where does one derive legitimacy for things such as language? take english, for example, if you count just purely from numbers then by right the people of the indian subcontinent ought to dictate the terms. but if you count it from the peoples having used it the longest, why isn’t British English the standard used throughout the world? or is it the time old adage of power and resources? in that case, America, which only a portion of the population actually descended from English speaking peoples gets outsized influence on how the language is used all throughout the world..