Encyclopedia
English is a widely distributed language that originated in
England but is now the primary language in numerous countries. It is extensively used as a second language and as an official language in many other countries, is the most widely taught and understood language in the world, and is sometimes described as a lingua franca.
An estimated 400–450 million people speak English as their first language. One recent estimate is that 1.9 billion people, nearly a third of the world's population, have a basic proficiency in English . English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and the
Internet. It has been one of the official languages of the
United Nations since its founding in 1945.
English is a
West Germanic language which developed from
Old English, the language of the
Anglo-Saxons. As a result of the
Norman Conquest and other events in
English history, it has been heavily influenced, more than any other
Germanic language, by
French and
Latin. From England it spread to the rest of the
British Isles, then to the colonies and territories of the
British Empire such as the
United States,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, and others, particularly those in the Anglophone Caribbean. As a result of these historical developments English is the official language in many countries formerly under British or American rule, such as
Pakistan,
Ghana,
India,
Nigeria,
South Africa,
Kenya, and the
Philippines.
Mandarin Chinese and
Hindi have more native speakers than English does; however, the geographic distribution of Mandarin and Hindi, as both first and second languages, is much more limited than that of English. English is also the most widely spoken of the Germanic languages. English was spread to many parts of the world through the expansion of the
British Empire, but it did not acquire a lingua franca status in other parts of the world until the late 20th century. Following
World War II the economic and cultural influence of the
United States increased dramatically and English permeated other cultures, chiefly through the development of
telecommunications technology. Because a working knowledge of English is required in many fields and occupations, education ministries around the world mandate the teaching of English to at least a basic level .
History
English is an
Anglo-Frisian language brought to southeastern
Great Britain in the 5th century AD by
Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest
Germany as well as
Denmark .
The original
Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the
Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of the British Isles in the eighth and ninth centuries. The second wave was of the
Normans in the eleventh century, who spoke
Norman .
While modern scholarship considers most of the story to be legendary and politically motivated, the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that around the year 449, Vortigern, a legendary king of the
Brythons, invited the
Angles to help him against the
Picts . In return, the Angles were granted lands in the southeast and far north of
England. Further aid was sought, and in response came
Saxons, Angles, and
Jutes. The
Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established
seven kingdoms.
These Germanic invaders dominated the original
Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survive largely in
Scotland,
Wales,
Brittany,
Cornwall, and
Ireland. The dialects spoken by the invaders dominated what is now modern England and formed what is today called the
Old English language, which resembled some coastal dialects in what are now northwest Germany and the
Netherlands . Later, it was strongly influenced by the closely related
North Germanic language
Old Norse, spoken by the
Vikings who settled mainly in the northeast and the east coast down to London .
For about 300 years following the
Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only Anglo-Norman. A large number of Norman words found their way into Old English, leaving an unusual parallel vocabulary which persists into modern times. The Norman influence strongly affected the evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English.
During the
15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of
William Shakespeare.
Classification and related languages
The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the
Germanic branch which is itself a branch of the
Indo-European family of languages.
The question as to which is the nearest living relative of English is a matter of some discussion. Apart from such English-lexified creole languages such as Tok Pisin and Bislama,
Scots — which is spoken primarily in
Scotland and parts of
Northern Ireland — is the Germanic variety most closely associated with English. Like English, Scots ultimately descends from Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. The closest relative to English after Scots is
Frisian, which is spoken in the Northern
Netherlands and Northwest
Germany. Other less closely related living
West Germanic languages include
German itself,
Low German,
Dutch and
Afrikaans, which is descended from Dutch. The
North Germanic languages and
Gothic are less closely related to English than the West Germanic languages.
Many
French words are also intelligible to an English speaker because English absorbed a large vocabulary from French, via the
Norman after the
Norman conquest and directly from French in further centuries. As a result, a substantial share of English vocabulary is quite close to French, with some minor spelling differences , as well as occasional divergences in meaning.
