A Global Language

Meena Jain (Govt. MLC Girls College, Khandwa, India) [BIO]

Email: drmeenajain@yahoo.co.in

 

ABSTRACT:

English is news. The language continues to make news daily in many countries. What does it mean? Is it saying that everyone in the world speaks English or it is an official language of all the country of the world? This is not true. So what does it mean to say that a language is a global language? Or is it the case that, once a language becomes a global language, it is there forever? These are the fascinating questions to explore.

If English is your mother tongue, you may feel pride that your language is the one which has been so successful but your pride may be tinged with concern, when you realize that people in other countries may not want to use the language in the same way that you do, and are changing it to suit them. Everyone who has learned it uses it in the way they want. If English is not your mother tongue you may be strongly motivated to learn it because you know it will put you in touch with more people than any other language. Moreover it is related to your social status.

Globalization is a threat to national language. We live in the country (India) where the survival of our own language is threatened by success of English. The college students of Hindi origin pronounce English words in their dialectal tone. The Indians accepted the language of British in their typical way, they “accultured” it i.e. they used the language in a native culture. Consequently cultural features were reflected in it. This phenomenon is unique not to one colony alone but typical of all situations of language contact. The language gradually came into contact with various culture and with the result a number of local varieties of English were produced which were used as second or foreign languages.

The culturally deprived and alienated society also uses the global language in their local dialects. In India we have Hindustani English or Hinglish or Cocktail English. Due to globalization, industrialization and advent of TV channels, the regional languages are unable to maintain their originality. In this respect we shall discuss following issues:

• The future of global English
• International status (Language of Internet, Language of outsourcing, etc.)
       why a global Language – the cultural legacy
• Socioeconomic effect (It will save the time and money of the country...)
• Sociolinguistic effect
• Linguistic Complacency –Linguistic Death