The English Language

The English language existed a long time – approximately four centuries – before it started being referred to by English. It appeared around the fifth century AD, after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons along with many of their local dialects. The evolutionary process of the English language slowly continued for several hundred years more, with the ninth century marking the first time the word “English” was constantly used to refer to it (Crystal,2005. P.27).

So in the first few centuries of its existence, English was nothing more than another local language – without a great importance accorded to it – spoken by inhabitants of an island off the western coast of Europe.

Fast forward to modern times, this at one point unnamed language used by

Michael Gordin - a professor of the history of science at Princeton – provides an explanation for the relationship between science and English. Nowadays almost every new term that’s to be coined will most likely be done in English, the same goes for new discoveries and their publication. An example for such case is the research carried out by scientific couple Maybritt and Edvard Moser who received a Noble prize for their work that they wrote and published in English.

If we look back at the 20th century we realize that English was far from being the most important language associated with science, that title was reserved for the German language. But, World War I soon caused the German language to be dethroned. The two effects caused by war were the following:

1. The boycott carried out by the scientists of the winning victorious countries against German and Austrian scientists that were banned from attending any conferences or publishing any of their

As previously stated that scientists rely mostly on English, so software of a computer are in that language meaning that every command is English and for a user to be able to operate it he should understand it . The same applies to the internet where social networks (ex: facebook, twitter, etc) are written in English as well.

But when we speak of English as the same for everyone, some have put forward the concept of multiple Englishes or world Englishes. The phenomenon of global English dates back some centuries ago, mostly beginning with the numerous colonization of several countries by the British Empire. From America to India, Asia and Africa the spread of the British along with their language was growing. With the objectives ranging from political to profitable Europe was the leading power in the world with the British at the center of things.

Each country responded differently to this new language as Kachru explained through his model. Countries such as the United States, the indigenous language was no more, having been replaced by English. While in other countries such as India English did not erase the native language but became used as a second