Associated Press has two interesting articles on the English language:
one about
how
it spread across the world, and another about
its
prospects for the future: (via rebeccablood.net)
West Africa's Englishes are peppered with regionalisms that might confound a
Nebraskan. Lagos, for example, is notorious for its maddening "go-slows" -
traffic jams. Nigerians get haircuts at "barbing saloons," refer to clothing
as "wears" and call con men "fraudsters" or the more cryptic "419s." Ghanaians
catch buzzes at taverns called "spots" (thus the mellifluous "Vicky Nicky
Snacky Spot" in Cape Coast). Liberians add an "o" to words ("I say-o -
welcome to my country-o.").
As established Englishes meet or collide with new Englishes, they hatch
something entirely fresh, something Crystal believes will become what he
calls "ISSE" - International Spoken Standard English...
His prediction: This English will be the 21st century's umbrella language -
what a Singaporean girl will use to speak to a Norwegian she meets in
Beijing, what a Milwaukee high-school student will use to e-mail pen pals
in Nairobi and Zagreb and Melbourne.