ENGLISH TO BE THE TRADE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1316, 20 May 1897, Page 10

ENGLISH TO BE THE TRADE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD.

The English tonque, quite as much as the English people, is distinguished throughout the world for qualities which adaptlt above all others to be the trade language of the world. Statistics show that English alom of the seven great languages of Europe has been gaining rapidly in this competition. One of the greatest authorities of Germany, our greatest rival, when discussing among G-erinans a common trade language, said that it was fortunate for the rest of Europe that the English had not freed Iheir language, ' as they easily • might have done, from certain irregularities and absurdities which were the chief obstacles to its general acquirement and ' use by foreigners. With such changes, which experience of other nations had shown to be entirely practicable, English would have no serious competitor in the struggle for supremacy as the common language in which all civilised nations would Soon come to transact all their international business. This opinion has been examined

by all who have examined the subject, and there seems no possible room to doubt its correctness. For us to fail to utilise so powerful an agent for extending our commerce would bo as shortsighted as to have confined ourselves to the use of water power after the invention of steam, or as now to rest content with the wonderful work accomplished by that great labeur- ; saver and to ignore the advantages of elec- ; tricity. . . . The justifications of the ! theory that the English language is seeni- | ingly destined to be the trade tongue of i the commercial world may be found in many directions. Statistics abundantly prove it. It is a significant fact that Mulhall's table of the increase and decline in the use of the worldleading languages between 1801 and 1 1890, shows that no language has gained except English, which has grown from 12-7 to 27-7; i.e., comparing 1890 with 1801, no other language except German could show 100 per cent, of use, while English has the marvellous record of 216 per cent. If-such an advance is made in competition with German, French, and other tongues which are free from the worst faults of English, how readily might English become the trade tongue of the commeccial world if the barriers of idiosyncrasy were removed, and it ceased to be the most wasteful and puzzling of all civilised languages, when printed or written. The spoken language is conceded to be the best, easiest, and most practical. It is a disgrace that other nations say with perfect truth, that English speakers reduce their language to writing in the most wasteful, slovenly, unsystematic, unscientific manner of any of the seven great languages of commerce to-day.—Typo-graphical Journal (U.S.)