Why is English the GLOBAL LANGUAGE?

You are listening to episode 161 of English with Dane. Hit it. Okay, we have officially started the show, so let's talk about why English is the universal language. The first thought I had was, is it the most spoken language in the world? And Más hablado, the most spoken language in the world? Hmm. First language? No way, right? English can't be the most spoken first language in the world. But do I feel confident in saying that? I guess, I don't know.

So let's take a look at the stats at the numbers. What is the most spoken first language in the world? The answer is Chinese. Well, Mandarin, really. So according to the info I got from worlddate.info and Babbel, Chinese has around 1.3 billion native speakers, but of course, we have to make the distinction within the broad term that is Chinese. When people say Chinese, they usually mean Mandarin, which has around 900 million speakers. So it's not even close, really.

When it comes to English, there are around 400 million native speakers. So again, it's not even close. Less than half of the native speakers that Mandarin has. I've also seen estimates as low as 373 million native English speakers. So even if we use the most generous estimate, it's still not even close. I think 373, so 373 million, might be more accurate actually, because I've seen some numbers closer to that figure. So let's go with that.

I felt like the battle would be between those two languages, but if you're curious, let's do the top 10. So Mandarin is in first place with 900 million. Then in second place we have Spanish with roughly 475 million native speakers. In third place is English with around 373 million, followed by Arabic in fourth place with 362 million, and then Hindi with around 344 million. Then there's Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and in 10th place, Landa or Western Punjabi with 101 million speakers.

Wow. That really shows you how many people live in India and how many languages and dialects they have. Okay, now we know.

The next high is like 200 something million, and I think it's Hindi technically. But yeah, I feel like we all had that hunch. To have a hunch, by the way, spelled H-U-N-C-H, means to have a feeling about what will happen because you have a strong intuition about it, to have a hunch. But enough stats. Let's get back to the topic at hand. Why is it the most spoken second language? Why is it considered to be the global language or the lingua franca for most of the world?

So there are a few answers to consider, a few factors, and like with most things, it varies according to who you ask. So according to David Crystal, who is a renowned linguist, un linguista reconocido, prestigioso, a renowned linguist, quote, a language becomes a global language because of the power of the people who speak it.

So the military and political power that the English exerted on the world during the expansion of the British Empire and after that, the impact that the scientific, industrial, and financial revolutions that followed had are the primary reason that English became the global language. That makes sense, right? Then interestingly, he points out, señala o indica, he points out that it is not because of the structure of the language itself.

Again, it's not because of the structure of the language itself. This is according to David Kristol. He says that English, due to its grammar, word order, and spelling, is not, quote, particularly accessible to speakers of other languages, end quote. Again, it's not particularly accessible to speakers of other languages. He primarily highlights or emphasizes that the pronunciation patterns and eccentric spelling makes it particularly inaccessible.

And apparently, it also has the largest lexicon, so the largest amount of words of any European language. Some people estimate that there are over a million, but as we found out in the episode I did about how many words you need to know, you can get by, you can get by with around 3,000. So it's not the easiest language, and I think we know that. And it's very true that the pronunciation and spelling alone are enough to drive you crazy.

Another reason for the long-lasting survivability of English, there's a word for you, survivability, another reason for the survivability is that English is flexible. There's things from Latin, Greek, and French. So English is a Germanic language when it comes to syntax and grammar. But apparently, apparently, around 70% of the words that are used in common day-to-day speech are Anglo-Saxon, even though Anglo-Saxon words make up or form 30% of the language.

Loan as in prestamo or prestar, L-O-A-N. Loan words. We also have to take into account the enormous influence that the United States has had in terms of cinema, TV, and music. They are the biggest exporters of these and the earliest too. The UK in music and these things, of course, too. This is a huge factor, and although it has come about later, it is arguably one of the biggest factors in modern English language expansion.

People all over the world knew classic Hollywood movies, radios would play, music in English, TVs around the world tuned into American sports, talk shows and series, and all of this has of course contributed to the expansion of the language. Sports, too, of course. The United States has exported its baseball and basketball, while the English exported football around the world too. Really, the biggest factor though, from what I've read, is the colonization aspect.

And really, this question can be summed up, se puede resumir, this question can be summed up with one single word. Violence. It's pretty dark, but it's the truth, right? When the English Empire expanded, they prohibited or banned natives from speaking their own languages in a lot, if not all, instances. This also means that English would become the language of the educated, and in rural, less educated areas, native languages would remain to a greater extent.

Apparently, there was a bit of a baton pass. A baton is that thing that they pass in relays, in relevos, in relays where a runner takes it from the previous runner and they keep running the race. So after World War II, colonies began their independence from the British, but the world influenced by the United States became greater. So again, there was a type of baton pass which kept the English language expansion and dominance afloat.

And of course, after the advent of the internet, after the advent of the internet, English established itself even more as the global language because educated people had much more access to computers and their capabilities. It's as simple as that, really. Well, I'm sure it's not, but you get what I mean. You catch my drift. So it's not a really nice answer, but it's what there is. It makes sense. That's how things happen.

The first and the most powerful force is the one that sticks and survives more often than not. Then the rest of the world has to adapt. Nowadays, it's virtually impossible to have a business or project that doesn't heavily rely on or incorporate the use of English. And as you all know, if you expect to work abroad or in an international context, it is a necessity. So there you have it. That's why English is the global language.

Not sure if I shed a light on anything new for you, but hey, I think it's an interesting thing to keep in mind. All right. That's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you got something from it. Don't forget to give the show a five-star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And if you're interested in classes or transcripts for the episodes, go to Englishwithdain.com and you'll find both there. That's Englishwithdain.com.

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