How did English become the world's most spoken language?

Angles and Saxons

Frisians

Jutes

Se wisa wer timbrode his hus ofer stan. Þa com þær micel flod, and þær bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and hit ne feoll: soþlice, hit wæs ofer stan getimbrod. Þa timbrode se dysiga wer his hus ofer sandceosol. Þa rinde hit, and þær com flod, and bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and þæt hus feoll; and his hryre wæs micel.

The wise man built his house on stone. Then a great flood came there, and winds blew there, and fell down upon the house,and it did not fall: truly, it was built on stone. Then the foolish man built his house on sand [lit sand-gravel]. Then it rained, and a flood came there, and winds blew, and fell down upon the house, and the house fell; and its fall was great.

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/OE/MAN.HTM

The British Empire

How did the language spread?

How large was it?

After only being used on the British Isles, English was taken around the world by some groups of people. By the time anything close to a language policy was introduced, English had already spread to all corners of the globe.

Can any of you guess what different type of groups of people that spread the language?

The English Language

What do you know about the British Empire?

It has all to do with politics

The English language

Five hundred years ago between five and seven million people in the world spoke English.

Most of them living in the British Isles

Today up to 1.8 billion people around the world speak English

How did this happen?

How come 1.8 billion people can speak English today?

What do you think?

Answers

The growth of English has nothing to do with the language itself.

It has all do to with politics.

The Vikings

Many invaders settled down on the British isles

mistake

scarf

odd

plough

weak

anger

steak

die

ugly

get

they

egg

bag

root

husband

berserk

wing

ransack

want

sky

call

their

knife

Early Modern Period

1400s - 1650

Late 1400s and onwards: Early Modern English

The British Empire

The language used by early traders and colonists

The Beginning

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

1500s -1600s

The English explored foreign waters and spread

their language through trade and colonisation

USA, Canada, the West Indies, India, other countries in East Asia, parts of Africa, Australia and New Zealand

The Empire on which the sun never set

Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603)

* 400 - 500 AD

* Germanic tribes invaded the British

Isles

* Took a dominant position over the

Celtic languages (survived in

Ireland, Scotland and Wales)

* Latin and greek introduced through

Christianity

* Old-English

The English language

A flexible language

Fairly easy grammar

Old English

Easy to learn

The Normans

"1066 an all that"

the Norman invasion

William the Conqueror

Excellent statebuilders

Anglo-norman (a variety of french) became the language of administration

English remained the language of the common people

Early 1300s: English became more respectable

Two reasons why English is a world language

Lingua Franca

- A common language for people who do not have the same mother tongue

- Business, science, entertainment, internet

The British Empire

But if English is the

"Lingua Franca", how come the expression is in French?

1947: India divided into two independent countries, India & Pakistan

The US as a superpower

Early 1600s: the British East India Company arrived in India

Trade: tea, cotton, silk and spices

Became and official colony in 1858

"The Jewel in the Crown"

"The scramble for Africa"

Slave trade attracted the British to the African continent

Eventually the British colonisation began

1900: Britain controlled 30% of the African population

Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya...

Parts of the Australian continent claimed by James Cook in 1770

Prison colony

NZ became a British colony in 1840

Initially a trade station for whalers