“… all Pleas which shall be pleaded in [any] Courts whatsoever, before any of his Justices whatsoever, or in his other Places, or before any of His other Ministers whatsoever, or in the Courts and Places of any other Lords whatsoever within the Realm, shall be pleaded, shewed, defended, answered, debated, and judged in the English language [formerly French], and that they be entered and inrolled in Latin … ”
– “Pleading in English Act” (1362), as passed by the relatively-new Parliament of England in the Middle Ages
When including second-language speakers, English is the world’s most spoken language
I love learning non-native languages as much as the next person (and maybe more so). I’ve learned some Spanish and French, as well as some Biblical Hebrew and Greek. Perhaps partially because of this, I would love to have multiple native languages. More specifically, given that I live in the American Southwest, I would love to be a native speaker of both English and Spanish. To be clear, it’s hard for people with one native language to raise their kids bilingually, when that language is not dominant in the culture where they live. Thus, I should clarify that this is not intended as a “criticism” of my parents, for somehow “failing” to teach me any significant Spanish as a kid. Given that they were not native speakers of Spanish, such expectations would seem entirely unwarranted, not to mention inapplicable. And, as mentioned above, I was still able to learn Spanish as a second language later on, making up somewhat for this minor disadvantage in my situation. Nonetheless, if I’ve got to have only one native language, I’m glad in many ways that it was English. Speakers of nearly every language tend to consider their own language to be the most “beautiful.” I get this. I’m actually less that way myself, since I find all of my languages to be comparable in their charm and beauty – maybe even more beautiful. But English likewise has its own charm. Obviously, it’s the most useful language here in the United States, which remains one of the largest economies in the world. But, with apologies to Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, it’s also the most practical language in the entire world. Spanish and Mandarin Chinese may have more native speakers than English, but English has a significant number of second-language speakers. Thus, when you include these second-language speakers in the total, English is currently the most spoken language in the world. In part, this is because English remains one of the major languages of India today. India has more than a billion people, as you may know. Owing in part to the prior British colonization there, a significant portion of modern India speaks English. Small wonder, then, that the business value of English is so strong today.
An official of the British East India Company, circa 1760
Trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, 1963
With apologies to Latin and French, the greatest influence upon English is … English
But the traditions of English go back for several centuries, producing an astonishing amount of literature. You might already know that English is a Germanic language. More specifically, it is a West Germanic language, related to modern German and Dutch. Some would actually say that English was born in the fifth century AD. Specifically, it arose when the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes crossed the English Channel – and invaded the southern part of the British Isles. The native language of these “Anglo-Saxon” invaders is now called “Old English.” It is famous today partly for the literature of Beowulf. It turns out that roughly 20% of our Modern English vocabulary comes from Old English. By that standard, it might seem like Old English had a relatively small influence upon the Modern English that we speak today. But the Old English words still tend to be the most commonly used of our English words. For example, 93 of the 100 most commonly used Modern English words come from Old English. Other Germanic languages and dialects – such as Old Norse, Middle English, and Dutch – have each contributed about one or two percent of our Modern English vocabulary. It’s true that some of the Old Norse words are also quite commonly used. These loanwords may even include the prominent pronouns of “they,” “them,” and “their” – not to mention “get.” But, in terms of the words that we speak every day, they tend more often than not to be the “native” English words. As Strunk & White once put it in 1959, “Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words.” (Source: “The Elements of Style”) Latin and French each contributed a larger proportion of the English vocabulary. Moreover, their loanwords tend to be perceived by most English speakers as being fancier than the native Anglo-Saxon words. A few French words are commonly used, such as “use,” “number,” and “people.” But, to me, the greatest influence upon English … is still English. Whether or not one learns Old English – or German, or Old Norse, or any other Germanic languages – native English words still have that raw, visceral, and lively quality today. They include such common words as “the,” “of,” “and,” “a,” and “to.” They also include such charismatic words as “friend,” “child,” and even “love” – among many, many other words. Old English now has to be taught as a foreign language in university English departments. This is why I consider it impressive that Thomas Jefferson was fluent in Old English – or, as he called it in one of his letters, “Anglo-Saxon.” (See the text of that letter here.) Incidentally, Alexander Hamilton once learned some Modern Danish, when he was growing up in the Caribbean. Modern Danish is one of a few contemporary descendants of Old Norse.
