English functions today as a global hegemonic post-clerical Latin.

Evidence

By the end of 2007, the book (henceforward to be referred to as IC) will have been published in thirty-three countries and in twenty-nine languages. This spread has much less to do with its qualities than with its original publication in London, in the English language, which now serves as a kind of global-hegemonic, post-clerical Latin. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 781

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘post-clerical Latin’ comparison names the mechanism by which publication origin language determines a text’s global reach.
• XREF: connects to: A language’s active ‘imperial’ voice shapes how its intellectual tools impose agency. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 828

Related

• A language’s active ‘imperial’ voice shapes how its intellectual tools impose agency. (similarity 0.82)
• English serves as the carrier medium of cultural and linguistic imperialism in globalization (similarity 0.81)
• The spread of translations shows no West-to-periphery time gradient. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• A language’s active ‘imperial’ voice shapes how its intellectual tools impose agency. #expands (0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 828