An online debate sponsored by The Economist magazine has brought up this thorny question. So far, participants are answering with a resounding “no.”

Just about everything can take place online, including old-fashioned Oxford-style debates. The subject, or resolution, posed this week by The Economist in its weekly debate feature is:

“This house believes that the English-speaking world should adopt American English.”

The Economist is a British magazine, so it is not surprising that the current online vote on the topic is 30% for, 70% against.

I would think, though, that almost everybody would be against standardizing English worldwide. What possible arguments could be brought up to defend the idea?

Michael Agnes, Editor in Chief of Webster's New World Dictionaries, kicked off the debate, defending the proposal with the following argument: “The ever-growing global spread of English in general has no visible barrier in sight. The advantages of streamlining international communication by making it more uniform (and thus more reliable) would feed this surge.”

He continued by defending the need for a single English dialect – American, of course – for air traffic control; pointed out the flexibility of American English, and argued that American English best reflects technological and scientific innovation in the world.

It is worth nothing that these debates are for intellectual purposes only, and may not reflect the personal opinion of the participants!

The complete debate, with the final vote, will be available in the magazine’s online debate archives at the end of the week.

Language Translation, Inc., based in San Diego, California, offers language services such as translation and interpretation in over 40 languages.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
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