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English was well established world-wide before TV.
It was, but it was mostly confined to the US and the UK's settler colonies. Relatively few people in the British Empire spoke English, never mind outside of it.
It was, but it was mostly confined to the US and the UK's settler colonies. Relatively few people in the British Empire spoke English, never mind outside of it.
LOL ~ you are so funny.
Relatively few English spoke English.
Relatively few Canadians spoke English.
Relatively few Australians spoke English.
Relatively few US citizens spoke English.
Relatively few Irish spoke English.
Relatively few Scots spoke English.
In Europe, I don't think English was that important of a second language in the mid 20th century. French and German were at least as important. The peak of the British Empire was maybe in the 20s, but then French was the language of diplomacy, not English. The British Empire helped but wasn't the main factor.
Relatively few English spoke English.
Relatively few Canadians spoke English.
Relatively few Australians spoke English.
Relatively few US citizens spoke English.
Relatively few Irish spoke English.
Relatively few Scots spoke English.
LOL
You do realise that as an aggregate, the countries you listed made up a small part of the British Empire's total population, right?
You do realise that as an aggregate, the countries you listed made up a small part of the British Empire's total population, right?
Relatively few Indians speak English
Relatively few Malaysians speak English
Relatively few Nigerians speak English
Relatively few South Africans speak English
Relatively few Kenyans speak English
Relatively few Pakistanis speak English
Relatively few Bangladeshis speak English
Not any more. Even postcolonial nations have retained English as the official language, and are educating their children in it to the best of their ability.
This is simply because the various languages and dialects of Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Afrikaans, Zulu, Swahili, Shona, Ndeble, and some other languages I cannot recall at the moment, (no offense to any unmentioned language intended), could not / cannot communicate well with each other.
So as a result, A Tamil speaking Indian, will communicate with a Bengali speaking Indian, in English.
Last edited by NickB1967; 02-17-2015 at 02:03 PM..
Not any more. Even postcolonial nations have retained English as the official language, and are educating their children in it to the best of their ability.
This is simply because the various languages and dialects of Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Afrikaans, Zulu, Swahili, Shona, Ndeble, and some other languages I cannot recall at the moment, (no offense to any unmentioned language intended), could not / cannot communicate well with each other.
So as a result, A Tamil speaking Indian, will communicate with a Bengali speaking Indian, in English.
Again, not really.
Most of these countries have had their own lingua francas for centuries before the British showed up, and in many of these countries despite retaining English as an official language, it's taught as a second language (because it is) and most people don't complete school so most don't speak it well, if at all.
Most of these countries have had their own lingua francas for centuries before the British showed up, and in many of these countries despite retaining English as an official language, it's taught as a second language (because it is) and most people don't complete school so most don't speak it well, if at all.
Most of these countries *were not countries* and the various tribal peoples in them didn't interact with one another (other than warring with each other), until the British showed up and drew the map.
Last edited by NickB1967; 02-18-2015 at 10:24 AM..
Most of these countries *were not countries* and the various tribal peoples in them didn't interact with one another (other than warring with each other), until the British showed up and drew the map.
Again....not true.
Most of these societies have had extensive contacts with each other via trade, intermarriage as well as warfare and conquest for centuries. Like I said, they had their own lingua francas for centuries, perhaps millenia before the British showed up. In fact, languages like Hindi, Urdu and Swahili started out as lingua francas among people in those regions who didn't speak the same language.
Do you honestly think that people in Africa and South Asia were living amongst each other for millenia without interacting? How does that make any sense?
Historically speaking, and as far as I know, English became the de facto international language when the aviation/airline industry selected it as the common language to be used to communicate/control arrivals, departures, and enroute matters.
This is it. Enough said.
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