HowtoLiveaColorfulLife

HowtoLiveaColorfulLife

Thearrivaloftheyear1999hasbroughtwithanearperfectopportunitytotakealookbackatthelastonethousandyears,assessman’ssuccessesandfailures,andlookforwardwithourpredictionsofthethirdmillennium.
Alreadythisafternoonyou’veheardmanyassessmentsandyou’veheardavarietyofpredictions.Avarietysovast,rangingfromLewisCarol’sdepictionofcelebratorylife,totheIrishcelebrationofdeath.Sovastavarietythatit’sdifficulttofindanycommongroundamongstthecontestantsheretoday.Perhapstheonlythingthatweallshareisthatweareindeeddiscussingmillennia,theoldandthenewandtheturnofthemillennium,andwe’realldiscussingitinthesamelanguage.
Afewhundredyearsagotohaveheldaneventlikethisitwouldhavebeenimperativethatwewereallfluentinanumberofdifferenttongues,fortheapproachofcombatingthelanguagebarrierwassimplytolearnmanydifferentlanguages.Ofcoursepeoplebackthenhadanulteriormotive:thatwastoensurethatdifferentlanguagesheldtheirdifferentsocietiesorpositions,orasKingCharlesVofSpainputit,“IspeakSpanishtoGod,Italiantowomen,FrenchtomenandGermantomyhorse.”
Todayourapproachissomewhatdifferent.Insteadoftryingtovastlyspreadourverbalabilityacrosstheboard,we’vechosenrathertofocusit,concentratingonourabilitytomasteroneparticularlanguage,theEnglishlanguage.Timemagazinerecentlysuggestedthatbytheturnofthemillennium,EnglishwillbetheLinguaFrancaforonequarteroftheworld’spopulation.Alreadytodaysixtypercentsoftheworld’stelevisionandradiobroadcastsareproducedanddeliveredinEnglish.Seventypercentsoftheworld’smailaddressedinEnglish.Anditisthelanguageofchoiceforalmosteverybiteofcomputerdatasentacrosstheglobe.
ButwhyEnglish?Therearenoclearlinguisticreasonsforitssuggestedglobaldominance,certainlythegrammariscomplicated,thespellingpeculiarandthepronunciationeccentric,tosaytheveryleast.OnewouldneedonlylookthroughthedictionarytofindthevastlistofamusingparadoxesintheEnglishlanguage?quicksandthatworksslowly,aboxingringthatisinfactsquareandaguineapigthat’sreallyneitherfromGuineanorisitapig.Doesn’titseemoddthatonecanmakeamendsbutnotoneamend.orgothroughtheannalsofhistorybutnotoneannal.Thereason,ladiesandgentlemen,issimple.Englishisstrange,butnowherenearasstrangeassomeofouralternatives.
PerhapsIshouldgiveyouafewidiomaticexamples.InEnglishwesay“onceinabluemoon”.TheItalianchooseinstead“everydeathofaPope”.Irishdoesn’tlikeour“dropdead”,replacingitratherwiththeslightlymoreobscure“youshouldlieintheearth.”AndifyouwantedtotellsomeoneoffinSpanishourrelativelyobvious“goflyakite”wouldbebetterservedbythephrase“gofryasparagus”.English’sprimaryadvantageisthatofflexibility.Ontheonehandithasthelargestvocabularyofallmodernlanguages,allowingus,asitsusers,tosayexactlywhatwewantinexactlythewordswechoosetouse.Ontheother,globalizationhasinsuredtheintroductionofabusinessEnglish,asortoftrimmeddownvarietyofthelanguagewe’veallcometoknowandlove.
It’sinterestingtoknowthatthesimplelistofjusttenwords,wordslike“a”,“and”,“have”and“the”,combinedtoformonequarterofallthoseeverusedinmoderncommunication.Perhapstherealtestis:willtheglobaladoptionofEnglishasamasterlanguageinsuretheeradicationofanymisunderstandingsthathappentoday?Theanswerisnotassimple.RussellHovenonceasked:“Howmanypeoplespeakthesamelanguageevenwhentheyspeakthesamelanguage?”Butonecanonlyhopethatouronlyaimandouronlychanceofinsuringthatwecommunicateeffectivelywitheachotheristomakesurethatwedospeakoneuniversallanguage.InathousandyearstimeWesternclockswillhopefullyhavetickedontotheyear2999andwecanbeassuredthatscientists,academicsandfuturistswillconvene,muchlikewe’vedonetodaytolookbackatthethirdmilleniumandoffertheirpredictionsforthesuccessesofthefo

rth.
It’simpossibletoimaginewhattheymightsay,impossibletoimaginewhattechnologythey’llhaveavailableorevenwhichplanetthey’llholdthemeetingon.Infact,quitepossiblytheonlythingwecansayforsureisthatthey’llbediscussingtheissuesinonecommonuniversallanguage.Andthatwillbethelanguageofthethirdmillennium.AndthatlanguagewithoutanydoubtlookssettobeEnglish.Thankyou.