Without a doubt, English is the dominant global and scientific language in the world today. Majority opinions attribute its rise to political, economic, technological, and cultural causes, through influences from the British Empire and the US.
However, from the point of view of our previous articles, our argument is simple: readability [1] is the cause The evolutionary story was addressed in my article “Visual evolution of written language towards the Latin alphabet: a hypothesis”. The effects of writing on the world were discussed in “Effects of Written Language on the Non-Text World”. [2]. We now explicitly discuss this topic to correct misconceptions and affirm our argument that it can be used to explain history and current societies, and to predict the future.
1. “Readiness” is the cause
We should treat writing as a tool, just like other tools, like a pen. One pen is better than another not because the person using it has better writing skills, although they will likely choose a better pen. Likewise, a writing system is better not because its people are more powerful. The writing is useful because it is evenly arranged. The readability of the array certainly has an effect on its usefulness. Different writing systems have varying levels of legibility. When other conditions are the same, people prefer readable read/write. [3] texts to illegible. Legibility (ability to read) is the rudimentary criterion by which people choose a writing system among existing ones or develop new ones.
Letters, words and sentences are visually refined by millions of people. The visual refinement of written English is unmatched by other systems. That allows for the vast publications and spread of the English writing system, maximizing established visual and textual information. Readable systems attract more people to contribute to its expansion. Although Mandarin and Spanish have more native speakers than English, their spread is limited because most advanced knowledge, which is why languages are learned, is written in English. With reading ability, English writing is relatively steady and reasonable. Your speakers are adamant about that, emphasizing people with unreadable systems. When two or more writing systems meet, each absorbs the vocabulary, grammar, etc. of others. to grow themselves. The English turned out to be stronger in this regard.
Of course, legibility is not the only reason a writing system spreads. The official status, the number of existing users, the available publications, etc. everything influences the momentum of propagation. But readability is the ultimate cause, whether due to the voluntary adoption of readable systems or readable systems that are strengthened to dominate unreadable ones. Unreadable systems will either evolve in a readable direction or be replaced by readable systems, which might initially be smaller.
2. Misconceptions
2.1. Non-linguistic influences or non-textual causes
This view attributes causes to external factors rather than the language itself, for example political, economic, technological, and cultural causes. These factors empower people, whose languages they will dominate accordingly. People in less advanced societies would willingly learn or be forced to learn the languages of more advanced societies. At one extreme, illiterate people will delete all text if they are powerful enough. In general, this view would consider that advanced societies need readable systems, but not necessarily.
We argue that the readability factor is final and deterministic. We consider the texts as the center of the world created by man. Readable texts establish advanced societies, which can be deduced from The Paper. That is, social progress is built on a specific writing system, which spreads with its societies and people. Political, economic and other situations can fluctuate for months or even years. An unreadable writing system might temporarily prevail. In the long run, readable systems would build advanced societies and dominate unreadable systems.
2.2. The spoken form is the main form of language.
This point of view diverts people’s attention from the written form. Many people focus on spoken forms when comparing two languages, marginalizing writing or not even thinking about the effects of the visual aspect of writing. They certainly cannot get to the heart of the problem, let alone find solutions. The representation of sound is an important disguise for the readability of scripts. The truth is that the spread and dominance of spoken English is due to the success of texts in English. The course of English globalization is the government of speech by written text.
23. Simple spelling contributes to the spread of English
Many people know that English spelling is simple, therefore easy to learn and use, which contributes to the spread of English. This opinion begins to look in the written form. However, the simple spelling is generally considered a trivial factor. Also, your opinion assumes that spoken English is primary, which accounts for spelling.
In short, the root causes of misunderstanding are not realizing the written form as the main form of language and the written language as the central cause of social progress.
3. Writing systems based on the Latin alphabet, English and other systems
Like English, the historical dominance of Latin, Spanish, German, and French were all due to the Latin alphabet, although their spoken forms distinguish them as different languages. The last contribution of the Latin alphabet is neglected. But these systems are not as refined at the base unit level as English. Using diacritics, ligatures, and extra letters can make hyphens less readable. Complex spelling and sound correspondences and spelling irregularities also give English the flexibility to achieve readability and facilitate vocabulary growth.
It is important to compare systems based on the Latin alphabet with other systems, because the distinctions between systems based on the Latin alphabet are relatively small, which obscures the importance of the readability factor. Compared to other scripts, the letters of the Latin script, particularly the lowercase letters, are better formed with clarity, simplicity, and differentiation between letters. Latin letters also form syllables, words legibly. The prevalence of romanization indicates the high readability of the Latin alphabet, often under the guise of spellings to represent the sounds of non-Latin script languages.
4. The future
English is likely to continue to grow and evolve based on today’s alphabet, vocabulary, and grammar. It will accelerate its spread during globalization and the media revolution. It will be enriched with regional, creole and pidgin lexicon, dialects and varieties. Unfortunately, more writing systems and languages could be disappearing. But the destiny of written language is to regulate, organize and maximize the capacity of the mind, support larger societies and codify the world. Diversity is not the goal of written language. Many writing systems will survive or even grow, at least for the foreseeable future. With diversity preserved, one dominant writing system will be the basis of humanity’s common societies and common minds, governing other systems.
[1] Here, “readability” and “readability” have the same meaning.
[2] Hereafter referred to as The Paper.
[3] Here, “readable” and “illegible” are relative terms.