none of them sound. His own figures, as the following table from his dissertation shows,[1] were against him:
English 60,000,000 German 52,000,000 Russian 45,000,000 French 45,000,000 Spanish 40,000,000
This in 1868. Before another generation had passed the lead of English, still because of the great growth of the United States, was yet more impressive, as the following figures for 1890 show:
English 111,100,000 German 75,200,000 Russian 75,000,000 French 51,200,000 Spanish 42,800,000 Italian 33,400,000 Portuguese 13,000,000[2]
Today the figures exceed even these. They show that English is now spoken by two and a half times as many persons as spoke it at the close of the American Civil War and by nearly eight times as many as spoke it at the beginning of the nineteenth century. No other language has spread in any such proportions. Even German, which is next on the list, shows but a four-fold gain since 1801, or just half that of English. The number of persons speaking Russian, despite the vast extension of the Russian empire during the last century of the czars, has little more than tripled, and the number speaking French has less than doubled. But here are the figures for 1911:
English 160,000,000 German 130,000,000 Russian 100,000,000 French 70,000,000 Spanish 50,000,000
- ↑ Is English Destined to Become the Universal Language?, by W. Brackebusch; Gottingen, 1868.
- ↑ I take these figures from A Modern English Grammar, by H. G. Buehler; New York, 1900, p. 3.
