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0 pointsrofo17y ago0 comments

British empire was (almost) 1/4 - it was never close to 1/3 of the world.

Even at its peak, English language wasn't as widespread as now. The French language was, especially in 18th and 19th century, having substituted Latin.

After WW2, US absolutely dominated the world coming off as the only victor in WW2 (that's my personal opinion) and used their position to place English language as #1 language of the world (over time), undisputed. The end of the cold war cemented this even further.

We can argue that British imperialism helped somewhat, that I agree with.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

rocqua7y ago· 2 in thread

> and used their position to place English language as #1 language of the world

I doubt it was intentional. Seems like it was a nice side-effect at most.

rofo1OP7y ago

Why do they call it cold war, what do you think? They had wars either through proxy or through propaganda (aka. "culture"). Movies, music and books were big part of that war. Billions and billions went into the production and placement of them.

If that doesn't show intent, then I don't know what would :)

Don't get me wrong, I am actually impressed by it and gotta hand it to Reagan - winning a war without even firing a single shot.

Edit: I don't want to downplay the factor of oil and, but I feel like it's off topic here so that's why I don't mention it.

usrusr7y ago

Hitchcock, almost the entirety of pre-hiphop popular music, a very big chunk of the "cultural pressure" behind the success of the English language did not come from America but from a small island nation that lost WW2 in all but name. American cultural influence is wildly overrated.

gumby7y ago· 1 in thread

> The French language was, especially in 18th and 19th century, having substituted Latin.

Hence the use of the Latin term “lingua franca”

derriz7y ago

Not exactly - "Lingua Franca" was originally a trading argot/pidgen used by mediterranean traders with more of an Italian basis. Later it came to mean a generic term for "common language". Only centuries later did French became a lingua franca for European diplomacy.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

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