by Alexander Natiku

Created on: August 18, 2008

This is a very challenging question for those of us who are English speaking but also bilingual. Although raised in America and am an American, I spoke Italian before I spoke English, at least for the first few years. And what I see is a duality of the language and its purpose.

On one level, English has become the "world language" mostly due to the British Empire's influence in large parts of the world such as India and China, and of course the United States - which could have been Spanish or French speaking. It is not just the influence of the British but the accumulated impact of British and the US on the world scene. (I separate the US from being colonial since it was not a full fledged homogeneous country like India or China but actually developed and created a manifest destiny for the New world). In many ways it has developed a new form of civilization different from what the Romans (with Latin) brought to the world (roads, construction, law and order). In essence, it took the era of the mechanical revolution started by the British and continued to the level of a technological revolution mostly due to the advent of the personal computer. We can compare the two in technical terms. Latin (The Romans) influenced the world in an analog way, while English (British and Americans) has impacted the world in a digital way. The difference is tremendous in impact. As with any successful civilization it did bring about new wonders and better ways of connecting mankind across the globe. That created a form of better life, increasing affluence and many other benefits that wouldn't exist (medicinal and economic).

On another level the use of English has become a sort of "Newspeak" as with George Orwell's 1984 where there is a new social order. As with his concept of "OldSpeak" (traditional English) the beauty, culture, nuance and "heart" of the language has diluted itself to becoming smaller and smaller. By this I mean that a type of computerized version of English is what is communicated all over the world today, not the "Oldspeak" per se. The traditional English is becoming a dying language much like Latin and other old languages has become. Instead this "Compuspeak" has subverted the texture and fabric of the English language and pushed it into the background. Despite what Orwell said about "Newspeak" becoming the predominant language of the masses and having less and less words (much like the computer abbreviations of today)a dichotomy exists. The English language adds thousands of words every year actually creating more words not less! But it is the quality, not the quantity of words to examine. It has lost the beauty and art of the linguistic culture that it started with - Shakespeare, Chaucer and other masters are lost to a cacophony of Ebonics, "compuspeak" and just plain gibberish.

It shows itself grimly on the world scene. Yes there is more quantity but quality? Most will agree that as with Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" the combination of technology and drugs has "dummed down" the quality of life in many ways. Maybe it is a lot to hang on the English language but it may be a cause-effect relationship that should be examined as we look at what it has wrought on the world scene today.

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