From Englishization to Imposed Multilingualism: Globalization, the Internet, and the Political Economy of the Linguistic Code

Current debates on the possible linguistic consequences of the process of globalization concentrate on the complementary issues of Englishization and language loss. Most writers view today's linguistic world as a site of contestation between the global and the local: the spread of English as the lingua franca of the information age is viewed as the linguistic counterpart to the process of economic globalization; the causal factors working against the process of Englishization are thought of as locally bound and are equated with patterns of local resistance to economic (and cultural) globalization. This conception also determines the structure of the discourse on linguistic human rights: the need for negotiated multilingualism and the rights of speakers to resist global pressures and to use, maintain, and develop their local languages. In this essay, I suggest that this conceptual framework misses out on a critical aspect of the linguistic dynamics of our time. The process of globalization undoubtedly has far-reaching linguistic consequences, but these, I claim, have less to do with the spread of English and the reduction of linguistic variability as such and much more to do with the general social function of language and the relationships among languages, speakers, nation-states, and the global market. As these relationships are gradually changing, most dramatically on the Internet, we already witness the global emergence of novel patterns of linguistic usage, standardization, maintenance, and variability—patterns that more than anything else meet the needs of the evolving global consumers market. In this new state of affairs, the forces of economic globalization do not have a vested interest in the global spread of English. They have a short-term interest in penetrating local markets through local languages and a long-term interest in turning these languages into commodified tools of communication. Indeed, some of the major players in the global economy—most importantly the software industry—already understand this and are working to achieve that goal. Thus, the very same global economic pressures that are traditionally assumed to push the global expansion of English may actually be working to strengthen a significant set of other languages—at the expense of English. The potential result of this process is neither imposed Englishization nor negotiated multilingualism but a specific pattern of imposed multilingualism: local linguistic variability imposed and controlled by the economic center. This possible development raises serious questions regarding the political economy of language, most prominently the question of the future ownership of languages as tools for communication and as global and local commodities.

The Internet and Its Languages

In the formative years of the Internet as a global phenomenon, the complete dominance of English on the Net was regularly viewed as the ultimate demonstration of just how pervasive the process of global Englishization is (Crystal 1997, 2001). In 1997, for example, 45 million English speakers were using the Net, whereas the number of non-English-speaking users was 16 million (Global Reach n.d.). In 1999, sociolinguist Joshua Fishman (1998-99: 26) referred to such statistics in asserting that "There are . . . reasons to believe that the English language will eventually wane in influence," but "[its] expansive reach is undeniable and, for the time being, unstoppable":

[English is the language] of the lion's share of the world's books, academic papers, newspapers, and magazines. American radio, television, and blockbuster films export English-language pop culture worldwide. More than 80 percent of the content posted on the Internet is in English, even though an estimated 44 percent of online users speak another language in the home. . . . Predominantly English-speaking countries account for approximately 40 percent of the world's total gross domestic product. More and more companies worldwide are making English competency a prerequisite for promotions or appointments. The success of politicians around the world also increasingly depends on their facility in English. When newly elected German chancellor...