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Why is English a Universal Language?Nowadays people from all over the world are using English as an actual universal language. Although it is officially spoken in 54 sovereign states and 27 non-sovereign entities (2015), many country subdivisions have declared English an official language at the local or regional level. majority of states where English is an official language are former territories of the British Empire. (All areas of the world that were ever part of the British Empire. Current British Overseas Territories have their names underlined in red.)English speaking culture is being spread everywhere by native-speakers and non-natives. Once it has conquered the world media when it gained even more popularity and prestige. The causes for this universality are very well known and clear. English first began to spread during the 16th century with British Empire and was strongly reinforced in 20th by USA world domination in economic, political and military aspects and by the huge influence of American movies [1].The concept of a Universal Language is more significant only now, in the era of world mass communication. Before this era Greek, Latin, French were to some extent universal languages, though mainly in Europe.So, due to factors above, English, the Universal language, is regarded as one of the simplest and easiest natural languages in the world. Of course the concept of easiness is relative, and it depends on which language you already know. However, the concept of simplicity is undeniable: English is an easy language to learn, understand and speak. A complex language such as Hungarian (characterized by 35 distinct cases, flexible word order, grammar influenced by the accuracy of an expressed idea) would be a very unlikely candidate for a universal language [1,4].The so-called simplicity of English can be explained through a range of facts: The language is based on Latin alphabet, one of the most universal alphabets.It consists of only 26 basic letters and no diacritics [1].Verb conjugation is very simple and easy. Even for irregular verbs, there is almost no variation in person (except 3rd singular in present tense).Regular verbs have only four forms: Infinitive + Present, Past Tense + Past Participle, 3rd person singular Present Indicative, Present Participle.There are no number or gender inflections for adjectives (but for the comparatives and superlatives), articles, adverbs.There are only three cases in modern English, they are subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive (his). English is one of the most analytical languages, with no significant synthetic, fusional or agglutinative characteristics.Could be there any other alternative for Universal Language, instead of English?There are other languages that are quite simple and synthetic, with almost no verb conjugation, no declension, such as Asian languages like Thai and Chinese, but they are written with complicated scripts and are tonal languages. However if Chinese were to be written with the Latin alphabet, it could potentially become a universal language [1].There are other strong languages that, due to population and economic power, could be universal languages, but they have a number of disadvantages when compared with English.Some examples:Japanese: has very regular verbs but also a very complicated script.Chinese: no conjugations or declension, but a very complicated script and tones.German has many more inflections than English.The major Romance languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have fewer inflections than most of languages, but their verb conjugation is very complicated.Russian has both complex verb conjugations and numerous noun declensions.In conclusion, English achieved a genuinely global status when it developed a special role that was recognized in many countries [1]. Such a role is the most evident in countries where large numbers of the people speak the language as a mother tongue – the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean countries and a sprinkling of other territories.ReferencesDavid Christal. English as a foreign language: as a universal language, by Carlos Carrion Torres: English as official language map: British Empire Map: Hungarian Is So Difficult To Learn, by Steph Koyfman: ................
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