Whether it is Inglish in India, Singlish in Singapore, Chinglish in Hong Kong or Konglish in Korea, the English language keeps mutating in its march across the globe. Purists may cluck their tongues at the myriad forms that the language of Shakespeare assumes as it comes into contact with vigorous native tongues. But this is clearly the price of popularity.
Scholars at a conference in London have estimated that by 2050 half the world's population will be familiar with some form of English, making it the closest the world has ever come to having a global language.
But it is quite possible that this new global language will bear little resemblance to what is recognised as English today. Experts at the London conference have said that the fastest growing form of English is 'ICE', or international colloquial English, a lively amalgam that borrows from local languages, pop culture and electronic messaging.
As most parents of teenage children have discovered, electronic messaging has led to the most bizarre of all the English language's mutations. Using pithy abbreviations such as 'gr8' (great) 'c u l8tr' (see you later) and 'rotfl' (rolling on the floor laughing), young people and mobile phone messaging services have combined to produce an extremely basic, but rapidly growing method of communicating in English. One expert, David Crystal, estimates that about 5,000 new words a year are added to ICE.
Clearly, these electronically inspired variants of English are unlikely to result in great works of literature, or for that matter be able to provide for more than an elementary level of communication.
But the growth of international colloquial English sheds interesting light on the way the English language is likely to evolve. In its role as the ruling language of the Internet, English is becoming primarily a way to communicate in writing rather than through speech. It is quite possible that in future, the majority of those who say they know English will only be able to write the language, not speak it. Indeed, they will have little need to speak it, since its primary use will be to communicate over the Internet. This in turn would imply that real emphasis in English teaching ought to be in teaching the written rather than the spoken language.
