The paper looks at various aspects of the so-called Latin-English analogy and particularly at the ways in which English may share the fate of Latin in ultimately becoming a victim of its own success. A critical factor in the history of Latin was a conceptual split between its native and non-native varieties, which eventually proved instrumental in establishing its reputation as a dead language. The author wishes to argue that current proposals for a codification of English as a Lingua Franca, aimed at providing vast numbers of L2 learners with a pedagogical alternative that does not emulate L1 standards, may be regarded as major steps towards making English a new Latin: creating a similar split between native versus foreigners' English.
The paper looks at various aspects of the so-called Latin-English analogy and particularly at the ways in which English may share the fate of Latin in ultimately becoming a victim of its own success. A critical factor in the history of Latin was a conceptual split between its native and non-native varieties, which eventually proved instrumental in establishing its reputation as a dead language. The author wishes to argue that current proposals for a codification of English as a Lingua Franca, aimed at providing vast numbers of L2 learners with a pedagogical alternative that does not emulate L1 standards, may be regarded as major steps towards making English a new Latin: creating a similar split between native versus foreigners' English.
In this paper I wish to look at whether English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is likely to acquire an identity of its own and be universally perceived as a linguistic entity different from, and independent of, native speaker English(es). The discussion begins with a brief overview of certain controversies surrounding the ELF case, before turning to the so-called Latin analogy theme. The fate of Latin, another well-known example of a language of international communication in the history of mankind, was in fact sealed by the emergence - in the early Middle Ages - of a non-native variety of the language, decidedly distinct from the natural language that later developed into Romance. The paper will attempt to present certain aspects of the Latin-English analogy, with a view to obtaining clues as to the possible future development of the modern lingua franca.
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