The English language today

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First (from 1558 to 1603), the number of English speakers in the world is thought to be between five and seven million. At the beginning of the reign of the second Queen Elizabeth, in 1952, the figure had increased almost fifty times: 250 million spoke English as a mother tongue, and a further 100 million or so had learned it as a foreign language. The most recent estimates tell us that mother-tongue speakers are now over 300 million. But this total is far exceeded by a number of people who use English as a foreign language which is at least a further 400 million. So today, English is used at least by 750 million people, and barely half of those speak it as a mother tongue. English at the end of the 20lh century is more widely scattered (разбросан), more widely spoken and written, than any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.

David Crystal, a British linguist, who has written many books on various aspects of English, draws a common distinction between three different types of speakers. He visualizes the spread of English around the world as three concentric circles, representing different ways in which the language has been acquired and is currently used:

1. the inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English, where it is the mother and primary language. It includes USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa (320-380 million speakers);

2. the outer or extended circle involves the earlier phases of the spread of English in non-native settings< where the language has become part of a country's chief institutions, and plays an important'second language' role in a multilingual setting. It includes India, Singapore, Pakistan and over 50 other territories (150-300 million speakers);

3. the expanding circle involves those nations which recognize the importance of English as an international language, though they do not have a history of colonization by members of the inner circle, nor have they given English any special status in their language policy. It includes such countries as Russia, China, Japan, Israel, Greece, etc. English is taught and spoken here as a foreign language (100-1000 million speakers). In practice, it is difficult to draw hard and fast boundaries between 'second language' and 'foreign language' speakers and even the 'native'/'non native' distinction can be questioned in contexts such as India and Singapore, where some non-native speakers become familiar with English from an early age and use the language routinely. Furthermore, many non-native varieties of English are now recognized as 'new Englishes'. Despite these difficulties, however, there is general agreement that English continues to spread, and the spread is most extensive among non-native speakers.

English as a 'second language'. In some countries English has some kind of special status - particularly in those countries where English has been chosen as an 'official' language (Pakistan, India, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Malta, etc.). In these countries the governments have settled on English as the main language to carry on the affairs of government, education, commerce, the media and the legal system. So people have to learn English if they want to get on in life. They have their mother tongue to begin with - one or other of the local languages - and they start learning English, in school or in the street, at an early age. For them English becomes their 'second' language. These countries can not select a local language for official use, because there co-exist lots of local languages, each of which represents certain ethnic groups. By giving official status to an outside language, such as English, all internal languages are placed on the same footing. The choice of English is motivated by the weight of historical tradition from the British colonial area. English is an official or semiofficial language in over sixty countries of the world.

English as a 'foreign' language. There are only hints as to what the numbers involved here might be. There is enormous motivation, due to which English has become the dominant language of world communication. It is the main language of the world's books, newspapers and advertising. It's the official maritime (морской) language. It is the language of international business and academic conferences, of diplomacy and sport. Over two-thirds of the world's scientists write in English. Three-quarters of the world's mail is written in English.

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