The English Language & Americanisms (video)

Editor's note: the Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day in the U.S., commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. But the 'Americans' who revolted (predominantly English men and women then living in the 13 original colonies), also kept their mother tongue, which continued to flourish and prosper, in the U.S., and throughout the world.

The "Grand Union Flag" which served as the U.S. national flag from 1776 to 1777:

The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States. The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the original Thirteen Colonies, the canton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the British Union Flag, the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, by John Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant), on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia.

The English Language and Americanisms

The Economist's language expert, Lane Greene, knows a thing or two about English. Lane is a fan of words, lots of words, and Lane is an American living in London. He's become accustomed to British English slang. But Lane often hears Britons complain that there are too many American words and expressions creeping into British English, these are called Americanisms. The Economist.com video above first published Nov 23, 2017.

English is the largest language in the world, if you count both native and non-native speakers. If you count only native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the largest. https://t.co/Yrso3BrPY5 pic.twitter.com/45Pm0KGwPA

— Ethnologue (@theEthnologue) October 2, 2018

About two billion people study English as a non-native language - that's nearly one in three people worldwide. There are more English speakers (native + non-native) worldwide, than of any other language in the world today. As a result, unlike the other major languages in the world today, non-native speakers of English far outnumber native speakers!

The country with the largest number of English speakers (native + non-native) is India, where English is an additional official language for government work along with Hindi. The total population of India will surpass China by 2024.

The UK government classifies the following countries as majority native English speaking: Antigua and Barbuda; Australia; The Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Canada; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Ireland; Jamaica; New Zealand; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom; United States of America.

The countries that have the best proficiency in English as a second language:

source: statista.com

See also:

• Why English Dominates the Web: Native & Non-Native English Speakers

• English and Technology

• Why English will still be important to Europe in a post-Brexit world | europeanceo.com: "... The rise of Euro-English ... English [is] the most commonly spoken second language in the vast majority of EU countries ..."

• Map: Language Difficulty Ranking For English Speakers

• The English-Speaking Union of the United States

It's always nice when a movie review makes a reference to Shakespeare => ‘The Lion King’ feels way more like ‘Hamlet’ this time — and that’s why it’s so good https://t.co/UCOZLUb4RB via @washingtonpost

— The English-Speaking Union of The United States (@ESU_US) July 22, 2019

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Why English Dominates the Web: Native & Non-Native English Speakers

Almost 55 percent of the top 10 million websites on the web are in English (chart below). The English language clearly dominates the internet. Globally, although Chinese has the most first language speakers, only 2.2% of the top 10 million websites in the world are in Chinese. Why? 
(1) There are more English speakers in the world than Chinese (see text further below);
(2) China lags behind most of the developed world in (a) internet freedom, and (b) GNI per capita--see text further below chart: 


Source: Statista.

1. Note the chart above gives only first-language speaker totals, which is misleading--see Domain Mondo: Countries With Best Non-native English Speakers: "Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native English speakers now outnumber native [first language] speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1 in the world"--applying Crystal's ratio to the data above, first (native) and second (non-native) language English speakers together total 1.44 billion people, which exceeds all Chinese (first and second language) speakers globally according to the data available.

2. See on Domain Mondo: Domain Name Registrations and the Global Internet Population: "There is a significant positive correlation between a nation’s rank in Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, and the number of domain names per Internet user. A nation’s ranked position by GNI per capita explains about 50% of the variance in its ranking by number of domain names per Internet user. Another correlating factor is the absence or prevalence of internet censorship or internet freedom in each nation" (emphasis added).  In both internet freedom and GNI per capita, China lags behind most of the developed world.

With India (where English is an official language) having the most people who read or speak English (native and non-native) of any nation in the world, and China having the largest number of students studying English as a second language in the world, expect the continuing pre-eminence of English globally, and on the internet, well into the 21st Century.

See also: Countries With Best Non-native English Speakers

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Countries With Best Non-native English Speakers

How many people in the world can read English? The exact number is unknown but the number is in the billions (see English language - Wikipedia). English is the predominant language in the world and on the web (see English as a Global Language), and will likely remain so for a very long time, due in part to English being an official language of India which will be the most populous country in the world by 2022. In 2004, Linguist David Crystal (see below), stated that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. In Africa, many speakers of English have become part of an "Afro-Saxon" language community that unites Africans from different countries (see Mazrui and Mazrui). In a world of texting and messaging, ability to just read English is as important as learning to be a proficient English speaker. That said, there are much better statistics on English speakers, native and non-native-- Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native English speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1 in the world--

For nations where English is not the native language, here are the best English speakers:

Source: Statista

Above chart: Almost two billion people study English as a non-native language - that's nearly one in three people worldwide. Which countries actually speak English the best as a second language? The English Proficiency Test compiled an interesting ranking using the exam results of hundreds of thousands of people to illustrate the countries that have the best proficiency in English as a second language. Read more on the i100. (Nov 6, 2015)

Top 5: Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland

Interesting are the numbers of people who speak (not just read)  English worldwide, both native-speakers and as a second language:

"Anglospeak-percentage-knowledge". Licensed under GFDL via Commons.

more info: List of countries by English-speaking population - Wikipedia

See also: Why English Dominates the Web: Native & Non-native English Speakers

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Bloomberg Technology Conference 2015, Info, Video Links, Twitter Feed

The Bloomberg Technology Conference: Code and the Corner Office--today (June 16th) in San Francisco--corporate leaders from inside and outside of tech, top investors, hot entrepreneurs and other influencers come together for shared discovery and debate about the real business impact of software and coding – from artistic medium to competitive advantage to cybersecurity threats.

Streamed Online LIVE June 16, 2015: http://www.bloomberg.com/live/stream
Info: Agenda (partial agenda shown below) and Speakers

#btech2015 Tweets

twitter: #btech2015

Partial agenda -- all times PDT:

10:40 AM Code as a Cure
11:00 AM Understanding the Consumer: A Master Class
11:10 AM Soft Goods and Software
11:30 AM Textiles Get the Silicon Valley Treatment
11:45 AM Health Apps: Upgrading the Ultimate Personal Technology
12:05 PM Management Tips from Hackers
12:30 PM Lunch
12:30 PM Good360 Lunch: Tech to the Rescue
1:30 PM The Developer Dating Game
1:55 PM Disruption in a Dog-Eat-Dog World
2:15 PM Software Eats the Network
2:35 PM The Future of Work
3:00 PM Building Tools for Telling Stories
3:25 PM Networking Break
3:45 PM Women Coders Speak Out
4:05 PM Decoding Open Source
4:30 PM Code Culture in Pop Culture
4:55 PM Closing Remarks


Follow @DomainMondo