eli5: Why is english the world wide language of communication?
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Once upon a time the United Kingdom had an empire of colonies across the whole world and taught people English there. That made English already a much more global language than any other (other countries also had colonies, but not across such a global territory. For instance, almost all of South America speaks Spanish, minus Brazil, but that’s because Spanish colonies were heavily concentrated in that part of the world – they did not have that global influence).
And then in the 20th century we had radio and movies and television and music and ways to share all that around the world, and American culture and British culture became very popular, and so people got hooked on English, both because they had an easy-ish way to learn it and to better enjoy this media.
So that’s where we are now.
The era of the British Empire saw English being spread throughout Asia and Africa due to English colonies. They weren’t, for the most part, going to learn the local languages, so they simply had the locals learn English.
Then, the American era began after WWII and they sort of reinforced that.
Latin was once the de-facto world language (of Europe and the middle east) under the Roman Empire, and even after it’s fall.
French became the de-facto world language (of Europe and the middle east) when France was the most powerful nation in the region.
The British Empire was long lasting and far reaching. It became less-so post WW 2 but the economic and military influence of the USA came in immediately behind. So English is the de-facto world language.
As everyone has said, Empire.
But more than that, it’s a universal language now. Majority of the world can either speak it or at least understand it.
I asked a Swede one time and he said that the reason they learn it now is because no one else speaks Swedish. Everyone speaks English. If they don’t learn English, they can talk to other Swedish people and that’s about it.
Because England and the United States have been the two most powerful imperialist nations in the planet for the last 150 years, creating the global market that most countries operate within. And since English is the language of the two nations most responsible for establishing these markets and forcing other nations into them, English became the international language of business.
It is, in fact **not** “the worldwide language of communication” but it is the de facto language of the business world, which is the area in which most nations interact with each other.
Is all computer software coding done in English? For example, can you code in Arabic or a non western alphabet for that matter?
According to my mother in the 50s in Italy the International diplomatic language was french, not English and that’s what she studied in school.
What changed from that timeframe is NATO and the construction of a global market that trade in US dollars.
The softer counterparts to these military and economic developments are the establishment of Hollywood and English as everyone’s culture and language.
Some languages have come to dominate fields at different times in history.
Old Greek is still the language of botany and to some degree pharma; Latin for biology, German the language of chemistry and French and Italian that of food and music.
The lingua Franca of aviation and computer science is English because of those technologies taking root in an era when English is dominant.
First the British, then Americans have dominated international trade for centuries. If you wanted to do business with either, it greatly helps if you learn to speak English.
That is how English became the language of international business.
English quickly became the “third” language. It was easier to learn English to communicate with people who speak another language rather than learn separate languages for all the different groups you might want to communicate with.
Group 1 speaks language 1 and English
Group 2 speaks language 2 and English
Group 3 speaks language 3 and English
Groups 1, 2 and 3 can communicate by learning one other language, English rather than two. Now multiply.
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