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Taken for granted
The story of English throughout this period is one of rapid expan-
sion and diversification, with innovation after innovation coming
to use the language as a primary or sole means of expression. It is
not possible to identify cause and effect. So many developments
were taking place at the same time that we can only point to the
emergence, by the end of the nineteenth century, of a climate
of largely unspoken opinion which had made English the natural
choice for progress. We shall see this climate present in all of the
domains reviewed in chapter 4.
83
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
‘Unspoken’ is an important word. Insofar as it is possible to
find out about the decision-making processes which were taking
place at the time, there is hardly any conscious justification for the
role of English. When the first radio stations were coming on air
(p. 95), no one seems to have spent any time debating whether
or not they should broadcast in English. There was plenty of
discussion about what
kind
of English should be used, of course;
but the choice of English in the first place was simply not an
issue. Nor was it an issue for the other developments which were
catching the public eye as the new century dawned.
There was nothing novel about taking English for granted in
this way. Given the colonial origins of English in the countries of
the inner circle (p. 60), the standing of the language could never
have been in doubt. There was no competition from other lan-
guages, no crisis of linguistic identity on the part of the colonial
power, and thus no threat. No argument for making English offi-
cial is found in any of the documents which are significant for the
history of Britain, and English has never been formally declared
the official language of that country. Nor was English singled
out for mention when the Constitution of the United States was
being written. Rulings are needed to regulate conflict. None of
the conflicts which arose were capable of threatening the status of
English; consequently, there was no need for rulings.
However, as the twentieth century progressed, situations arose
where repeatedly the status of English (and other ex-colonial lan-
guages) was called into question. The typical scenario was one
where speakers of a language felt their language needed protection
because its existence was being threatened by a more dominant
language. In such cases, the dominant power would sometimes
take measures to preserve it (usually, after forceful pressure from
the members of the minority community) by giving it special
recognition. This has happened occasionally, and especially in re-
cent decades, among the countries of the inner circle: for exam-
ple, some degree of official status has now been given to Welsh
in Wales, Irish Gaelic in Ireland, French in Quebec, and Maori
in New Zealand. And in each case, it has proved necessary to pay
attention to the corresponding official role of English, in these
84
Why English? The cultural foundation
territories, also as a protective measure. Here, the issue is one of
identity.
Among the countries of the outer circle, where English is used
as a second language, the decision to give English official status
has usually been made in order to avoid the problem of having to
choose between competing local languages. English is perceived
to be a ‘neutral’ language, in this respect. Examples where this
has happened include Ghana and Nigeria. Not everyone believes
English to be neutral, of course, as we shall see in chapter 5, in
relation to such cases as Kenya. But the decision, when it is made,
is based on political expediency.
In a country where 95per cent or so of the population speak
English, as in Britain and the USA, it might be thought that a
problem could not arise. But even small changes in the social bal-
ance of a population can have serious linguistic consequences.
When large social changes take place, such as have happened
through immigration during the past century, the potential ef-
fects on language policy and planning can be far-reaching, as we
shall see later in relation to the current debate over the role of
English in the USA.
But, in 1900, there was no prospect of any such debate. English
had become the dominant language of global politics and econ-
omy, and all the signs were that it would remain so. Its status was
not in question, and the role of the USA in its future was clear. A
notable observation was that of Bismarck, who in 1898 was asked
by a journalist what he considered to be the decisive factor in mod-
ern history; he replied, ‘The fact that the North Americans speak
English’.
16
To maintain the standing of the language, all that was
needed was a period of consolidation and expansion, and this, as
the next chapter amply demonstrates, was soon forthcoming.
16
Reported in Nunberg (2000).
85
4
Why English? The cultural legacy
The first steps in the political consolidation of English were taken
during the decision-making which followed the First World War,
in 1919. The mandates system introduced by the League of
Nations transferred former German colonies in Africa, the Middle
East, Asia, and the Pacific to the supervision of the victors, and
English language influence grew immensely in the areas which
came to be mediated directly by Britain (such as in Palestine,
Cameroon and Tanganyika) or by other English-speaking nations:
examples include Australia (in Papua New Guinea), New Zealand
(in Samoa) and South Africa (in South-West Africa – present-day
Namibia).
But the growth of linguistic influence through political expan-
sion was already on the wane. Far more important for the English
language, in the post-war world, was the way in which the cul-
tural legacies of the colonial era and the technological revolution
were being felt on an international scale. English was now emerg-
ing as a medium of communication in growth areas which would
gradually shape the character of twentieth-century domestic and
professional life.
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