[Air-l] Language on the Internet (was AoIR in Latin-America)

[Nathaniel Poor]

here's a thought, just to throw it out there (since I find this  
conversation interesting)
(although perhaps "English" is Western... not in terms of origin, but  
in other ways?)


"English as a global language poses a most vexing problem precisely  
because it does not indicate any particular national culture. It is  
neither English nor British, neither North American nor Australian,  
neither South African nor Indian, neither Jamaican nor Singaporean,  
nor does it stand for anything like a cultural aggregate of all  
these. We simply have no idea what English stands for except the  
global market—itself a vague reference—which is to say, we have no  
idea what it stands for culturally." (p. 4)

Judy, R. (1999). Some notes on the status of global English in  
Tunisia. boundary 2, 26(2), 3-29.


On Mar 22, 2006, at 7:34 PM, Alex Kuskis wrote:

>> Technically speaking, English is a minority........Joshua
>
> That might be true from a strictly statistical point of view, Joshua,
> but English is a language that has lifted beyond its weight for
> several hundred years. Politically and economically this
> might be the result of one global English empire succeeding
> another one. But, just as important is the fact that both Industrial
> and Information Revolutions emerged from the English language
> world, and to the extent that technologies embody the assumptions
> of language and culture, modern ICT embodies Anglo-American
> thinking and values. That is why, as the Internet is consolidating
> almost everywhere, new high speed technologies variously alluded
> to as Web 2.0 and 3.0, the sematic Web, and Internet 2 are being
> rolled out from Silicon Valley, MIT, Bangalore, Waterloo (the
> Blackberry) and other English language domains. The Internet
> is not static, continues to evolve, mostly out of the English-
> speaking realm where it's so integrated with the culture, and
> the digital divide with the so-called Third World continues to
> increase. The downside of all this for the English-speaking
> world is that it reinforces mono-lingualism and language
> chauvinism. It's admirable to learn a language for love or curiosity,
> but the fact is that most people do it for economic advantage and
> up until recently, English speakers haven't had to.
>
> Wikipedia has a fairly good entry on 'English on the Internet',
> which is certainly debatable, but probably sound....Alex Kuskis
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_on_the_Internet
> If a gradual decline in English first language users is inevitable  
> it does
> not necessarily follow that English will not continue to be the  
> language of
> choice for those accessing the Internet.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ------
> In the future then, English and Chinese may have roughly equal  
> positions at
> the top of the overall Internet first language users but English  
> will likely
> continue to dominate as the default choice for those accessing the  
> Internet
> in a second language.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> -------
> Internet content
> b.. Given the enormous lead it already enjoys and its increasing  
> use as
> lingua franca in other spheres English web content may continue to  
> dominate
> even as English first-language Internet users decline. This is a  
> classic
> positive feedback loop: new Internet users find it helpful to learn  
> English
> and employ it on-line, thus reinforcing the language's prestige and  
> forcing
> subsequent new users to learn English as well.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "joshua raclaw" <Joshua.Raclaw at colorado.edu>
> To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Language on the Internet (was AoIR in Latin- 
> America)
>
>> Alex,
>>
>> Technically speaking, English is a minority.  I don't think you  
>> can argue
>> with
>> Geert's assertion that (relatively speaking) the use of English  
>> online is
>> shrinking exponentially.  It's a much more multilingual arena than  
>> it was
>> even
>> a few years ago (and certainly the 'multilingual internet' is  
>> getting much
>> more scholarly attention as of late because of this).
>>
>> Also, please don't misinterpret the statistic that 1.5 billion people
>> speak
>> English by thinking that these are monolingual and/or native  
>> speakers!
>> Just
>> because a speaker knows English doesn't mean they're going to use  
>> it in
>> every
>> context, and this applies both online and off.
>>
>> Joshua
>> Joshua Raclaw - PhD student
>> Department of Linguistics
>> University of Colorado at Boulder
>
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---------------------------------------------
Nathaniel Poor, Ph.D.
www.umich.edu/~natpoor
Visiting Assistant Professor
Communication Studies Dept.
Albion College
http://www.albion.edu/commstudies