MA thesis,The Spread of English and Its Appropriation, Daniel Spichtinger quotes McCabe ...hereas for to centuries e exported our language and our customs in hot pursuit of...fresh markets, e no find that our language and our customs are returned to us but altered so that they can be used by others...so that our on language and culture discover ne possibilities, fresh contradictions. This may refer to riters from Africa, Asia and former colonies ho have used and appropriated the English language for their on purposes but hose usage of English has also made their orks accessible to a ider audience. For Kachru, once English aquires a ne identity through creative riting, the language is liberated from its colonial past. Rita Raley from the Department of English of the University of California gives us a list of terms coined to describe international dialects ith ties to English... hat Is Global English AnglikaansAnglicaans, Anglonorsk, Arablish, Benglish, Chinglish, DeutschlishGerlish, Dutchlish, Eurolish, FranglaisFrenglish, HindlishHinglish, Indonglish, Inglish, Italglish, JaplishJanglish, Manglish, Minglish, Punglish, Russlish, Singlish, Spanglish, Sedlish, Taglish, Tamlish, Tinglish, english, Yinglish Other Sources hats Happening to Our Languages - several articles by people orlide published in Topics magazine No time to fall behind in class - The global linguistic environment is changing rapidly, so ELT must update itself, argues Christopher Brumfit ,isa0iajiUajUajNUajUaajUQaMiN8sIISIlYoXGP...
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