The Doyen of English - David Crystal - Live in Chennai @ British Council, Chennai

The Three Revolutions in English 

Insights from the Legendary Prof. David Crystal in Chennai

A Report

12 October 2004

It's not always that one gets to sit face to face with the modern day Professor Higgins, the doyen of contemporary English language, a paradigm of excellence, a scholar beyond compare - David Crystal! and how! with two impactful and enlightening lectures with the legend - as we both were in rapt attention (buddy Prem and I, call us LASER babus if you may!) both at the British Council Premises, Chennai and at Anna University Auditorium, Chennai respectively. 

Well, again, we both, like many other curious bees on the audience, were able to raise a couple of pertinent questions on language, to appreciative and brilliant replies from this wizard of sorts!

 

David Crystal in Chennai: The Three Revolutions of English and the Art of Language Play

“English has become a tool to get a job done, and a standard that ensures mutual intelligibility.”

With these words, the legendary linguist David Crystal addressed a rapt audience of scholars and educators from across Chennai’s teaching community. His lecture offered a profound look at the evolving landscape of global linguistics, balancing sobering statistics with his trademark wit and deep appreciation for language play.

Crystal framed our current linguistic era around three major revolutions that have reshaped the English language over the last decade:

The Emergence of a Global Language: English has transcended its origins, diversifying into as many distinct forms and dialects as there are countries that speak it.

The Global Language Crisis: In a sobering reality check, Crystal lamented that half of the world’s 6,000 languages are critically endangered and likely to vanish this century. To put this into perspective, one language dies every two weeks. Authenticating this crisis, he noted that 96 percent of the world’s languages are spoken by a mere 4 percent of the global population.

The Advent of Electronic Communication: The digital revolution has fundamentally altered language dominance. Crystal pointed out that in 1997, English comprised 80 percent of all web content. By 2000, it had dropped to 70 percent, and in 2004, it fell below the 50 percent mark for the first time, reflecting a more multilingual internet.

Moving from macro-linguistics to the mechanics of the craft, Crystal offered fascinating insights for language enthusiasts and educators alike.

He championed the concept of “language play,” citing extreme constraints like Ernest Vincent Wright’s novel written entirely without the letter ‘e’, or the formidable challenge of crafting sentences where every word shares the same vowel. Much to the delight of the audience, Crystal even read the first chapter of Genesis using words that started exclusively with the letter ‘a’.

This playfulness, he argued, is not just for novelists. “You are paid for playing with language,” he noted, pointing out that modern advertising slogans are today’s punchiest linguistic expressions. Yet, true comprehension requires cultural immersion. Citing a sports column headline - ”Pain stops Play” - he explained that without cultural context, the layered meaning is lost.

Ultimately, he elevated the role of the writer: “Literature is the most sophisticated use of language that we have.” Any function of literature, he argued, can be beautifully conveyed through the intentional manipulation of language.

For those of us in the classroom, Crystal’s message was particularly resonant: Language teaching should be a humanising experience; if it isn’t, it is a waste. He illustrated how the closeness of language to literature can be bridged through interactive games, such as holding a conversation entirely in questions, or experimenting with structural markers like fortunately, although, sadly, and frankly to break the monotony of the over-used ‘and’.

He also touched upon cultural specificity in language acquisition, noting how a reluctance to express feelings publicly in cultures like Japan impacts the L2 learning context.

The lecture was not without its moments of brilliant levity. Discussing phonetics, Crystal noted that we round our lips on only three occasions: for baby talk (which he playfully mimicked), for animals, and for our most intimate associates—an enunciation that had the entire hall in splits.

The ethos of any classroom, Crystal concluded, must be a playful one.

He left the audience with a powerful prediction regarding our own linguistic trajectory: “The future of Indian English is the future of Indian power. After the US, India is the only country that can command the field of Information Technology. That will come from their power over Indian English.” According to Crystal, the signs of this shift are already all around us.

It is a remark that augurs incredibly well for the future of Indian English and the students we guide every day.

P.S. Featured below is a scanned image of a cherished keepsake - an autographed note from the great David Crystal himself. A truly memorable lecture, capped off by an unforgettable autograph!