# why English use as an international Language **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2005, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569 "2005-05-26T06:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569/41 "2005-05-27T16:33:28Z")
**Triskadecamus** , this portion of your post: \*However, there are another billion English speakers in Asia, not counting China at all. It is, after all, the official language of India. \* – made me think that you were saying that all 1 billion English-speakers you were talking about were the 1 billion people of India. > [@](#): > > By the way, what is the official Language of India? I thought I said so in my post: There are about 20. English is given official status for administrative use, but it is not correct to say that it is “the official language of India” any more than it is to say that Telegu or Assamese or any other of the 20 languages is “the official language of India.” ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569/42 "2005-05-28T09:08:40Z")
**Excalibre** : From your sentence, here are in bold letters the words that are understandable to Romance speaking people, even if they haven’t learned English: All the Western **European** **languages** share a \*\*large amount \*\* of **vocabulary** , **especially** in \*\*technical \*\* or \*\*specialized \*\* fields. It’s **interesting** to **contrast** with **Chinese** , since the **phonetic syst** ems of the **Chinese** **languages** don’t **accomodate** these words, and thus they are all **derived** from **native** roots. And \*\*English \*\* and French indeed have a **particular intimacy** , which \*\*no doubt \*\* helps **encourag** e **English** **usage** among speakers of **Romanc** e **languages**. I think that’s a \*\*relatively minor piece \*\* of the puzzle, though, since **English** shows up in plenty of **areas** outside of those with **significant** shared **vocabulary**. And it \*\*certainly \*\* doesn’t \*\*indicate \*\* any \*\*special \*\* willingness to borrow words, which is the point I was making. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569/43 "2005-05-28T13:36:17Z")
English is a very powerful language. For example you can choose hurl…throw with great effort for some distance toss…throw for some short distance fling…throw with some velocity pitch…throw with accuracy lob…throw with some elevation Can you come up with French or German words to match that specificity? > [@](#): > > “The statistics of English are astonishing. Of all the world’s languages (which now number some 2,700), it is arguably the richest in vocabulary. The compendious Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a further half-million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued. According to traditional estimates, neighboring German has a vocabulary of about 185,000 and French fewer than 100,000, including such Franglais as le snacque-barre and le hit-parade.” –Robert McCrum, William Cran, & Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York: Penguin, 1992: 1 ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569/44 "2005-05-28T18:25:15Z")
**Excalibre** perhaps i’ve misunderstood you. did you say that in the _unlikely_ event that chinese, or mandarin if you will, ever becomes an international language; the pinyin, or romanisation, would be used solely instead of in tandem with hanzi? (if i got your post correctly) i was attending your hypothetical where chinese becomes an international language. it’s my opinion that chinese will be severely diluted in a pinyin-only form, and China itself will have to fall to dust before they give up their written form. _relative_ to this, imho it is more likely that hanzi would be adopted as the written form while regions either pick up the spoken form too or use their native pronunciations instead. this is akin to the japanese borrowing hanzi while using their own pronunciations (but in this case adopting chinese grammar and syntax instead of their own) for example, the written form 美军承认对古兰经处理不当 否认将经书冲入马桶 might be read/spoken as _U.S. military admit for Koran handle improper, deny let Holy Book flush into toilet. \* on preview: ok forget it, i’m just translating. kindly ignore what i said about using local speech to read hanzi then_, but pinyin-only chinese is still a no-no. - i still like the idea though. i think it’s quaint. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-english-use-as-an-international-language/305569.md?page=2)