SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 103, 3 May 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

At the opening of the present century there were in round figures 20,500,000 people who spoke the English language. They were chiefly in England. We "were only a few millions in America. The French speaking people at that time numbered about 31,500,000, and the Germans exceeded 30,000,000. The Russian tongue was epokon by nearly 31,000,000, and the Spanish by more than 26,000,000. Those four languagos — French, German, Spanish, and Bussian — were therefore very nearly equal in the number of their users, and were all far beyond the English in that regard. Even the Italians had three-fourths as large a constituency as the English, and the Portuguese had throe- eights as many usors. Of tho 161,800,000 people who are estimated to have been using these seven languages in tho year 1801, the English Bpoakors wore less than 13 per cent., while the Spanish were 16, the Germans 18 4, the Russians 18 9, and the French 196. This aggregate population has now grown to nearly or quito 400,000,000, of which the English-speaking people numbor closo upon 125,000,000. From 13 per cont. wo have advanced to 31 per cont. Tho French speech is now iised by 50,000,000, the Gorman by about 70,000,000, the Spanish by somewhat more than 40,000,000, tho Russian by about 70,000,000, tho Italian by about 30,000,000, and the Portuguese by perhaps 13,000,000. The English language has enormously outgrown its competitors. It is xised by nearly twice as many people as any ono of the others, and its relative growth is sure to continue. Neither the French nor the German has much room in which to expand, while tho English has taken as its own the North American continent and nearly the whole of Australasia. North America alone will soon have 100,000,000English-speakingpoopfe. There are 40,000,000 in Great Britain and Ireland. Australia will a generation hence have as many English people as England now has. South Africa is to bo tho seat of an Anglo-Saxon republic, with millions of people. The English language is having a marvellous growth in India, and it will ultimately replace the myriad dialects of the native population. There is serious talk in Japan of a national adoption of the English language. In Egypt the English occupation is resulting in the substitution of the English for French, and throughout the Oriont there is a growing eagerness to learn the coming language. — Minneapolis Tribune.