English

Sven Martin Pettersen

1STA

2) A plausible future?
The year is 2113. If you were to take a stroll through the streets of Oslo, you would hear the beautiful language that is English chime in your ears. Children would sing Ring a ring of roses as they played in the leaves, a late autumn afternoon. The sun would set as God save the Queen was played on speakers, so that the entire city could enjoy it, all together. However, as the sun was setting and God save the Queen was sung by an entire city, there would be someone being rather displeased. In the sewers of Oslo, Christiania if you will, old adherents of an ancient language were having a tantrum. They had not welcomed the superior language with ease. These adherents had done the opposite. As communication got revolutionised with the invention of the phone and the internet, they noticed that the Norwegian language slowly lost its power. In a desperate attempt to save their dear language, they started something in their ancient language was called Sprkrdet. What does that mean? any modern human being would ask. Well, Sprkrdet was an organisation founded with the goal of stopping Norway from being influenced by England and the English language. As you may have noticed, this did not work out too well. The Norwegian people realised that English was a much more multiplex language, with over three times the words of that in the Norwegian language. Finally, the people had two different words for saying pig, one for when its alive, pig, and one for when its cooked, pork. Furthermore, when the Norwegian language was replaced with the English one, the horrible, disgusting Nor-English accent was finally deleted off of the earths surface. Left behind were two different kinds of people; the superior, English speaking ones, and the ignorant Norwegian speaking ones, refusing to embrace English. The case of which I stated above will most likely never be reality. There will never be a revolution where the inhabitants of Norway will be obligated to choose between speaking Norwegian or English. However, even though the story above was written mostly for the cause of entertaining, there might be some truth to it. The Norwegian language was never created, and will never meet its final form. Languages are unique in the way that they are being altered consequently. Every year, new words are brought into the dictionary, and every year, new sociolects are being discovered. Our language is in constant change, and to try and create something that we can call

English

Sven Martin Pettersen

1STA

Norwegian would be foolish, merely by the fact that to point at a year where Norwegian was without influence by any other language would be practically impossible. Sprkrdet is in my eyes something we should discard at the soonest possible occasion. To believe that its possible to stop a language from developing is directly ignorant. What we should do instead, is let the language develop at its own rate, no matter the consequences. I believe that the idea of having a language the entire world could speak is something we could greatly benefit from, and it would erase the term language-barrier. Im not in any way, shape or form, suggesting forcing English onto Norwegian inhabitants, as this would be the same as forcing the Norwegian language to stay the way it is. I am suggesting that we shut down Sprkrdet, and let the language develop the way languages always have developed. To summarise, I believe that the English language, in no way, shape or form, threatens the Norwegian language, as there is nothing to be threatened. Languages always have, and always will, change. Some languages will be lost, but in their place, new, perhaps better, more multiplex ones will take the formers place. To establish a council to try and preserve the Norwegian language is condemnable, as it denies the language to evolve. Languages always have, and always will, change.