Have you ever wondered what influence non-native speakers of English have on the English language? Does English change because speakers of other languages use it differently to suit their needs, cultural backgrounds, culinary habits or political establishments? Or because they speak English poorly… Whatever the cause, English changes and as flexible as it is, it incorporates useful elements from other sources. Just take a look at the phrase ‘Long time no see’. This phrase comes from Chinese pidgin and is now a standard lexical item of informal English. However, this is a set phrase. Most of the change going on is the most notable on the surface, that is, in the vocabulary. The English we use in Europe to communicate with each other is called Euro-English and its variant used by the European Union’s institutions stirs up some waves from time to time with its cumbersomeness and neologistic features. Be that as it may, English is spoken by more non-native speakers in Europe (and the world) than native speakers, which means that English has no other choice than adapt. Simply put: English may dominate the world but, in turn, the world dominates English.
This article explores the issue in more depth: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21602737-language-truth-and-european-politics-globish-speaking-union
by Zsolt Toth
Terminology Trainee at TermCoord