Does Science Need a Global Language?

Scott L. Montgomery, CENTRAL, 501.4 M788d 2013


A fascinating book, about the spread of English around the world, and its dominance in science since WW2.

It isn't about the mechanics and structure of language, but about how Anglo-American English dominates global science (and business, and politics, and media, and ..), and how individuals in other cultures adapt in order to participate in an international process that has pretty much displaced all other languages.

The 115 year old scientific journal "Geologisches Rundschau", which became exclusively English ... then changed its name to International Journal of Earth Sciences in 1997

Multiple englishes emerging. Some journals are grammar Nazis, some tolerate small deviations from Anglo-American English.

China has many english-only journals.

prior Lingua Francas ... Greek, Latin, Arabic, "Scholar Latin"

GlobalLanguage (last edited 2018-10-17 15:02:35 by KeithLofstrom)