Whose the English Language Is?
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- Date Submitted: 06/21/2010 09:18 AM
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The English language proper belongs to the people who dwell south of Hadrian’s Wall, east of the Welsh hills and north of the English Channel...Their (foreigners) choice is to accept one authority or else make their own language.” (Taken from New Statesman, June 25, 1927)
On the one hand this statement that the home of the English language is based on historical boarders, England. On the other hand it also says that it is proper only of people who live there and others have to choose whether they want to accept this language or they want to make their own one. But it’s not so simple. There are several questions.
First of all, why the home of English should be only England? We know that English has developed from all the languages which, in fact, had been there a long time before. I mean all the languages such as Gaelic, Welsh, and others. Therefore the home of the English language is whole Great Britain.
This evocate next question- why it should be proper only of people who “dwell south of Hadrian’s Wall, east of the Welsh hills and north of the English Channel”? There always have been dialects in Scotland and other parts of Great Britain so why suddenly English should be property only of these people? They probably wanted to distinguish English used in England from other dialects which are spoken for example in America. But it seems to me as superior behaviour. However, can we even talk about proper of language? The fact of matter is that no one can possess a language but from another point of view everyone who is speaking a certain language can say that it is his property. Although it is true that if some foreigner told me that he possess the Czech language as well as I do I wouldn’t agree at all. But this case is different. The main difference is that these so called “foreigners” are people speaking English but with dialect. It’s the same as Czech and Moravians.
What’s more other people those who are living in this defined area should accept the...
On the one hand this statement that the home of the English language is based on historical boarders, England. On the other hand it also says that it is proper only of people who live there and others have to choose whether they want to accept this language or they want to make their own one. But it’s not so simple. There are several questions.
First of all, why the home of English should be only England? We know that English has developed from all the languages which, in fact, had been there a long time before. I mean all the languages such as Gaelic, Welsh, and others. Therefore the home of the English language is whole Great Britain.
This evocate next question- why it should be proper only of people who “dwell south of Hadrian’s Wall, east of the Welsh hills and north of the English Channel”? There always have been dialects in Scotland and other parts of Great Britain so why suddenly English should be property only of these people? They probably wanted to distinguish English used in England from other dialects which are spoken for example in America. But it seems to me as superior behaviour. However, can we even talk about proper of language? The fact of matter is that no one can possess a language but from another point of view everyone who is speaking a certain language can say that it is his property. Although it is true that if some foreigner told me that he possess the Czech language as well as I do I wouldn’t agree at all. But this case is different. The main difference is that these so called “foreigners” are people speaking English but with dialect. It’s the same as Czech and Moravians.
What’s more other people those who are living in this defined area should accept the...