We Americans are well aware that the English language has become the overwhelmingly dominant language of the world. We believe that its dominance is to some extent due to America’s position as the leading nation in the world.
When a person is asked as to how this dominance got its start the most quoted answer is that the British were, in their heyday, all over the world thus sparking worldwide English usage.
This is correct but it is not the primary reasons for English language dominance.
English has some unique advantages over contenders such as primarily Latin, French and Spanish. First its vocabulary.
Western European languages are classified as Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) and Germanic or Teutonic (English, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). While its grammar is Teutonic English vocabulary is split nearly fifty-fifty percent between Romance and Teutonic words. How did this happen?
It is hard to believe that the English language as far back as only six hundred years was a primitive language spoken by only five million people. As the British began their amazing rise as a world power they found the need to expand their primitive language so they commenced adopting foreign words which to this day it continues to do. Today its vocabulary is at least five times the size of any other language.
Due to its huge vocabulary most articles can be written with fewer words than in any other language. This is especially true the more technical the subject matter.
Its dual Romance-Teutonic vocabulary adds a further reason for its current dominance as it has appeal to persons speaking either of these language groups.
But the overwhelming reason for the dominance of the English language is its simplicity.
For those of you who have studied a foreign language this is quite obvious. Whereas in all other languages without exception nouns, adjectives, etc have different word endings depending on all kinds of conditions.
These endings are termed “inflections”. English has almost totally eliminated inflection. No special endings.
Red is red no matter whether it is modifying a person, a cow, a castle or whatever.
Also most other languages have complicated plurals. English simply tacks on an “s.”
In Sweden today many young people are using the “s” plural instead of complex Swedish plurals.
Lack of inflection is a huge simplification for sure. It has an additional advantage.
In inflected languages the word order must be correct for the sentence to make sense.
Because of the near lack of inflection word order in English is relatively unimportant. “I went to the house” or “To the house I went” are both perfectly understandable sentences.
So why is it that English eliminated word endings but no other language (and there are hundreds) has done so. It all began when an unusual mixing of two languages occurred.
When two languages compete, usually as the result of conquest, one or the other very soon dominates to the near or total extinction of the other.
The Viking incursions into England occurred in the period between years 800 an 1050 A.D. Initially it was in the form of raids but later they settled in and lived side by side with the English.
The Anglo Saxon (English) language of the time and the Viking (Norse) language were so similar that they could converse with each other albeit with some difficulty
By constant contact over time the word endings began to rub off. Incidentally both Old Norse Old English languages were highly infected.
Spelling is an area where English is a bit of a mess.
Many words do not spell as they sound.
This has two causes. First and foremost while English readidly adopted foreign words they did not Anglicize the spelling and secondly archaic spelling of some English words were never modified
As for reforming English spelling, it has of course been considered.
Noah Webster, with his American dictionary of English, was able to inject a few spelling reforms but on the whole (note the silent “w”) reform attempts have never gained traction.
Theodore Theodorsen
Manhasset
