Final answer:
The process where English-speakers settled in North America and displaced the indigenous languages is known as language displacement. It occurs due to colonialism, imperialism, and socio-economic factors, leading to the decline of local languages. Technological and cultural dominance by English speakers further promotes the use of English globally.
Step-by-step explanation:
When English speakers settled in North America, replacing the languages previously spoken in the areas of penetration, they participated in language displacement. This term refers to the process where a dominant language leads to the decline or disappearance of a local or indigenous language.
This phenomenon is often a result of colonialism and imperialism, where native populations are forced to abandon their language and culture. Examples include Native Americans being pushed into reservations and obliged to attend boarding schools that prohibited their native languages.
Similar occurrences happened in Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Various factors beyond direct force, such as economic opportunities, also encourage the shift towards the dominant language, as seen by parents urging children to adopt a new language for better prospects.
The English language has expanded its dominance due to technological innovations like air travel and the internet, originally developed by English speakers. Moreover, cultural forces such as Hollywood and American pop music have bolstered the proliferation of English around the globe.
In areas less accessible due to geography, like high mountains and islands, linguistic isolation has allowed some languages to survive where military conquest was unfeasible, maintaining linguistic diversity. However, most aboriginal languages are in danger of dying out because of the dominance of English and other colonial languages that have become the language of government and education in postcolonial contexts.