3.

Change in language, protection of languages

Discuss with your partner: Why do you think English has become a 'lingua franca ', used
by people around the world to communicate? What factors contributed to its rise as a
global language?

Listening
Work in pairs. Read the radio programme listing and answer the questions.
I What do Stephen Fry and David Crystal discuss in the programme?
2 What are the two main reasons given for why English is changing?
3 What kinds of changes are mentioned?

Stephen Fry’s English Delight

As the use of English as a lingua franca continues to grow and spread around the world, the language itself is changing - adapting to
how its speakers use it. The number of people who speak English as a second language has now grown too far outweigh the number
of native speakers. Professor David Crystal, a world authority in language change, thinks sounds which some speakers find difficult to
pronounce might disappear. And the vocabulary will certainly change, too. The other huge influence on the way English will change
relates to technology. With computers that 'read ' text and automatic person-to-person translators, will computers soon be joining the
swelling billions who use and change English? In this BBC radio programme, Stephen Fry and Professor David Crystal discuss the
evolution of English.

Listen to part of the programme. Tick the topics that are mentioned.
• culture and identity
• new Englishes
• the type of English spoken by computers
• local languages/local brands of English
• changing pronunciation
• English as a mother tongue
• English as a second or foreign language

What do they say about each point?

Two of the sentences below are incorrect. Listen to the programme again and correct
them.

1 The way English continues to move across the globe gives us a whole range of
Englishes.
2 In the beginning, there was just British English and American English, and then came
Australian English, South African English, Indian English and so on.
3 When a country adopts a new language, it changes it to suit its local needs.
4 English has been adopted by more than sixty countries around the world.
5 There are about 400 million first language speakers of English.
6 Around the world, one fifth of the population speaks English as a second or foreign
language.

1
Speaking: How do you think English will change in the next 200 years? Do you
think it will continue to be a global language? Do you think other languages will
become more important?

Speaking: How is the language you use different from the way your parents or
grandparents express themselves (e.g. different grammar, more colloquial vocabulary,
etc.) ?

You’ve been verbed

Mothers and fathers used to bring up children: now they parent. Critics used to review
plays: now they critique them. Executives flipchart and almost everybody googles. The
English language is in a constant state of flux. New words are formed all the time, while
old ones fall into disuse.
1
Further evidence of this linguistic phenomenon is found in all areas of life, though some
are more productive than others. Financiers have a wealth of imaginative ideas. As do
politicians, who have come up with the verb to doughnut. Apparently, this means to sit
in a ring around a colleague who is making a parliamentary announcement, so that it is
not clear to television viewers that the room is practically deserted.
2
Yet another productive field is technology, partly because it’s constantly seeking names
for things which did not previously exist: we text from our mobiles, bookmark websites,
inbox our email contacts and friend our acquaintances on Facebook - only, in some cases,
to unfriend them later. Blog had only scarcely arrived as a noun before it was adopted as
a verb. Conversely, verbs such as twitter and tweet have been transformed into nouns,
although the process of verging - or denominalisation, as it is known to grammarians - is
much more common.
3
There is a difference today, though, in that potential changes in our language are picked
up and repeated faster than they would have been five or six hundred years ago when
print was the only mass communication medium, and fewer people were literate. They
can now be tried out around the world and given the green light (or greenlighted!)
straightaway.
4
So while in French the noun action has to become the verb actionner, English can use the
same form for both verb and noun. In German, (apart from essen, meaning food or to eat)
such words are virtually unknown; the same thing is true of Chinese - although the noun
meaning thunder can also be used as the verb to shock. In Arabic, such formations are
not found at all.
5
Which is fine, but sometimes the results are ridiculous - notably when verbs come from
nouns which were formed from verbs in the first place. To say ‘Let’s conference’, instead
of ‘Let’s confer’, or ‘I’ll signature it’ instead of ‘I’ll sign it’ makes the speaker come across
as either ignorant or pretentious.

2
6
Certain verbs seem to upset people more than others. Verbs connected to place are
particularly clumsy: ‘I’d like to showcase / workshop this.’ And actioning, progressing
and impacting seem to wind people up too. Of course, not every newly invented word
or phrase passes into general use and hopefully some will gently fade away. But as for
trying to end verbing altogether, no chance! There is no turning back the clock.

