Recently, I am fascinated by an essay called The Persistence of English. In the introduction part, the author, Geoffrey Nunberg uses some figures to illustrate that English is the most widely-used language and the predominant lingua franca of most fields of international activity. However, in view of an enormous range of variation in the forms, the author raises an interesting question “why we should think of all these differences belong to a single language?”

This question drives me to think and read through the whole passage. Reviewing the history and development of English, I gradually understand that “what gives each language its unique character is the way they are realized, the particular institutions and cultural commonalties which work to smooth differences and create a basis for continued communication-which ensure that English will continue as a single language, rather than break up into a collection of dialects.”

Indeed, Alfred the great, Samuel Johnson and many institutions all made great efforts in standardizing English and maintaining its unity. Nevertheless, there is no standard made by official commissions in England, which is different from that of France and Germany. That English can be spread to so many regions may be resulted from its very flexibility from beginning to end.  

How to maintain the language unity is a complicated work. As to Chinese, many scholars also have some concerns about it. Some linguistics scholars suggest 44 Chinese characters should be regulated in accord with others of Song Style, whereas characters in other styles remain unchanged. This has led to a controversy among the public. From the public’s point of view, they consider the regulation is unnecessary, costly and will cause reading confusion. As far as I’m concerned, the regulation is a historical issue, necessary but difficult to carry out unless the public calls for change.

In all, maintaining the unity of a language is a growing pain, some time it will be realized.