Is English language Britan's greatest gift

[Jacob Mathai]

Great Britain has given the world many extraordinary gifts. I can think of :
English language and literature, Magna Carta, Parliamentary system of democracy, great advances in Science, Technology, Medicine etc.

My question : Is the English language Great Britain's greatest contribution to the world? I believe so.

Countries like India, Australia (former colonies) are really enjoying the benefits of English language. Countries like Japan, China, South Korea are working hard to teach their kids English language. The information technology field has put great emphasis on English education all over the world.

I say, thank you Great Britain for the English language.

 

[jsanders]

Hear, hear,

 

[Newman]

Don't get me wrong, I ain't talking against it here. I just don't understand how English can be a great thing. It is spoken all over the world, sure. But what does make it so great? The fact that is spoken everywhere is not because it is a great language. It's because Great Britain has conquered so many lands around the world and because of the American culture which has spread very fast in the last century.

And if English is taught all over the world, it is not because it is so great, but because it is spoken everywhere, which makes it easier to be understood while traveling around the globe.

I'd say that the greatest things that came out of Great Britain are it's music form the 60's and over and it's literature from as far as the 19th century.

 

[dt01pqt]

Does the English language make up for colonial evils? On the flipside the French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese were major colonialists. But their legacy was smaller partly because their long term interest in the countries they colonised was minimal. What I think is interesting is that Brazil is a major economy much bigger in fact than Portugal.

I think of it a little differently. I would say English is the current language of commerce. Chinese speakers are increasingly in demand. Soon Chinese may take over.

I love English it has done pretty well for a bastard language.

 

[Rich]

Does the English language make up for colonial evils?

What evils?

 

[dt01pqt]

What evils?

Are you flip-flopping rich? What other than slavery and massacre?

 

[Rich]

Are you flip-flopping rich? What other than slavery and massacre?

remind me again who refused to put an end to those evils, both of which were also carried out in some cases to a far greater degree by many of the other colonialists mentioned

 

[dt01pqt]

remind me again who refused to put an end to those evils, both of which were also carried out in some cases to a far greater degree by many of the other colonialists mentioned

Err..was it you Rich? What has that got to do with what you said, 'what evils?'. As person who has lived in two former British Colonies and two former Portuguese colonies am I at a loss to what you mean. Why don't you answer your own question Rich?

 

[Rich]

Err..was it you Rich?

Err don't be silly, it was the country that rejected our help, look at the mess it's in now
Did you try living in any of the French colonies during the 50s and 60s ?

 

[dt01pqt]

Err don't be silly, it was the country that rejected our help, look at the mess it's in now
Did you try living in any of the French colonies during the 50s and 60s ?

Why don't you spit it out Rich? Yes Colonialism is bad. I never said that any form of colonialism is better. Is that what you are trying to say?

 

[Newman]

Does the English language make up for colonial evils? On the flipside the French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese were major colonialists. But their legacy was smaller partly because their long term interest in the countries they colonised was minimal. What I think is interesting is that Brazil is a major economy much bigger in fact than Portugal.
[...]

Although French has not spread a lot (mostly Quebec and some African countries) and Dutch did even less, I think that English and Spanish developped pretty well to. You said that Brazil is bigger than Portugal, but I think that the USA is bigger than Great Britain to and the USA and Canada together are way over their European cousins. As for Spanish, maybe no countries alone can overcome Spain, but having Mexico, half of the islands of that area, all of Central America and all but one South American countries is not bad at all.

[...]I think of it a little differently. I would say English is the current language of commerce. Chinese speakers are increasingly in demand. Soon Chinese may take over.[...]

Don't forget that Chinese is still the language that is most learned as first language with over 1 billion users. Even if you split up the different dialects(Mandarin, Cantonese and Wu), Mandarin is still on the top of that list of most learned language as first language.

[...]I love English it has done pretty well for a bastard language.

I don't like when someone says something like that. Somewhere, all languages are bastard.
English is a mix of Germanic, French and local languages .
French is a mix of Latin, Greek and a bit of celtic.
Spanish is a mix of Latin and Arabic.
Italian is a mix of Latin, local languages with some languages learned from Rome's conquest.
Portugese is a mix of Latin, Greek and Arabic.
And behind these:
German, Latin, Celtic and Greek comes from Indo-European, while Arabic comes from African.
And they both came from Adamic the day they built the Babel Tower.

 

[Rich]

I never said that any form of colonialism is better. Is that what you are trying to say?

Well the British one did give the world a great many more gifts than the others, however to return to the original post I'd have put the steam engine and the subsequent industrial revolution higher, then the Beatles and Stones, others of course would probably add Shakespear to the list, can't think why though

 

[jsanders]

This is a thread to wet your appetite.

I think a lot of these things are connected.

The English language is the richest language in history. For over 1100 years English a relative new comer has become the most important language. And for one reason.

It’s adaptive.

English now has over 1,000,000 words
German has 185,000
And the French with their purity in traditional language values has 100,000

And Yes Rich, the steam engine was on par with the World’s greatest inventions.

I have been pondering this language thing for some time now. I look forward to some real serious debate.

 

[jsanders]

Certainly in the top 5 (the steam engine)

 

[pono1]

As others say here, a language's (any language's) presence and scope indicate power, not philanthropy. India, the Philippines, Australia's aborigines, Mexican-Texas and many other beneficiaries were "given" English at the end of a gun barrel and in the name of money.

And as Newman -- and just about any linguist -- says, there is no such thing as a "pure language" (an oxymoron). Living languages are dynamic and continually crossbreeding...

 

[Rich]

And Yes Rich, the steam engine was on par with the World’s greatest inventions.

 

[jsanders]

So actually the entire industrial revolution is an offshoot of war time technologies.

The primary motivation for better machine tools was to build better cannons and fire arms, without these improvements, the steam engine could have been built.

What is the circa for those tractors? And it also shows another element of the industrial revolution that was spear headed by Germany; chemistry, the Germans probably supplied the paint, or at least the formula for it.

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Not that I want to argue this thread, but to those of you asking why; It is the relative width of vocabularly of the english language that is held in high regard in *some* circles. English has many more words than other languages, for example in Spain, many people from Scandinavian countries learn Spanish in English (i.e. they attend Spanish speaking classes where people whom speak English are taught Spanish). This is because they find this easier than in their native language, which simply doesn't have a wide enough vocabulary.

 

[Rich]

So actually the entire industrial revolution is an offshoot of war time technologies.

The primary motivation for better machine tools was to build better cannons and fire arms, .

Not in the UK it wasn't

without these improvements, the steam engine could have been built.

the steam engine was built

What is the circa for those tractors?

prob late 19th early 20th cent.

And it also shows another element of the industrial revolution that was spear headed by Germany; chemistry, the Germans probably supplied the paint, or at least the formula for it

Nope, British paint through and through

 

[jsanders]

Not that I want to argue this thread, but to those of you asking why; It is the relative width of vocabularly of the english language that is held in high regard in *some* circles. English has many more words than other languages, for example in Spain, many people from Scandinavian countries learn Spanish in English (i.e. they attend Spanish speaking classes where people whom speak English are taught Spanish). This is because they find this easier than in their native language, which simply doesn't have a wide enough vocabulary.

If you weren't closed minded, and even going so far as too brag about putting people on your ignor list; you would know that I already wrote about that.