Geographical distribution
According to the
World Factbook, aided with Aneki, and the
Guinness World Records English is currently the 2nd most commonly spoken language in the world. It has over 500 million speakers. It is behind only
Chinese, which distributes a colossal 1 Billion plus speakers. English is today the third most widely distributed language as a first spoken language in the world, after
Mandarin and
Hindi . Something around 600 million people use the various dialects of English regularly. About 377 million people use one of the versions of English as their mother tongue, and a similar number of people use one of them as their second or foreign language as well. English is used widely in either the public or private sphere in more than 100 countries all over the world. In addition, the language has occupied a prominent place in international academic and business communities. The current status of the English language at the start of the new millennium compares with that of
Latin in most of Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. English is also the most widely used language for young backpackers who travel across continents, regardless of whether it is their mother tongue or a secondary language.
Although the language is named after England, the United States now has more first-language English speakers than the rest of the world combined. The United Kingdom comes second, with England indeed having as many English speakers as the rest of the world combined . Canada is third, and Australia fourth, with those four comprising 95% of native English speakers. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language,
India has the most such speakers and now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country. India is followed by
China, the Phillipines, Germany and the United States .
English is the primary language in
Anguilla,
Antigua and Barbuda,
Australia , the
Bahamas,
Barbados ,
Bermuda,
Belize, the
British Indian Ocean Territory, the
British Virgin Islands,
Canada , the
Cayman Islands,
Dominica, the
Falkland Islands,
Gibraltar,
Grenada,
Guernsey,
Guyana,
Isle of Man,
Jamaica ,
Jersey,
Montserrat,
New Zealand ,
Ireland ,
Pitcairn Islands,
Saint Helena,
Saint Lucia,
Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,
Trinidad and Tobago, the
Turks and Caicos Islands, the
United Kingdom , the
U.S. Virgin Islands and the
United StatesEnglish is also an important minority language of
South Africa , and in several other former
colonies or current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, for example
Hong Kong,
Singapore,
Mauritius, and the
Philippines.
In Asia, former British colonies like
Hong Kong,
Singapore and
Malaysia use English as either an official language or a
de facto common language, and it is taught in all private and public schools as a mandatory subject. There is a considerable number of native English speakers in urban areas in both countries. In
Hong Kong, English is co-official with
Chinese, and is widely used in business activities. It is taught from infant school and
kindergarten, and is the medium of instruction for a few
primary schools, many
secondary schools and all
universities. Substantial numbers of students reach native-speaker fluency. It is so widely used that it is inadequate to say that it is merely a second or foreign language, though there is still a percentage of people in Hong Kong with poor or little command of English.
The majority of English native speakers live in the United States . Although the
U.S. Federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments, all but three of which have declared English their sole official language.
In many other countries, where English is not a first language, it is an official language; these countries include
Belize,
Cameroon,
Fiji, the
Federated States of Micronesia,
Ghana,
Gambia,
India,
Kiribati,
Lesotho,
Liberia,
Kenya,
Namibia,
Nigeria,
Malta, the
Marshall Islands,
Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines,
Rwanda, the
Solomon Islands,
Samoa,
Sierra Leone,
Sri Lanka,
Swaziland,
Tanzania,
Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
English is the most widely learned and used foreign language, and as such, some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of 'native English speakers', but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. Others believe there are limits to how well English can go in suiting everyone for communication purposes. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the
European Union , followed by French , German , and Spanish . It is also the most studied in
China,
Japan,
South Korea and
Taiwan. English is also compulsory for most
secondary school students in
China and
Taiwan. See English as an additional language.
English as a global language
- See also: English on the Internet and global language
Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the
lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport and maritime communication, as well as being one of the official languages of both the
European Union and the
United Nations, and of most international athletic organizations, including the Olympic Committee. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.
Dialects and regional varieties
The influence of the British Empire, and Commonwealth of Nations, as well as the primacy of the United States, especially since WWII, has spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.
The major varieties of English each include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney slang within
British English,
Newfoundland English, and the English spoken by Anglo-Québecers within Canadian English, and African American Vernacular English and Southern English within
American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's
Académie française; and although no variety is clearly considered the only standard, there are a number of accents considered as more formal, such as Received Pronunciation in Britain or the
Bostonian dialect in the U.S.
Scots 
