English is the dominant language of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and a number of other countries. It is extensively used as a second language and as an official language in many other countries, and is the most widely taught and understood language in the world, often earning it the title 'the language of trade, academia and diplomacy'.[citation needed]
An estimated 300-400 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 [1]. 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 originated in England, and 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 (both outside and inside the current Commonwealth of Nations) 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 (sometimes one of several) 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, because the countries in which they are most common as first languages (China and India, respectively) have large populations; 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. [2] 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 (see English as an additional language).
History
Main article: History of the English language
English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to south-eastern Great Britain in the 5th century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany (Saxons, Angles) as well as Denmark (Jutes).
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 (an oïl language closely related to French).
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 (of modern-day Scotland). In return, the Angles were granted lands in the south-east 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 north-west Germany and the Netherlands (eg. Frisia). Later, it was strongly influenced by the closely related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east and the east coast down to London (see Danelaw, Jórvík).
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 (though pronunciations are often quite different) 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 (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), 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 (see the ranking). 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 comprising the plurality of its English speakers. 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 (of 'Indian English') 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 (by way of most of its speakers having it as a first language).
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados (Caribbean English), Bermuda, Belize, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Isle of Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Ireland (Hiberno-English), 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 (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands and the United States (various forms of American English)
English is also an important minority language of South Africa (South African English), 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 (67 to 70 per cent) live in the United States (Crystal, 1997). Although the U.S. Federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments, most of which have declared English their sole official language. Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have also designated Hawaiian, French, and Spanish, respectively, as official languages in conjunction with English.
In many other countries, where English is not a first language, it is an official language; these countries include Pakistan, 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 world-wide 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 (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%).[1] 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
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 (such as Time and Newsweek) 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 ("Ebonics") and Southern English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française, and so no variety is clearly considered the only standard.
Scots developed -- largely independently -- from the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially from other varieties of English.
Because of English' wide use as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers. And for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language.
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in a great many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have formed using an English base, for example Tok Pisin began as one. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English word content; it is found on the Channel Islands, and another variant spoken in the border bilingual regions of Québec in Canada is called Frenglish. Norwenglish is a form of English containg many words or expressions directly copied from Norwegian. Common European English is an undefined form of English commonly spoken in the institutions of the European Union by people whose native languages are other than English, and which is therefore full of non-standard expressions influenced by a mixture of several other languages. It is commonly believed that those who have most difficulty in understanding this form of English are the British and Irish themselves.
Constructed varieties of English
Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some aircraft manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial practical subset of English.
Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international co-operation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.
English as a lingua franca for Europe is a new variant of the English language created to become the common language in Europe, spoken in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
Manually Coded English — a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.
An estimated 300-400 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 [1]. 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 originated in England, and 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 (both outside and inside the current Commonwealth of Nations) 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 (sometimes one of several) 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, because the countries in which they are most common as first languages (China and India, respectively) have large populations; 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. [2] 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 (see English as an additional language).
History
Main article: History of the English language
English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to south-eastern Great Britain in the 5th century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany (Saxons, Angles) as well as Denmark (Jutes).
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 (an oïl language closely related to French).
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 (of modern-day Scotland). In return, the Angles were granted lands in the south-east 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 north-west Germany and the Netherlands (eg. Frisia). Later, it was strongly influenced by the closely related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east and the east coast down to London (see Danelaw, Jórvík).
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 (though pronunciations are often quite different) 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 (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), 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 (see the ranking). 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 comprising the plurality of its English speakers. 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 (of 'Indian English') 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 (by way of most of its speakers having it as a first language).
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados (Caribbean English), Bermuda, Belize, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Isle of Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Ireland (Hiberno-English), 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 (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands and the United States (various forms of American English)
English is also an important minority language of South Africa (South African English), 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 (67 to 70 per cent) live in the United States (Crystal, 1997). Although the U.S. Federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments, most of which have declared English their sole official language. Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have also designated Hawaiian, French, and Spanish, respectively, as official languages in conjunction with English.
In many other countries, where English is not a first language, it is an official language; these countries include Pakistan, 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 world-wide 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 (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%).[1] 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
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 (such as Time and Newsweek) 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 ("Ebonics") and Southern English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française, and so no variety is clearly considered the only standard.
Scots developed -- largely independently -- from the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially from other varieties of English.
Because of English' wide use as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers. And for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language.
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in a great many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have formed using an English base, for example Tok Pisin began as one. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English word content; it is found on the Channel Islands, and another variant spoken in the border bilingual regions of Québec in Canada is called Frenglish. Norwenglish is a form of English containg many words or expressions directly copied from Norwegian. Common European English is an undefined form of English commonly spoken in the institutions of the European Union by people whose native languages are other than English, and which is therefore full of non-standard expressions influenced by a mixture of several other languages. It is commonly believed that those who have most difficulty in understanding this form of English are the British and Irish themselves.
Constructed varieties of English
Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some aircraft manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial practical subset of English.
Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international co-operation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.
English as a lingua franca for Europe is a new variant of the English language created to become the common language in Europe, spoken in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
Manually Coded English — a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.