A
What is the driving force behind wanting to do it, though? ‘Looking for short cuts,
especially if you have to say something over and over again, is a common motivator,’ says
the editor of a popular dictionary.
B
Sport is another ready source: Rollerblade, skateboard and snowboard have all graduated
from names of equipment to actual activities. Football referees used to book players or
send them off, now they card them.
C
On the other hand, it has been welcomed by linguists as evidence of a vibrant linguistic
culture. Many people applaud its entertainment value, especially when it is applied to
someone’s name.
D
What makes these innovations so easy is that English, unlike other Indo-European
languages, uses few inflections. It rarely changes the form of its words to show different
meanings.
E
Using a complicated verb when there is a far simpler alternative, such as dialogue for
talk, has the same effect, which is why some lovers of the language dislike the whole
business of verbing so much.
F
No trend has been more obtrusive in recent years, though, than the changing of nouns
into verbs. ‘Trend’ itself (which used to be a noun and is now also used as a verb meaning
change or develop in a general direction) is an example of the way the language is
adapting.
G
The practice goes back a long way too. Steven Pinker, in his book The Language Instinct,
points out that ‘easy conversion of nouns to verbs has been part of English grammar for
centuries; it is one of the processes that makes English English’. Sixteenth-century
writers such as Shakespeare revelled in it and there are many examples of nouns used
as verbs in his plays.

Do you think people should resist language change? Is it generally better or worse to
change? Think about things which have affected your language, e.g. words and
expressions from other languages, slang and ‘teen speak’, or text language.

3
4
Speaking: What minority languages, or languages spoken by just a small number of
people exist in your country, or do you know about? Are they in danger of dying out? Why
(not)? Do you think it is important to protect endangered languages? Why (not)?

You will read four extracts from texts about minority languages. For questions 1–
4, choose from the extracts A–D. The extracts may be chosen more than once. Work
on the vocabulary in bold.

A
In our connected globalized world, the languages which dominate communications and
business, Mandarin, Hindi, English, Spanish and Russian amongst others, are placing
small languages spoken in remote places under increasing pressure. Fewer and fewer
people speak languages such as Liki, Taushiro and Dumi as their children shift away from
the language of their ancestors towards languages which promise education, success and
the chance of a better life. While to many parents, this may appear a reasonable choice,
giving their offspring the opportunity to achieve the sort of prosperity they see on
television, the children themselves often lose touch with their roots. However, in many
places the more reasonable option of bilingualism, where children learn to speak both a
local and a national language, is being promoted. This gives hope that many endangered
languages will survive, allowing people to combine their links to local tradition with
access to wider world culture.

B
While individuals are free to choose if they wish to speak a minority language, national
governments should be under no obligation to provide education in an economically
unproductive language, especially in times of budget constraints. It is generally
accepted that national languages unite and help to create wealth while minority regional
languages divide. Furthermore, governments have a duty to ensure that young people can
fulfill their full potential, meaning that state education must provide them with the ability
to speak and work in their national language and so equip them to participate responsibly
in national affairs. People whose language competence does not extend beyond the use
of a regional tongue have limited prospects. This means that while many people may feel
a sentimental attachment to their local language, their government's position should be
one of benign neglect, allowing people to speak the language, but not acting to prevent
its eventual disappearance.

C
Many PhD students studying minority languages lack the resources to develop their
language skills, with the result that they have to rely on interpreters and translators to
communicate with speakers of the language they are studying. This has a detrimental
effect on the quality of their research. At the same time, they have to struggle against the
frequently expressed opinion that minority languages serve no useful purpose and
should be allowed to die a natural death. Such a view fails to take into account the fact
that a unique body of knowledge and culture, built up over thousands of years, is
contained in a language and that language extinction and species extinction are different

5
facets of the same process. They are part of an impending global catastrophe which is
beginning to look unavoidable.

D
A healthy language is one which children learn to speak, so that however many adults use
the language, if young people do not acquire it, it will not survive. While the
disappearance of a language may be a tragedy for the people who speak it, it may appear
to be an event of little importance to others. However, I would argue that language
diversity is as necessary as biological diversity and that we are simply not aware of all
the things we lose when a language disappears. When an animal or plant becomes extinct,
we seldom realise how its existence might have benefited us. The same is true for many
small languages. Moreover, the resources to prevent their loss are unlikely to ever be
available simply because the economic benefits of keeping them alive cannot be
demonstrated.

1. What effect has globalisation had on minority languages?

2. What suggestion does the writer have for keeping minority languages alive?
3. What reasons does the extract give for not promoting regional languages?
4. What is the ‘benign neglect’ position?
5. What problem do linguistics researchers face and how has this affected their
research?
6. Why should languages be kept alive?
7. When is it clear that a language is going to die?
8. Why is it important to prevent the loss of minority languages?

23 A done B made C adopted D played

24 A hurried B accelerated C speeded D urged

25 A which B what C this D that

26 A about B to C with D for

27 A however B but C in contrast D moreover