English could be one of the intriguing languages for social experiments regarding how a language diversifies and integrates.
There are more than five thousand languages in the world, depending on how we classify them. It must be oversimplified if we count Chinese as one language. Mandarin could be one, and more. But under the category of the “Chinese language group,” there are many “Chinese languages.”
English has been moving toward the similar situation but in a different scale. We should now recognize the “English language group” with “many English languages.” At the same time, English has spread dramatically as the global lingua franca, driven by rapid technological advancements like the internet.
English has never experienced a time like now, when a tremendous number of people are learning and using it to such a magnitude in human history.
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We’ve seen similar situations before, like one powerful language dominated large-scale communities. In the days of the New Testament, Greek held this position in the areas where Apostle Paul traveled, and it was used for centuries across regions in the Eastern Roman Empire.
On the other hand, in the Western Roman Empire, in the Catholic tradition, Latin became the dominant language for their civilizations for centuries, until when national languages were formulated, which has been a relatively recent development in history.
In similar situations, we could recall languages like Sanskrit for South Asia and Chinese for East Asia. Each dominant language played a crucial role in driving its respective civilization.
In the modern era, French became the diplomatic language of European nations, and Russian served a similar role among regions under Soviet influence during the Cold War. We should also note that colonization was another significant reason for the linguistic domination, such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and more.
And, English emerged as the most dominant and influential language in the post-World War and Cold War era. In the United States, starting in the 1950s, the inception of modern globalization began with advancements in technology, commercialization, mass production, and mass media. The global economy and market we experience today were born during that period, and English became the language that developed and drove these unprecedented changes and dynamics.
Then the internet came. It was like a sudden emergence of a new sphere for global communications. Initially developed for military purposes, once it was shared with the world, people were overjoyed. Those were the days when a photo of the entire globe taken by NASA was shared online, evoking a sense of unity as global citizens; where English dominated.
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Let me briefly mention Esperanto, an artificially crafted language by one person, L. L. Zamenhof, in 1887. Esperanto was rational, easy to learn, and designed with neutrality in mind. In the early twentieth century, people dreamed of it becoming the best auxiliary language for global communications. But it wasn’t, despite being the most successful case of its kind.
Now, almost all linguists agree that the dominance of a specific language is not due to its rationality or ease of learning, but rather the reality that it is used by the most powerful and influential people of the time. Examining all past dominant languages, we see that none were particularly easy to learn. They were all complex and difficult, acting as a “wall” to create exclusive groups of power.
We often believe that the spread of English was, like Esperanto, due to its rationality or ease of learning. But that’s a great myth. Linguists agree that English is one of the difficult languages for speakers of other language groups. Its spelling and punctuation are confusingly inconsistent. With more vowels, consonants, accents, and prepositions, English’s complexity and irregularity present challenges and headaches to learners. Like other historically challenging dominant languages, English became dominant because it was used by people in power and authority.
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One difference from past dominant languages is that English was disseminated through advanced technologies like the internet, computers, and now AI. Historically, dominant languages were primarily for writing, spreading through books and documents, which limited their reach to intellectuals alone. In premodern societies, the number of intellectuals was much smaller.
English today occupies a different situation, being used by an unprecedented number of people worldwide via internet platforms. In this postmodern world, where everyone can access almost everything, the incentive to learn English is strong.
That’s why I say English is now undergoing an intriguing social experiment. Can we envision an ideal world where one language serves as our global communication medium?
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The reality, however, is not as simple as it seems. Like the Chinese language group, English is experiencing divergence and convergence but on a much more dynamic scale. It is at a tug-of-war between two different directions.
One direction is divergence. In linguistic diversity, English is one of the top languages. While American English may appear to be a “standard” model, even within it, there are far more varieties througout the regions. Due to its long history, diversity in the UK is overwhelming despite its small geographical size. On YouTube, many channels discuss these differences. And among nations and peoples using English as a second or foreign language, the variations are immense. English is now experiencing rapid diversification.
At the same time, convergence is accelerating. Thanks to advanced technologies like the internet and mass communication networks, people have more opportunities to be exposed to English-speaking situations. In academia, particularly in science and technology, English is the de facto standard for communication.
Generative AI similarly contributes to the spread of English. While generative AI can handle many languages, English remains its primary focus. Engineers predict natural language will become the next (and last) “programming language” due to generative AI, and in this context, the “natural language” referred to is English.
As generative AI becomes commoditized, we are witnessing a flood of AI-generated English content. Its growth appears exponential. Soon, AI-generated content may cover the entire spectrum of human articulation. Writing manually, like I am doing now, might soon become a legacy skill, like calligraphy, painting, or playing musical instruments, as the mainstream is dominated by AI content. This movement could be a major factor in English’s great convergence.
I am uncertain which direction—divergence or convergence—will prevail.
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Divergence remains strong. Among family members or couples, even in such micro scales, new usages and vocabularies emerge constantly. As we use it naturally in our everday lives, language is a kaleidoscope, never stable in one design or shape. Languages diminish every moment, and new ones emerge.
In the far future, English may come to represent “language” itself, encompassing many languages beneath it. And the cycle will repeat.
Image: Photo captured by the author.
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