English as a killer language

Although initially the spread of English has been considered as an economic opportunity, it has been seen as a destructive language too, regarding the linguistic and cultural diversity. Pattanayak (1996) says that this spread of English accentuates the rift between the urban and the rural, the developed and the developing and the mass and the elite. And because it prevents many languages sharing communication, it promotes alienation, anomie, and blind spots in cultural perception.

So, may authors say that the spread of English is responsible for the death of other languages; however, do you really think that English is a killer language? It is obvious that in countries which has been colonized by the English and they now speak English, our language has acted as a killer. Remember the colonization of Australia, for instance, in which native language of indigenous almost disappeared, or the language of the American natives, which is the same case. But the spread of English has not been like this in other countries. English language is in many countries as a co-official language or as a language of trade. Even in East Africa, if you remember, it serves as a thrust of the Swahili, expanded its functional and geographical range.

So, it does not seem that English has to be seen as a killer language. It is not the direct cause of the language deaths in all the situations. Instead, the direct fact in killing languages seems to be the globalization of the economy, which takes the English language as a medium of communication. In other words, English would not be seen as a killer language, by the “medium to murder”.