Depiction of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes crossing the sea to Britain with war gear
First page of the fire-damaged epic Beowulf
A few of the wonderful books that I’ve been able to read in their original English
Some of those books which were most influential upon my own development … were originally written in English. This includes a considerable amount of reading material consumed in my childhood. More recently, I’ve absorbed the writings of some of the greatest British and American philosophers. I speak more about British Enlightenment philosophers, along with the influential British laws of the era, in this blog post. And I speak more about the political writings of the American Founding Fathers, including the Federalist Papers, in this blog post. I deliberately omitted some subsequent English-language writings from these two blog posts, since they were both focused on the period of the Enlightenment. And I also omitted one particular Founding Father writing, which is “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.” This is because that latter post was instead intended to be focused on their political writings. Here, I will just mention a few of the nineteenth-century (that is, post-Enlightenment) writers that have influenced my own development. One is the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, with whom I have a somewhat mixed relationship today. I also have plans (for later on) to read the nineteenth-century American jurist Joseph Story. He wrote a three-volume work called “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.” I’ve also read some writings from Abraham Lincoln, and fantastic memoirs from Frederick Douglass and Ulysses S. Grant. Many of my readings in several other areas, from archeology and linguistics to business and economics, have been in the English language as well. Indeed, much (perhaps even most) of the world’s contemporary research, almost regardless of subject matter, is now published in English. The English language has also been used as a scriptural language by my own church. (I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) Specifically, English is the original language of our church’s Doctrine & Covenants, and of the vast majority of its general conference messages. This is another reason that I’m glad to be a native speaker of English. This native fluency has allowed me to access these writings and speeches in their original language, without anything getting lost in translation. The oldest English with which I am relatively comfortable … is probably that of the seventeenth century. One of the writers that I’m currently reading is Sir Edward Coke, who was a contemporary of the English playwright William Shakespeare. I’m also reasonably familiar with the King James Version of the Bible. I recognize that the latter book is, of course, a translation from non-English languages like Hebrew and Greek. Nonetheless, the King James Bible certainly had a great influence upon the later history of the English language. Of course, the writings of Mr. Shakespeare also had a great influence – including expressions like “brevity is the soul of wit.” Shakespeare is today considered “Early Modern” English – far more accessible than the “Middle” English of Chaucer, or the truly “Old” English of Beowulf.
Joseph Story, author of “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States”
Frederick Douglass, the author of a celebrated memoir about his experiences as a slave
I freely admit my deficiencies with English “literature” (particularly fictional works)
I was somewhat skeptical of the value of English classes when I was in high school. I suppose that I would have found them more valuable, if my native language had been something else – say, French or German. But I figured in those days that I already spoke English, and so didn’t need these “useless” English classes. I had ambitions to become a writer, and yet was still skeptical of the value of English classes. I should acknowledge that I’m (at least partly) at fault for my own bad attitude here. In fairness, I’m on the autism spectrum – and thus struggle with some of the emotion-laden aspects of “serious” classic literature. I currently lack the insight into human emotions that would be needed to achieve a true expertise in “literature” – although I acknowledge that this is still (at least partially) my fault. If the term “literature” is broadened to include great works of history and philosophy (and the definition of Greek and Roman literature is often stretched to include these things), then I would become slightly less uncultured than I am. But the definition of English literature usually has (at least some) connection with fiction – and I tend to get most of my fiction from the television set these days. I seldom get closer to “serious” literature than certain episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” Thus, I remain painfully aware of what I’m missing in these areas.
William Shakespeare, the most celebrated playwright in English history
The title page to the 1611 first edition of the King James Version of the Bible
Nonetheless, native fluency in English has opened up a world of great ideas to me
Nonetheless, I’m glad that my fluency in English has given me access to some of the classics of the English language, in genres other than the traditional fiction. For example, I have ambitions to one day read David Hume’s six-volume “History of England.” I’ve already read Sir William Blackstone’s four-volume “Commentaries on the Laws of England.” And I’m working on Sir Edward Coke’s four-part “Institutes of the Laws of England.” Reading works like this in the original … would be somewhat time-consuming, for a non-native speaker of English (as you might imagine). This is one of many reasons that I thank God for my comfort level with English. I’m also glad that I was raised on the more archaic English of the King James Bible, since it helped me to read some of these older works in the original English. It’s possible that, one day, people will learn “Ancient English” to access our own age’s literary classics in the original … in much the same way that people study Ancient Greek to access the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” in the original. That is, our heritage may be studied and kept alive in the “Classics” departments of some future century, as Greek and Latin are in the “Classics” departments of today.
Sir Edward Coke, English statesman and jurist who wrote “Institutes of the Laws of England”
Sir William Blackstone, an English jurist who wrote “Commentaries on the Laws of England”
Other cultures borrow from the English-speaking world, as we borrow from them
John Locke, an English philosopher who wrote “Two Treatises of Government” in English
David Hume, a Scottish philosopher who was also an economist and a historian
Conclusion: I hope that our culture’s greatest legacies are kept alive for all time
I cannot now predict what challenges may befall succeeding generations. But I hope that our greatest ideas are kept alive, so that they will remain accessible to our children. Many of those ideas were first expressed in a host of other languages, from a host of other world cultures. But many of these ideas were first uttered in English, and are hard to translate perfectly into other languages. This is why I thank God that I’m a native speaker of English – possibly the most useful language ever, in the entire history of the world. The sun never sets on it, and I hope that the sun will continue to rise on it … for many generations to come.
“In the last century [then the seventeenth century], Latin was the universal language of Europe. Correspondence among the learned, and indeed among merchants and men of business and the conversation of strangers and travellers, was generally carried on in that dead language. In the present century [then the eighteenth century], Latin has been generally laid aside, and French has been substituted in its place; but has not yet become universally established, and according to present appearances, it is not probable that it will. English is destined to be in the next and succeeding centuries, more generally the language of the world, than Latin was in the last, or French is in the present age.”
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Part of a series about
Modern languages
Why I’m glad to be a native speaker of English
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
See also this series about
My own experiences
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
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