You will have to forgive me that I have no citable sources in bringing up this topic today, only intuition and anecdote. I am traveling to Europe for several months in late July, and one thing I consider as a linguist (it goes without saying) is the language component. Europe in particular has developed a strong English-language business culture – and English is widespread therebeyond, as well.

Conversing with my foreign English-speaking friends online, it is really incredible how varied the experience of English can be. My Bavarian friend has shared a sense in which English ought to be well-defined for the sake of international communications; My French friend expresses himself with an intimacy and freedom with the language that paints him as a true language artist; My Singaporean friend, as a fully native speaker, attests an alternative cultural sense for literature and philosophy that stands abreast traditionally Anglophonic narratives, yet is just as rooted in English.

Becoming sensitive to the plurality of experiences of the English language doesn’t dislodge me from my sense of ownership of the language, but it really opens up a sense of stewardship for it. To recognize that the way I speak English (as per my schooling and childhood) is just one locus in a multi-polar world of English speakers, leaves me feeling that English is a shared resource. It is an honor to recondition myself through this awareness. Not to forsake the language as I know it, but to add to my English a register of unification and friendship with a broader world, and thereby appreciate my own “intimate” English as something distinct from that.

Language standardization has occurred in numerous contexts, usually for the sake of broadening access and/or contribution to a corpus of literature, art, religion, science, and politics. There’s German (Hochdeutsch), Mandarin (普通話), Modern Standard Arabic (العربية الفصحى), and of course English (SAE) as only a small number of examples of languages that stand taller and broader than their dialectal origins, and in most cases as a lingua franca. Of course, the precise boundaries of what these languages are is always changing and hard to pin, simply because the variety in their manner of expression is manifold, and often considered infinite. Thus, “knowing the language” can take on an equally manifold meaning.

I would encourage any native-speakers who read this to give a hearty “yes-and” to the world that speaks English within a context you haven’t known, and to become excited that there could be more to English than you thought. And with regard to what makes a native speaker, I even acknowledge a sense in which non-native speakers can still “speak natively”. I may share my take on that in another post soon!

And remember: hark and take heart! The variation within groups is often greater than the variation between them; we’re more alike than we seem 😉