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And exactly why does America speak English, when a few centuries ago it was filled with native speakers of many other languages that are now very rare today? B
by MrEldritch 7y ago
And exactly why does America speak English, when a few centuries ago it was filled with native speakers of many other languages that are now very rare today?
Because the British Empire (and the Spanish and French empires) killed a great many of them, and forcibly imported their own cultures, people, and languages.
Which is unquestionably imperialism, and undoubtedly cultural. Hence: cultural imperialism.
If it weren't for cultural imperalism, the only native English speakers would be the population of the UK, which is about on par with Germany.
;-)
- xxpor 7y agoMore recently, the US had a good number of German speakers too. Then WWI happened and people didn't want to be associated with Germany any more.
- mrkstu 7y agoPedantically the residents of England speak would be speaking Brittonic too minus cultural imperialism. Making up artificial delineations on arbitrary segmentation of time gets a bit wearying. Various cultures have their time in the sun and then retreat- it’s as old as humanity itself.