The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-20
THE ENGLISH TONGUE.
It Is Destined to Displace All Other
Forms of Speech.

Atlanta Constitution: Is the English,
language destined to become universal?
This question is suggested by the mar
velous growth which has characterized
! the language since, the beginning of the
present century. While there We're only
some 21,0000O0 people who spoke the Eng
lish language at the beginning of the
century, there are now soma 100, 600, 900.
These EngliSh-speaking people are not
restricted to Great Britain and America
but are scattered about over the entire
globe.
AS compared with other languages. the
growth of our mother tongue is all the
more significant At the beginning of this
century the worlds most popular Ian
guage was French which was spoken by
$1,000, 900 people. AS to the others, Ger
man is spoken by 3O0O0,00O people, Rus
sian by $4,000 600. Spanish by 270OO,GOO,
English by q, 600, $50 and Italian by 10000 :
O0O AT the present time English is the
language of 13O,0OO,00O people, Russian of
100000 German of 100000 French of
45,00O,00O Spanish of 44,000,000 and Italian
I of 81, 000 According to these figures,
the English language has mounted during
the present century from the fifth place
TO the first, and is today spoken by nearly
five times as many people as spoke it in
1900. While the various other languages
have made some progress during this
period they cannot begin to compare in
growth with the English.
Of course, this extraordinary growth is
not due to the beauty of the language nor
to the ease with which it is acquired by
foreigners. AS a matter of fact, the Eng
lish language is not as beautiful as some
others; for instance, Spanish and Italian;
nor is its rugged and complicated SyntaX
at all easy to master. Being composite
from all other tongues. and is character
lied by the various idioms and peculiari-
ties which these tongues themselves
/ possess. On account of the strangely
mixed and heterogeneous nature of the
language. there are no rules of orthog-
raphy which can possibly cover its in
fir1ff rari1 ff.t1- oct.A
anything else but difficult to foreigners.
Since the language has met with such
widespread adoption, however, in spite
1 of what must be conceded to be it's draw
extraordinary growth lies in the sturdy
qualities OF those who speak ii rather
than in the virtues of the language itself.
! If any further testimony to this effect
! is needed it is found in the marvellous
growth of the two great English-speaking
nations. On the one hand Great Britain
has carried the familiar accents of the
English tongue into the wilds of Central
| India and down to the southarmoSt eX-
tremity of Africa. On the other hand,
America has rolled the tide of civilization
! from the Atlantic ocean westward to the
/ Pacific and spread the conquests of the
| language over the entire area of the con-
! tinent. Without the least boastfulness it
may be stated that America has accom-
! plished more toward extending the do
main of the English tongue than Great
/ Britain: for while thu number of those
speaking the English tongue have in
creased by the addition of some 109, 900, OOO
people during the past century, the popu-
lation of the United States has increased
/ by the addition of $4,000, 600 or consider
ably more than half. This affords a
| splendid opportunity for some enterpris-
ing American to move that the name of
| the language be changed to suit this
/ altered character of the situation.
AS to the ultimate displacement of other
! languages by the English, it suffices to
! say that many hold to the opinion that
Strengthened in this manner, and that
variations in language viii continue on
down to the end of time Be this as ii
may the phenomenal growth of the Eng
] lish language during the century which
| is now drawing to it's close can hardly
| fail to impress itself upon thoughtful
minds even though the number of those
may be small who look forward to its
ultimate universality.