The Spread of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 34, 4 March 1932, Page 9

The Spread of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE

by Dr.

GUY H.

SCHOLEFIELD

O.B.

E.

-A 2YA Talk —

PPHERE is no greater force in the social life of the world than language. Possibly it is true to say that the barriers of language are responsible for more international misunderstanding than any other influence. It is quite certain, at any rate, that if we all spoke the same tongue the causes of friction between nations would be very much reduced. A capable critic of the affairs of Europe to-day, Count Coudenhove Kalergi, has given it as his opinion that "the chief obstacle to free intercourse between individuals of different nationality in Europe to-day is the existence of language barriers." Any of you who have travelled abroad will fully understand what this

means. It is possible to live in a foreign country for quite a while and not to learn anything of the thoughts and ideas of its people simply because one does not understand the language. Incidentally this is what makes so much that is written about Russia to-day of very little value. Practically none of the observers speak Russian. Everything they see has to be explained to them by interpreters. It is strange to think that until quite recently the tendency of mankind was constantly to multiply dialects and languages. However hard nations fought to conquer others, and however severely they insisted on imposing their language upon the conquered, new dialects and separate tongues increased with each age rather than diminished. Uniformity of language is all a matter of easy movement and intercourse. In the olden times people never travelled from one village to another. They could only travel on their feet, and (in England at any rate) they were not permitted to sleep outside their own village. — Consequently villages only a few miles away were a far unknown land. There were no books or newspapers; very few men or women were educated, and there was no exchange of ideas at all. Mere selfdefence prompted the local chief and his retainers to keep themselves to themselves and have no truck with others. This deliberate isolation, the sparse population of the country, and the hostility to everybody who did not belong to one’s own community encouraged differences in language. We see it surviving in England to-day in the form of local dialects. The countryman of Somerset speaks an English which is very difficult to the Yorkshireman to follow. The chief law of linguistic biology is.this: that intercourse breeds similarity; want of intercourse breeds dissimilarity. If we see it in English dialects to-day it is even more marked in the dialects of a great and ancient country like China, There a written language holds

good throughout. Certainly it is only used by the educated people, who are few in number, but it is universal throughout the great Empire of nearly five hundred million people. When it comes to be spoken, however, by the rank and file of these vast masses, the dialects are so different that Chinese from different districts cannot make themselves understocd. The people of Great Britain and some of the colonies are notoriously narrow-minded on the language question. They have a habit of looking with something like pity upon anyone who cannot speak English; and thinking that they deserve any misfortune that comes to them. That is the out-

come, no doubt, of our very distal life, and the success we have enjoyed in the world. It certainly does not arise from the perfections of the English language, for it is hard to think of any that is more difficult to learn and to speak. It is rather humiliating to us to think that whereas the Chinese and the Hindus had a written language thousands of: years before. Christ, there is no documentary evidence of the English tongue more than 1200 years ago. It first appears in quotations and references in Latin works about that time. ‘To-day it is the general language of about 200 million people out of the 1800 millions in the world, and in recent years has looked like becoming paramount among the languages of the world. In spite of the variations of dialect, which tend to become Jess noticeable in recent times, English is spoken throughout the British Isles. There are still about 10,000 Scots who cannot speak anything but Gaelic. There are a certain number of Welsh who speak their own tongue habitually in the villages, just as there are Irish who speak only Erse. ATIONALISTS everywhere try to foster ancient languages. But in the British Isles to revive Welsh, Gaelic and Erse can hardly succeed in face of the overpowering influence of recent inventions. Everything to-day favours an international language. We can compare the importance oi the chief European languages by the following table, showing the number of people who are believed to speak them as their customary tongue :- English ....° 200 millions Spanish .... 50 millions Russian .... 140 millions Italian ..... 50 millions German --.. 80 millions Portuguese .. 25 millions French .... 70 millions The bulk of the English speakers are across the Atlantic (U.S.A.). The Russian speakers are all in Russia (Continued on page 23.)

The people of Great Britain and some of the colonies are notoriously narrow-minded on the language question.. They have a habit of looking with something like pity upon anyone who cannot speak English, yet the Chinese and Hindus had a written language thousands of years before ‘Christ, and English is less than 1200 years old. Bui English is widely spoken-more so than any other European language. The Japanese, Chinese, Russians, and Indians teach tt extensively in their schools, for they recognise that a knowledge of English enables them io keep their people abreast of the thought of foreign countries.

