English is made up of words from many languages. words and phrases seemed to show up out of nowhere in the various former colonies as local languages were absorbed. Plus we have the bonus of dual words for lots of things, a carry over from when the rulers and clergy were all speaking Norman French and everybody else was still muttering in Saxon, Dane, or Welsh / Scot Gaelic for a hundred plus years.
It’s a miracle...
English is the collective collaboration, originally, of words from ancient Celtic languages, German directly and from the Germanic languages of the Angles and the Saxons, as well as the Scandanavian languages of the Norse and the Danes (both of which were derived from Germanic tribes that gradually moved north of what we call Germany today), and Latin from the Romans and the Continental (Frankish) Norman (Norse/French/Latin) from Normandy; as well as loan words from outside each of those languages that had previously entered them from many other languages.
One of the greatest assets of English has been its constant and ongoing adaptations from other languages.
Meanwhile poor France has tried to turn French into “legal” and “illegal” French, and spends billions promoting and preserving French, to no avail, while English with all its as hoc additions just marches on.
I am fully expecting that in time (100-200 years) English will be the primary spoken language in India and China. That is not an “imperialistic” motive.
Chinese has many dialects and India has many (100s) of languages. When there is a situation with so many possible languages, one that is neither a native minority language, nor a native dominant langauge, like a learned outside language it can provide a less prejudiced language change that all can find a common use of without feeling they are showing favoritism between the many possible “native” languages. This works quite well in India today, in business, academia and the professions, where a native language or dialect still spoken at home, is often set aside during the workday for English which most of one’s peers - no matter the language of their parents - will understand. Yes, right now it seems sort of a “class” prejudice, as it is less common among common laborers, farmers and others, and more common where higher education was needed. I think time will spread the use of English in India, not slow it.