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6 answers

Simple. It's the current economic, political and cultural dominance of the U.S. and, more widely, the English-speaking nations. Two thousand years ago it was Latin (in the Western world) thanks to the dominance of the Romans. Somewhere down the road it may be Mandarin or Hindi, though the Indian emergence actually bodes well for English, which has long been the language of the educated elites in India.
Anyway, English is the world's lingua franca because English speakers are currently at the top of the heap.

2006-09-13 02:26:21 · answer #1 · answered by x 7 · 0 0

English became a dominant language beyond it's borders due to British colonialism and the U.S choosing English over any other language. Media a nd communications were developed in English speaking countries. Basically it had to be one. But I was recently working in an ex soviet republic (Uzbekistan) and English is behind Uzbek and Russian in popularity, but most business is not. English got biggest first I suppose I'm trying to say.
P.S The Dutch were involved with many foreign countries for centuries but concentrated on trade, not colonising.

2006-09-13 09:20:39 · answer #2 · answered by cobra 7 · 0 0

because it's kind of a "universal" language. Although it's not spoken by the majority of the world's population, it's a language that will get you where you want in every country in the world.

2006-09-13 09:22:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Because all the countries that conduct any kind of real business speak English.

2006-09-13 09:20:05 · answer #4 · answered by jymsis 5 · 0 1

b'coz it is a universal language.

2006-09-13 09:48:03 · answer #5 · answered by Anil Verma 1 · 0 0

i guess cause its more commonly used

2006-09-13 09:25:28 · answer #6 · answered by AM 3 · 0 0

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