(06-04-2014 03:34 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(06-04-2014 03:21 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I'd place the UK at the very top. We owe more to them, and they more to themselves and Saxons, than anything from the Roman Empire.

You could make a solid argument for neither the UK or US owing much, or even being related to, the Romans.

one of the most interesting debates I have had is "who is most responsible for the spread of the english language? US or UK"

personally I think it is the US and & here is why

culturally with our music, movie, & software output that is the single biggest reason why the rest of the world speaks english.

at the same time the english language has 5X as many words today than in the days of shakespeare. most of the new words came after 1776, of which the 1980s and beyond has the single largest increase. a large % of these new words were coined as a result of american inventions and have become standards in other languages.

while we owe a lot to them there is a lot that IMO they owe us as well.

There are three major components to the spread of English IMO. They are:

- Control of the Seas
- Inventing Air Travel and Establishing its standards
- Computing

Clearly, Great Britain owned the first one which the US continues to maintain today. The second one originated in the US while the third one is a bit harder to parse. If you consider what Turning and Babbage did early computing then obviously you have to give it to Great Britain.