English may have a reputation for being a 'linguistic imperialist,' pushing local languages into obscurity but linguist Mario Saraceni argues English should be viewed as a global language with multiple versions existing on equal footing.
This is an excerpt from their conversation.
Other people see it as a gift. It is something that gives opportunities, that enhances careers, makes communication, international communication easier and so on. The fact is that both these aspects are true but they're not mutually exclusive in the sense that when we're talking about a global language, in fact, when we talk about language in general, we are talking about something extremely complex.
If we consider language in a much more fluid manner... not necessarily as separated from one another that would be one step forward.But the other interesting thing about dialect is that a question that often we don't think of is what really is the difference between a language and a dialect. You know, who decides whether one form of a language is a dialect and another form of a language is the language, so to speak. And so that ultimately is a matter of power.
I think one of the problems is that we tend to consider languages almost like concrete objects. So this is mine. This is yours. So if I am French — I'm using French because this particular legislation exists in France — but in other places in the world as well. So, you know, if I'm French, I have to own this particular object called the French language.
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