here's a thought, just to throw it out there (since I find this conversation interesting) (although perhaps "English" is Western... not in terms of origin, but in other ways?) "English as a global language poses a most vexing problem precisely because it does not indicate any particular national culture. It is neither English nor British, neither North American nor Australian, neither South African nor Indian, neither Jamaican nor Singaporean, nor does it stand for anything like a cultural aggregate of all these. We simply have no idea what English stands for except the global market—itself a vague reference—which is to say, we have no idea what it stands for culturally." (p. 4) Judy, R. (1999). Some notes on the status of global English in Tunisia. boundary 2, 26(2), 3-29. On Mar 22, 2006, at 7:34 PM, Alex Kuskis wrote:
Technically speaking, English is a minority........Joshua
That might be true from a strictly statistical point of view, Joshua, but English is a language that has lifted beyond its weight for several hundred years. Politically and economically this might be the result of one global English empire succeeding another one. But, just as important is the fact that both Industrial and Information Revolutions emerged from the English language world, and to the extent that technologies embody the assumptions of language and culture, modern ICT embodies Anglo-American thinking and values. That is why, as the Internet is consolidating almost everywhere, new high speed technologies variously alluded to as Web 2.0 and 3.0, the sematic Web, and Internet 2 are being rolled out from Silicon Valley, MIT, Bangalore, Waterloo (the Blackberry) and other English language domains. The Internet is not static, continues to evolve, mostly out of the English- speaking realm where it's so integrated with the culture, and the digital divide with the so-called Third World continues to increase. The downside of all this for the English-speaking world is that it reinforces mono-lingualism and language chauvinism. It's admirable to learn a language for love or curiosity, but the fact is that most people do it for economic advantage and up until recently, English speakers haven't had to.
Wikipedia has a fairly good entry on 'English on the Internet', which is certainly debatable, but probably sound....Alex Kuskis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_on_the_Internet If a gradual decline in English first language users is inevitable it does not necessarily follow that English will not continue to be the language of choice for those accessing the Internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ In the future then, English and Chinese may have roughly equal positions at the top of the overall Internet first language users but English will likely continue to dominate as the default choice for those accessing the Internet in a second language. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Internet content b.. Given the enormous lead it already enjoys and its increasing use as lingua franca in other spheres English web content may continue to dominate even as English first-language Internet users decline. This is a classic positive feedback loop: new Internet users find it helpful to learn English and employ it on-line, thus reinforcing the language's prestige and forcing subsequent new users to learn English as well.
----- Original Message ----- From: "joshua raclaw" <Joshua.Raclaw@colorado.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:31 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] Language on the Internet (was AoIR in Latin- America)
Alex,
Technically speaking, English is a minority. I don't think you can argue with Geert's assertion that (relatively speaking) the use of English online is shrinking exponentially. It's a much more multilingual arena than it was even a few years ago (and certainly the 'multilingual internet' is getting much more scholarly attention as of late because of this).
Also, please don't misinterpret the statistic that 1.5 billion people speak English by thinking that these are monolingual and/or native speakers! Just because a speaker knows English doesn't mean they're going to use it in every context, and this applies both online and off.
Joshua Joshua Raclaw - PhD student Department of Linguistics University of Colorado at Boulder
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--------------------------------------------- Nathaniel Poor, Ph.D. www.umich.edu/~natpoor Visiting Assistant Professor Communication Studies Dept. Albion College http://www.albion.edu/commstudies