Is English the world’s oyster?

Conversely, English itself tends to change radically in countries where it is widely adopted. Nigeria and India, where the language has been used for a long time, are publishing their own dictionaries and text books to deal with this reality. English has absorbed many native words and phrases. Syntax and pronunciation also tend to become unique in such situations. Poor teaching, especially by non-native speakers who themselves learnt from non-native speakers, is another common cause of local variation. Thus English hybrids arise.

Behind such transformations of English is the need for people to cement their local identity in a local language. The Indian version, dubbed Inglish, is so popular that advertisers find it more resonant than standard English or Hindi. With the nation’s population rivalling China’s, Inglish could become another major language for the world. As mutually unintelligible linguistic hybrids develop in the world, any potential for English to be a global lingua franca could be undermined.

Everything else aside, however, if we are to have a world language is English the best choice? Its phono-graphemic irregularity is often an immediate objection as far as reading and writing are concerned. (Half a million English words are not spelt the way they sound.) Some aspects of the grammar, such as tense and number are more complicated than in certain other languages.

On the other hand English has a comparatively huge and ever-growing vocabulary which enables the user to be more precise and concise. It may take twice as many words to communicate something in a non-English language. Then again, the size of this lexicon presents a greater difficulty for the learner.

The question arises: which version of English should have currency? North American spelling prevails in China, British spelling in India. I found great variation in pronunciation within China, ranging from decidedly American to distinct Oxford and some like neither. In fact, it is a contentious point whether there should be a standard English at all.

The issue of English as the world language is a huge sack wriggling with questions. However, at the very least we should be very sceptical about the anglophonic triumphalism of mass media and many public figures. Despite the global reach of English at present, it is unlikely to become humanity’s lingua franca. And we may well ask whether we really need a global language anyway - but that’s a topic for another day.