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No problem, say some language pioneers; such literary works will surely be saved as valuable relics of a bygone era. Broadway and Hollywood can’t afford to have Shakespeare die. He is too much a part of today’s entertainment world. Just to make sure, New York Times columnist Bob Tedeschi carries the complete works of Shakespeare on his iPhone.48

It’s very possible that today’s language ferment may create its own great works to be admired by future generations. We don’t yet know what they might be. What we do know is that we can’t turn back the clock. We must accept the major changes, good or bad, and learn how to cope with them.

Just think of what a single world language such as Amglish can do for all humanity. For starters, it could help unify people around the globe in a way that neither the United Nations nor any other world body has been able to do. Local languages could still serve important purposes, but a universal tongue could become a unique power for better or worse. For starters, it could reduce the chance of war and help alleviate or cure vital food and health problems.

This chapter has described how Amglish has become the first truly international language. The next chapter will focus on the major forces that have built the international power of Amglish.

From Revolution to Tsunami

English is destined to be in the next succeeding centuries more generally the language of the world than Latin was in the last or French in the present age.

—John Adams, September 5, 1780

No prediction about language has been as prescient as the one above.

If Adams could have known how people would handle the King’s English two hundred years hence, he might not have been so optimistic. In fact, he was already peeved enough by the quality of English in his own era. In the letter from abroad quoted above, he urged Congress to set up an American academy similar to ones set up earlier in France and Spain “for refining, correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue.”

He explained, “It will have a happy effect upon the union of the states to have a public standard for all persons in every part of the continent to appeal to, both for the signification and pronunciation of the language.” Sure thing, John.

To understand where he was coming from, you have to know where he was going. This proper gentleman was headed for the White House as vice president to George Washington, then to the presidency in his own right, eventually to be followed by his son, John Quincy Adams, also as president. The only other family close to having such credentials is the Bush family, whose father-and-son presidents had somewhat different skill sets for language.

Fortunately for freely speaking Americans, the idea of federal language police has never caught fire. There have always been more than enough volunteer cops on the beat. The closest things to such an authority have been several failed attempts by Congress in recent years to designate English as the “national” language as part of an immigration-control bill. One thing blocking such a move may be the realization by some legislators that their own language might not measure up.

Ironically, the world would probably not be latching on to so much U.S.-flavored lingo today if the proper Bostonian Adams had had his way on an academy of language monitors. Look at how French eventually lost its status as the lingua franca of the world despite its head start, largely because French authorities tried so hard to fine-tune its use and fight linguistic imports instead of allowing language to evolve naturally.

EVERYTHING MORE GLOBAL

Despite his amazing prediction, Adams couldn’t possibly foresee today’s wired world, nor the explosion of ultrarapid communication devices that are transforming human interchanges in unprecedented, exciting ways.

He also could not have predicted the speed or amount of international travel, the immense growth of international trade, the massive migration of rural people to