The weekly column

Article 10, April 2000

World English or Worse English?

By Jeff Bragg

A recent estimate put the number of speakers of English at almost 1 billion worldwide. However, less than half of these people actually speak English as their first or ‘native’ language. Let’s try putting this another way: more foreigners speak English than ‘native’ speakers do.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. As one notable expert (David Graddol) said, English at the beginning of the 21st century “is more widely scattered, more widely spoken, and more widely written than any other language has been”. Compare this with the situation at the end of the 16th century, under that other Queen Elizabeth, the first. Then there were only around six or seven million of us English speakers, most of them squeezed uncomfortably into that tiny cold place, the British Isles.

So, getting back to current times, where do these other speakers of English live, and just why do they use English? Perhaps more importantly, do they like using English?! Let’s take a look at some of these places which are scattered around the globe, and which use English for a variety of different reasons. In fact, we can find some interesting examples in Africa, North America, and even Europe itself.

First stop Africa, where in Nairobi, Kenya, English is used in tandem with several native tongues. In fact, there are around 40 local languages spoken throughout Kenya, so English is used as a sort of ‘lingua franca’ between people from different parts of the country. More importantly, it is still the language used in most of the education system, and in the country’s legal and administrative setups, and is therefore seen as a high status language associated with social prestige and economic success.

Obviously here English is a legacy of Britain’s colonial past, and as such is not universally welcome. But to adopt one of the local tongues as the country’s main language would perhaps lend too much weight to just one of Kenya’s tribes, and might upset the balance that exists in the country. So here we have what might be referred to as a ‘beautiful paradox’: the language of a former oppressor now apparently serving to hold a nation together. Curiously, a slang variety of English has now arisen, which is in fact a mixture of English and Swahili - Swahinglish?

Now let’s jump across the ocean to North America. “But doesn’t everybody there speak English as their mother tongue?” I hear you ask. Well, not really. In some parts of Canada, English and French are fighting each other almost as much as the English and French people used to in years gone by. In fact, the province of Quebec was originally settled by both the French and the English way back in the 17th and 18th centuries.

However, in 1759 there was a mother of a battle to win Quebec city, and the French (as usual) lost. Ever since then they’ve been trying to kick out the English language, and in 1977 French was made the obligatory language of the workplace, despite huge objections from anglophones. So, here we have some people who don’t really like using English at all, and who will even pretend that they can’t speak or understand the language just to antagonise someone! Sounds incredible, but it’s true.

Finally, let’s move back to Europe, but keeping the French perspective. In France the English language has no official status, unlike in Kenya and Quebec, but it is being used with increasing frequency, although mostly at an unofficial level. However, many French people have come to resent and fear this growing linguistic (and cultural) domination, and there is now talk of excessive ‘contamination’ of French life by the Anglo-American tongue and all it represents.

Examples of this ‘poisoning’ of the French way of life can be seen in the way that English words are driving out French ones, especially amongst the young. Un scoop, un squat, and un one-man show have already worked their way into the language, and probably every teenager possesses un walkman. Way back in the 1960s the term Franglais was invented to cover this fashion for English words, and partly as a result of this trend the French state started to fight back. In 1995 a law was passed which ‘outlawed’ specific English words, prescribed more ethnic French alternatives, and insisted that when French and English appear together, the French is always the most prominent.

Of course, whether the French can win this battle against the English remains to be seen! A bientot!

If you have any comments about or problems with the English language, I would be delighted for you to contact me, on bragg@kimep.kz

Jeff Bragg is Deputy Head of the English Language Programme at KIMEP.