Have you ever wondered why millions of people across Africa and Asia speak European languages today?
When countries were colonised, their people were often forbidden from using their own languages in schools and government — which still shapes the world now.
In Ireland, British rule nearly wiped out the Irish language; today, communities work hard to bring it back.
When you finish, try finding one word in English that actually came from a colonised culture — you might be surprised where it leads.
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A World of Missing Voices
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A World of Missing Voices
Look at a world map showing the most widely spoken languages. Spanish dominates South America. English covers vast parts of Africa, South Asia, and Oceania. French stretches across West Africa. Have you ever wondered why? These continents have thousands of their own languages — yet a handful of European ones became dominant. Something powerful happened to cause this shift. What do you think it was?
💭 Think about this
Think of a language spoken in your country or a country you know about. Do you think it was always the main language there, or might something have changed its status over time? What could cause a language to grow or disappear?
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A World of Missing Voices
🗺️🧭🌍📍
A World of Missing Voices
Look at a world map showing the most widely spoken languages. Spanish dominates South America. English covers vast parts of Africa, South Asia, and Oceania. French stretches across West Africa. Have you ever wondered why? These continents have thousands of their own languages — yet a handful of European ones became dominant. Something powerful happened to cause this shift. What do you think it was?
💭 Think about this
Think of a language spoken in your country or a country you know about. Do you think it was always the main language there, or might something have changed its status over time? What could cause a language to grow or disappear?
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Language as an Instrument of Power
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is the process by which one country takes political and economic control over another territory and its people, usually by force or coercion. Between roughly the 15th and 20th centuries, European nations — particularly Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands — colonised large parts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.
Language was central to colonial control. Colonial governments typically made their own language the official language of law, education, trade, and government. Children in colonised territories were often forced to attend schools where only the colonial language was used. In some places, speaking an — a language native to that land and its original people — was punished. This policy was not accidental. Suppressing a people's language was a way of suppressing their culture, identity, and sense of self-worth.
The consequences were severe. Many indigenous languages lost speakers rapidly. Some became endangered, meaning very few people still speak them. Others became extinct — the last speaker died and the language was lost forever. Linguists estimate that roughly half of the world's approximately 7,000 languages are endangered today, and colonisation is one of the key historical reasons.
At the same time, colonial languages gained millions of new speakers and became global s — shared languages used between people who do not share a mother tongue. English became the dominant language of international business, science, and diplomacy partly because of Britain's colonial reach. Spanish became the primary language across most of Latin America because of Spanish conquest, replacing or pushing aside hundreds of indigenous languages such as Quechua, Nahuatl, and Guaraní.
However, language contact during colonisation was not simply one-way. Colonial languages absorbed thousands of words from indigenous languages. English took 'canoe' from Arawakan languages of the Caribbean, 'chocolate' from Nahuatl (spoken by the Aztecs), and 'bungalow' from Bengali. This borrowing shows that even under oppression, indigenous languages left permanent marks on their colonisers' tongues.
Today, many communities and governments are engaged in — active efforts to teach, document, and restore languages that were suppressed. New Zealand has invested heavily in te reo Māori, making it an official language and funding Māori-medium schools. Wales has revived Welsh through legislation and education. These efforts show that language loss is not inevitable — but reversing it requires deliberate, sustained work.
Worked example
Consider the case of the Māori language (te reo Māori) in New Zealand. When British settlers colonised New Zealand from the early 19th century, English became the language of government and education. Māori children were punished for speaking their own language at school. By the mid-20th century, te reo Māori was severely endangered — few young people spoke it fluently. However, from the 1980s onwards, the Māori community established 'kōhanga reo' (language nests) — early childhood centres where children were immersed in te reo Māori. In 1987, the language was made an official language of New Zealand. Today, te reo Māori is taught in schools and used in media and government. This example shows both the damage colonisation can do to a language and the power of revitalisation efforts to reverse that damage.
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Check Your Understanding
Try it yourself
Read each question carefully and choose the best answer. Think about what you have just learned before selecting your response.
1. Why did colonial governments make their own language the official language of law and education in territories they controlled?
2. Which of the following best describes a 'lingua franca'?
3. The English word 'chocolate' comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. What does this fact demonstrate about language contact during colonisation?
4. Approximately how many of the world's roughly 7,000 languages are considered endangered today?
5. New Zealand established 'kōhanga reo' (language nests) and gave te reo Māori official status. How do these actions relate to the concept of language revitalisation, and why does revitalisation matter?
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Bringing It Together
Colonisation spread certain languages by force, making them the official languages of law, education, and trade — often punishing people for using their own indigenous languages.
Colonisation is a major reason why roughly half of the world's 7,000 languages are endangered or extinct today.
Language revitalisation — through community schools, official recognition, and dedicated programmes — can help restore suppressed languages, as seen with te reo Māori in New Zealand.
1. A student says: 'The spread of English worldwide is just a natural result of it being a useful language — colonisation has nothing to do with it.' Which response best challenges this claim?
🌱 Reflect
Think about a language you speak or know about. Can you find any words in it that were borrowed from another language during a period of contact or colonisation? What does that tell you about the language's history?
