Which type of diffusion has had the biggest impact on the spread of English across the globe ? (think colonization and internet usage)

Question

-Maladaptive Diffusion

-Hierarchical Diffusion

-Relocation Diffusion

-Stimulus Diffusion

-Contagious Diffusion

Answer 1

Interesting question. American English has become the international language for a variety of reasons.

For one thing our GI's spread the language as they fought their way through Europe. Everybody loved the conquering Yanks as they freed the captive countries. After the war we brought the Marshall Plan to rebuild the European continent.

Another reason is the spread of the internet where much of the content is in English. I had a Mexican student in my ESL class who had an advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering from a Mexican university but felt he needed to upgrade his English language skills.

During one of my Fulbright gigs in a university in Minsk, I ran across a group of students having a conversation in fluent, unaccented American English. When I approached them to say how glad I was to see Americans studying there, they laughed heartily as they told me that they were from four different countries. I remember when French was the lingua franca but that is a long time ago. Now that it's American English it makes my travels much easier.

Answer 2

Commerce, economics, financial transactions requiring the same language to complete the business transaction. Economics rules. Maybe that's "hierarchical diffusion" Money rules. English was required. Now Mandarin or Chinese is coming close.

Same with Empires. The British Empire ruled the world, making English nearly mandatory for many purposes. Same with the Spanish Empire for a while. Now China is really an Empire not so much a country. America the same with more push for English.

Historically other empires brought their language to much of the world. Greek Empire made Greek nearly universal in the known world. Same with Rome and Latin.