The English language has rivals within the two British Houses of Parliament. But the rivalry goes beyond the confines of the House of Lords and House of Commons to include global rivals, transnational regional rivals, and rivals within countries.
A world language is defined as one that has at least 300 million speakers, has been adopted by at least 10 countries as the main language of national business, and has spread meaningfully to more than one continent.
Against this definition, distinct rivals to English at the global level are French and Spanish which clearly meet the criteria of recognition as global languages.
Arabic is a global language because of its intimate association with the rituals of Islam. The Muslim population of the world now numbers 1.2 billion people.
In most of the Middle East English is also a regional rival to the existing national languages of Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Turkish. In the Maghreb the English language is a regional rival to both Arabic and French in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt.
English now has a rival in parts of the United States. In Florida, Texas, California and even parts of New York City, Spanish is now widely spoken.
As Presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore found it necessary to display their competence in the Spanish language. The 2000 contest was first US presidential election in over 100 years when the campaign was seriously conducted in more languages than one. In the US, Spanish is a national rival to English.
In Quebec English is regarded as more than a rival. It is deemed an outright adversary to the French language. Many French Canadians regard the linguistic combat as a duel unto death.
Hindi may be a rival to English in India, but this makes Gujerati and Punjabi allies of English, for they fear Hindi more than English. Urdu is a rival to English in Pakistan, but this makes the Sindhi language an ally of English to protect itself.
English does have national rivals in Africa, but emotions about English do not run as high in Africa as they do in Quebec. Afrikaners in South Africa are a little bitter at seeing their language, Afrikaans, treated increasingly more like Zulu than like the English language. Is Afrikaans “just another African language”?
Afrikaners feel bitterer now about their language being treated as being less than English than about its being treated as “another African language.” Being lower than English is a bitterer pill than being the equal of the Zulu language.
In East Africa a major regional rival to English is Kiswahili. In Tanzania English has definitely lost some ground to Kiswahili.
In Kenya both English and Kiswahili have gained at the expense of ethnic languages. In Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo both English and Kiswahili are gaining at the expense of the French language in this new millennium, though the gains are still fragile and could be reversed.
In Sudan Arabic is being successfully pushed at the expense of the English language. In Ethiopia ethnic rivalries between the speakers of Amharic and Tigrinia are giving new opportunities to the English language.
In Somalia the Latin alphabet has gained at the expense of the Arabic alphabet, but because of the chaos in the country it is not clear whether the English language is gaining at the expense of the Arabic language. The Somali language is certainly supreme over them all.
The English language is the most successful language in human history. It has brought more people together than any other tongue. However, in language as in democracy, we need checks and balances.
The same English language which is bringing nations together may be tearing social classes apart. The same English language which is building bridges between ethnic groups may be destroying bridges between generations. Whole languages and cultures are imperiled by the success of the English language.
English is of course today the language which most of the world respects. But in 1912 George Bernard Shaw could make the following observation about the language and the English class structure: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth, without making some other Englishman despise him.”
Prof. Mazrui teaches political science and African studies at State University New York
amazrui@binghamton.edu
