E-English Rules the Waves

The English language is growing bigger rapidly;thanks，of course，to the Internet．On the one hand there are the proliferating net neologisms e-mail，emotions，cyberspace and so on．On the other hand there is the hard fact that the Net is overwhelmingly an English language medium，an estimated 85%of its pages being in English．

By 2050，it is said that more than half of the world's population will be competent users of English．The Net advances the global power of the language more ruthlessly than the British Empire ever could．Every new Net user will have to learn a version of English if he is not to find himself locked in a linguistic cyberghetto．

The expansion of the language is not a new phenomenon．When the Oxford English Dictionary was completed in 1928，it defined 200，000 words;now，thanks to the regular addition of supplements and amalgamation into the second edition，published in 1989，it defines 240，000．

However，the Net-driven globalization of English will tend to enhance the worldwide significance of a Net dictionary．There are already sites，which act as dictionaries of，and guides to，the new Web，speak．As cyber English expands，so will the need and the desire to understand the language．One can easily imagine a Japanese surfer keeping the OED window permanently open to help him navigate an alien language．In this sense，since English is the mother tongue of the cyber realm，the OED may well become this new religion's virtual Bible．

The much deeper issue，however，is what the Net will do to the language．It has already brought in new words but it has also brought in those curious adjuncts to language-emotions．These smiling，frowning or winking faces，constructed from punctuation marks，compensate for the fact that in chat groups or e-mail all communication consists of typed words，devoid of expression or explanation．

Net communication is usually between strangers who may share few cultural references and whose sense of the language may be seriously out of register．This will tend to produce either bland，have-a-nice-day standardization of，more usually，various idiolects—private versions of the language—that work only in specific contexts．

This will accelerate further the expansion and evolution of e-English，and will tribalize the language．English will move more quickly into the future and，as a result，earlier forms will become more rapidly obsolete．Most people already find it difficult to read Chaucer and a proliferation of new idiolects may soon make Shakespeare equally inaccessible．