Amglish In, Like, Ten Easy Lessons_ A Celebration of the New World Lingo - Arthur E. Rowse [32]
In fact, so-called Modern English has been broken since its birth four centuries ago. Shakespeare recognized it in Henry V when he had the king plead with the young French princess to accept his advances with the words: “Breake [disclose] thy mind to me in broken English.”2 A few years later, Thomas Heywood, in Apology for Actors, called “our English tongue . . . the most harsh, uneven and broken language of the world.”
More recently, the fracturing seems to have become an asset. By 1984, the bits and pieces were well on their way to becoming the world’s premier language when Hendrik Kasimir, a Dutch physicist, wrote,
There exists today a universal language that is spoken and understood almost everywhere: it is broken English . . . the much more general language that is used by the waiters in Hawaii, prostitutes in Paris and ambassadors in Washington, businessmen from Buenos Aires, scientists at international meetings and by dirty-postcard-picture peddlers in Greece.3
Amglish was partially certified in 1997 when the Linguistic Society of America formally declared it “incorrect and demeaning.” The Society is one of many such groups that just don’t get what’s happening. There can be no doubt any longer that informal American English has become the lingua franca of the world. The more fractured it becomes, the more popular it seems to get.
THE POWER FACTOR
When it came to spreading English around, of course, the Brits got a big head start. The key to the early expansion of language outside its birthplace was raw power, the strength to subjugate nations and dominate their trade. This was the path the language took to Australia, New Zealand, India, Kenya, and other British colonies, most of which later became independent.
India is an example of how English can be forced upon a non-English-speaking nation via military muscle. It was exercised through the Asian nation’s legal system, business community, school system, and government agencies. No one knows how many Indians are fluent in English today. But Aharon Daniel, a native of India and world-renowned blogger on the subject, says, “After Hindi, it is the most commonly spoken language in India and probably the most read and written.”4
The United States has also used muscle to spread its brand of English, particularly in Puerto Rico and the Philippines. More recently, the Pentagon has established nearly eight hundred military bases around the world and taken on the mantle of the world’s policeman. But unlike the British in India and the Japanese, who forced their language on Korea and Malaysia during World War II, the Americans have not forcibly imposed their language on other nations.
The USA brand has flowed more from becoming the world’s first superpower in World War II. The war saw millions of GIs spread their four-letter words along with their Luckies, Camels, Cokes, Pepsis, Budweisers, Jeeps, Levis, and Spam to all who survived the rain of American bullets and bombs.
AMERICAN OUTREACH
Behind all these brands was America’s basic ability to supply enough equipment and supplies to outproduce the Germans and Japanese and to dominate the world’s economy ever since.
Among the major initiatives adding to the powerful appeal and spread of English, especially American English, were
the huge Lend-Lease program in which the United States, before declaring war, supplied shiploads of food and other essential supplies to many countries opposing the Germans;
the American occupation of Japan and major parts of Germany, including Berlin, after the war;
the Marshall Plan, which provided more than $100 billion in current dollars to Allied nations after the