= English. Language

(Continued from page 9.) (European or Asiatic). The German Speakers are mainly in Central Burope. Many. millions of those who speak Spanish are in the old Spanish colonies of South America. And much more than balf of those who speak Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia. The 200 million who speak English as their main tongue include, of course, the people of Australia and New Zealand, of Canada and South Africa, of the British West Indies, and a good number in Argentina and Chile, and in the negro republic of Liberia in West Africa. But English is also very widely spread as a secondary language in countries which have come under’ the influence of the English missionary and trader and engineer and explorer. Ih‘'India are over’ 800 million people, very many of whom have some knowledge of English,-and must more and more adopt it in their daily life. Japan, a vigorous Eastern nation, without in any way abandoning its own lanSuage, teaches English in all secondary schools and publishes many books in English. This is done as a matter of policy to keep her people abreast of the thought of foreign countries. In China, also, although a very small proportion of the 500 millions know any language but their purely local dialect, there are thousands of the educated and governing classes who speak fluent English, and read freely in our literature and journalism, They have learned in British or American schools in China, and in the universities of both countries. : Then in Africa the populous territory of Egypt has been . under British influence for more than fifty yeurs, and has used English very wide: ly for the whole of that time. In South Africa there are about 10 million people, black and white. The great majority of the whites speak Hnglish, but many of them do not know anything but their native Dutch. The Dutch of South Africa, which is called Afrikaans or Taal, is an official language on an equal footing with English. Any of you who are stamp collectors will have noticed that every alternate stamp from South Africa is printed in Dutch. The Statutes and Parliamentary pipers are similarly printed, Dutch on one side of the sheet and English on the other. There are Dutch newspapers in South Africa also, but the English Press is far the more influential and widely read. I have stated that English is spoken as a main language by about 200 millions of people. This might appear a small proportion considering there are 1800° million people in the world. China, Japan and India have together over 900 millions, or half the total population of the world. Each of these countries has its vernacular press-i.e., newspapers printed in the national language. In India there are 222 vernacular languages. You can imagine, therefore, that even if all the natives were readers the influence of the vernacular press would be very divided compared with that of a country having one common language. The influence of the 200,000,000 English-speaking people in the modern world is out of all proportion to their numbers. Like the Germans and the French, the English-speaking peoples (Continued on column 4.)

(Continued from column 1.) are highly civilised, with a very low percentage of people who cannot read and write. Though in numbers they are only one-tenth of the population of the world they wield an influence much greater than that. They operate more than one-tenth of the publishing of books. They have a very active and widely-read daily Press in every country. They control great telegraph and telephone services. ‘They have multiplied their voice abroad through the gramophone, the talkies’ and the radio, in such a manner as to exert a dominating influence upon a very large portion of the world’s population at any rate, of those who can read and write, assisted by these great inventions. Einglish bids fair now to become the leading language in the modern world. I say the modern world because we must not forget that we are living to-day side by side with at least three great civilisations far more ancient and more venerable than our own, and far more powerful from the point of view of the number of their people. . The point I wish to make is that English has been thrust to the front on the wave of circumstances at this particular age of history. If one were looking for a suitable language for international use it certainly would not be English. It would be something simpler, something more governed by rules, and something with less difficult sounds to pronounce. What has happened is that just at this particular moment in history: our English-speak-ing people all over the world became suddenly prominent and very active. Fighting, as we believe, for our existence, we not only had for some years armies numbering millions living abroad and _ spreading the language among foreign peoples, but both Britain and the United States spent vast sums in spreading their views all over the world. — Incidentally they were not alone in this. The Central Powers did the same. The soldiers of the Central Powers also had to learn English, whether they wished or not, for purely military purposes. When the war was over the English language had made tremendous strides among other races. It was popular .because it was the language of the winning side; perhaps that is not a very good basis of popularity ; but it is a fact. One advantage English certainly has in comparison with languages of Central Europe: it is printed in plain letters. The Germans themselves adopted that virtue from us. Ever since the war they have been inclined to abandon their old-fashioned letters so difficult to read, and have published a great deal in our style of typography. Thousands of trade circulars which before the war were always in German are now published in English. Even the Russians under the Soviets have adopted English for much of their propaganda. This is only one more evidence of the widespread recognition of our language in recent years. . There is not time to pursue this topic. There is just this point I want to emphasise. English has without doubt made great strides toward ualversality in the last 20 years. It may have features to recommend it as a universal language; but the expansion that has taken place is due to the force of circumstances, to the widespread (Concluded on page 24.)

English Language ‘(Continued from page 23.) activity of English-speaking people in the war, and to the fact that it is the most highly mechanised language in the world. By the films, the printing press, and the radio it can multiply itself a thousandfold and can reach every corner of the earth; while its dominant position in the mercantile world is a strong reinforcement.