王少凡

摘 要：This essay narrates briefly the rise of English across the global， analyzes the causes which make English turn into the global language and then presents the influence brought by English to various domains.

关键词：a global language；a killer language；linguistic diversity

中图分类号：G622 文献标识码：B 文章编号：1002-7661（2015）14-003-01

English， widely used all around the world for professional and academic purposes， has become a global language in the last fifty years. English was probably the third largest language by number of native speakers after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However， when combining native and non-native speakers it was probably the most commonly spoken language in the world. Estimates including second language speakers varied greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery was defined and measured. Crystal （2003） calculated that non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.

The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World English. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language： The Inner Circle， the Outer Circle， and the Expanding Circle （Kachru，1992）.

The Inner Circle represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language： the United Kingdom， the United States， Australia， New Zealand， Ireland， Malta， Canada and South Africa， and some of Caribbean territories.

In the Outer Circle， English is used as the language of laws and administrations and plays a role of the second language in a multilingual society such as Singapore， Hong Kong， India， and other 50 countries or regions.

The Expanding Circle includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorized above such as China， Russia， Japan. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate， especially because English may be employed for specific and limited purposes， usually business English. But this circle is also the most sensitive one to the global status of English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion （Kirkpatrick， 2007）.

English as a killer language

Today， throughout the world， people regard English as a language of economic opportunity although some think English is a killer for the decline of linguistic and cultural diversity. Dalbay （2003） predicted by the end of twenty-first century 90% of approximately 6，000 languages spoken in the world today will be ranked in endangered list or extinct. Many authors blame the spread of English directly or indirectly for the death of languages （cf. Crystal， 2000）. But a question still remains whether English is a chief killer language for the decline of linguistic diversity.

As the natural law， languages have always died. Like cultures rising and falling， languages definitely follow the trend of emergence and disappearance. Crystal （2000） categorizes the factors resulting in the death of languages into two kinds：

Factors which put the people in physical danger

it is obvious that small communities in some isolated areas can be easily be wiped out by the natural catastrophes， economic or political situation The damage may be the result of a famine， a civil war or a border conflict （Crystal， 2000）.

Factors which change the peoples culture

The language may die when the people still alive. The term can be applied in such situations – cultural assimilation. One culture is influenced by another dominant culture and then loses its own characteristics gradually. The typical instances are Australia and North America.

Meanwhile， Dalbay （2003） mentions another pattern of cultural assimilation in the modern times. Media have begun to exert their influence on the decline of the language diversity. The journals， newspapers， radio or TV programs which are published or broadcasted in minority languages tend to be local interest or at an elementary level. Those who are literate in a major language will find they have far greater access to the world of information.

Conclusion

The decline of language diversity is raised by many factors and we cant put all blames on the spread of English. English is not the direct cause for the death of languages in many situations so even if it can be regarded as the killer of linguistic diversity， it can be only called as “auxiliary killer”.

参考文献：

[1] Crystal， D. （2000）. Language death. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press

[2] Crystal， D. （2003）. English as a global language （2nd）. Cambridge： Cambridge University

[3] Dalby， A. （2003）. Language in danger The loss of linguistic diversity and the threat to our future. New York： Columbia University Press

[4] Kachru， B. （1992）. The Other Tongue： English across cultures. Chicago： University of Illinois Press

[5] Kirkpatrick， A. （2007）. Linguistic imperialism？ English as a global language. In M.