Reading a fascinating book called Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, who usually writes travelogues. What strikes me about him is his meticulous research into facts and anecdotes about diverse people. Reminiscent of Arthur Hailey who in the past wrote about airports, hotels, finance industry etc. in great detail. This book has a lot of interesting observations about English language, its history, evolution, and reasons why it became the force that it is, compared to many other languages.
One important reason for its rapid development in tune with the times is that there is no single custodian of the language, and the second is that English is open to influences and new words from many other languages. The stories of the people who wrote the first few dictionaries of the language (Webster being one of them)are also quite fascinating. One dictionary took almost forty years to compile!
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3 comments:
One of the most commonly accepted reason is that the Brits ruled most parts of the Globe in the past.
The Moon is never seen in the English Empire because the Sun never sets there ;)
Yes, and in the last 200 years, America, economically the most successful ex-colony, has spoken English- though the British sometimes call it (american) a foreign language.
Another could be that Microsoft used it for computer program development. The role of English music also cannot be ruled out-pop, rock, and other genres.
Languages essentially originated to serve as a mechanism for communication. There seems to be much less of that now and more 'Hot Air' since every yahoo worth his weight in 'Screaming Decibles' seems to have found an easy outlet to vent with the advent of YouTwitFace type technologies.
For a while I thought that the mother tongue of the great (former) state of AP had gone from Telugu to SQL as indirectly witnessed by the large S/w company cafes catering to and doling out semi well made South Indian concoctions for their ever increasing staff that arrived from foreign shores to places like Redwood Shores and Redmond, but I digress.
George Carlin who fantastically berates (or used to - since he is now expired or euphemistically 'has since kicked the bucket'; 'y'know got the rug pulled out from under him') American English for its continual degradation, points out that not paying attention to what the language was supposed to communicate can have consequences -Today they (as in Americans) believe they have a negative cash flow situation - when the reality is THEY ARE BROKE.
Be that as it may English has served to drive commerce across the planet for the last 200 years but the day is not far when the method of communication will revert back to symbology...already on an exponential path with people apparently enjoying use of ever so tinier keyboards to express emotions and other desires.
The Egyptians are kicking themselves for not getting their heiroglyphs patented as it appears we are now moving away from first using pens to write (remember - dakiya daak laya, then well described complete sentences using keyboards to now merely satisfied with using emoticons; IM and Chat (not to be confused with the sensory delight inducing street food in former Bombay).
Professor Langdon will sure have a blossoming career in decoding the mysteries of the modern man.
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