English is now the language of science, diplomacy, business, and the Internet. Thank you, William Shakespeare:
So what accounts for the global dominance of the English language? The political and economic supremacy of England and the United States is just the beginning of the explanation. For it could be said that while the British Navy secured military victory for the British Empire, Shakespeare’s words were used to secure the peace. For instance, reacting to the horrors of the First World War, a publication entitled English Speaking World called Shakespeare “the greatest stabilizing force in the world…Shakespeare has given us [a] universal language medium in which are crystalized the battle hymns, the intellectual conceptions and the spiritual aspirations of the Anglo-Saxons.”
There were many technological advances that helped the spread and standardization of English, from William Caxton’s introduction of the printing press to England, to the formation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). And it was through the new medium of film that Shakespeare’s plays were utilized to express the political aspirations of the British Empire, notably Sir Laurence Oliver’s production of Henry V in 1944. Like the King James Bible, the works of Shakespeare are a powerful engine of Britain’s cultural supremacy. More than any other cultural products, these works exerted an enormous influence throughout the world and simultaneously created and reinforced the dominance of the English language.
April 20th, 2011 | 3:13 pm
Sure is romantic and high-brow sounding to credit The Bard. And I do love not only his works but his broad knowledge, creativity, insight into human nature, sheer wisdom, incredible output of work, etc etc.
But at the risk of sounding crassly mercantile, I’m going to reject the Shakespeare Illusion and assert that it was mostly the Yankee Dollar that made the language what it is today. It was only after the dollar became the most coveted prize of every business person around the globe that English became the lingua franca of international business, and, following that, the most important language of international “exchange” of all sorts.
April 20th, 2011 | 11:19 pm
Excellent point, Joe. How is it that the Bard wrote in the 16th century, but French held pride of place as the lingua franca well into the 19th? I’m going to add 19th British imperialism to your Johnny Dollar, but agree as far as saying that it wasn’t the beauties of Shakespeare, but the considerations of money and power, that did the job.
I think there’s a good case to be made that the Bard (plus King James’ committee) gave a strength to the language that made it a good candidate to become an international language, but suitable as it was, it needed the impulse of self-interest of various kinds to really get rolling.
The Olivier comment is itself puzzling — the Empire was beginning to show the symptoms of its last illness by 1944, not its ascendancy. Besides, the English that has in fact taken over international entertainment media probably owes more to Dashiell Hammett, than to Shakespeare.
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