The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-05-06
THE SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LAM
GUAGE.


If there is ever to be universal Lar
guage it seems as if the English were to
be the one. Various causes have COM
bined to give it a remarkable currency
in nearly all portions of the world. Ac-
cording to a writer in Mdcmilldn'S
Maqazine the English is superseding the
French in Germany as the first to be
learned after the native tongue, In Rus
STA and Siberia it is becoming more
fashionable to speak English than
French, and English-speaking travellers
can easily make their way in the Gar
Empire by the use of their native tongue
What is true of Russia is also true
of Scandinavia. In neither Denmark,
Sweden nor Norway is man considered
educated who does not know English.
And now that the tide of English and
American travel is setting with greater
force than ever toward those countries,
most of the people are likely soon to be-
come familiar with the language. On
the coast of Africa it has driven out all
other European languages. Even in the
French colony of GaboOn it is asserting
itself against the French, and in the
German CameroOns 1T divides the non
ors with Germans. On the West Coast
where the Portuguese was once the
spoken from Sierra Leone to the San
Pedro River, distance of 800 miles. The
Nile and the Niger and the great lakes
are already English, the Congo and the
.Jambesi will probably become so, and it
is confidently predicted that the English
will become the common language of
the whole continent. The only danger
Gus rival that the English has in Africa
is the Arabic The language has made
great progress in India. Its prominence
in Japan is shown by the fact that ReY.
George Trumbull Ladd, D. D., Professor
of Philosophy in Yale University, will
sail shortly for that country to lecture
on the philosophy of religion before the
students of the Imperial University at
Toxic and before students at other ed
ucational points. This is at the request
of the educational authorities OF Japan.
The writer in Macmillan may be over
sanguine, but circumstances strongly
favor the spread of the English tongue,
To begin with, the English race is doml-
nant in larger portion OF the globe. IL
has the lead in commercial enterprise
and its merchants are in quick touch
with the natives of all lands. British
commerce penetrates every nook and
corner of the navigable globe, and its
SedIIlGll AOi my
diffusion of the English language, while
foreign merchants find knowledge of
it indispensable for the transaction of
business. Although American com
MERGE does not contribute so much in
this direction, American travellers are
probably quite as, if not more, numer-
Gus than the English, and they are max
ing their influence felt in bringing about
a supremacy of the English tongue.
Quite as important as any other agency,
probably, is the tremendous stride in
Importance which the United States has
achieved during the last half century,
and the popular interest excited in our
history and institutions all over the
world. We have. SO to sweak, become
"the cynosure of all eyes," for the down
trodden, the oppressed and the enter
prising of all countries look to the Uni
ted States as a veritable land of promise,
and naturally our language as well as
our institutions has become OF great in
terest to other peoples.