English language
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English is a West Germanic language originating in England, is the first language for most people in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations, in countries such as in India or South Africa, as well as in many international organizations.
Modern English is sometimes described as the world lingua franca.[1] English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, and diplomacy and also on the Internet. It has been one of the official languages of the United Nations since its founding in 1945 and is considered by many to be on its way to becoming the world's first universal language.[2]
The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the language's initial spread far beyond the British Isles.[3] Following World War II, the increased economic and cultural influence of the United States led to English permeating many other cultures, chiefly through development of telecommunications technology.[4] Because a working knowledge of English is required in many fields, professions, and occupations, education ministries throughout the world mandate the teaching of English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching) in an effort to increase the competitiveness of their economies.
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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 (Saxons, Angles) as well as Jutland (Jutes).
Prior to the invasion of Britain by these Germanic tribes, the native Britons spoke an early form of Brythonic (the ancestor of Modern Welsh). Unlike in Gaul and Hispania, the indigenous population did not adopt Latin as a native language during the Roman occupation, where it was mainly confined to the Roman cities and garrisons. The degree to which the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants remained or were displaced by the Germanic invaders is a matter of some debate . Recent genetic studies together with a re-evaluation of archaeological evidence suggest that the native Celtic population were not substantially displaced in any part of Britain.[5] If correct, this interpretation of events would imply that the native Celts in the south and east of Britain, gradually adopted the language and culture of a politically and socially dominant ruling class. (see Sub-Roman Britain). Celtic languages survived in parts of the island not colonised by the invaders: Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and, to some extent, Cumbria.
The dialects spoken by the invaders eventually coalesced to a degree and formed what is today called the Old English language, which resembled some coastal dialects in what are now northwest Germany and the Netherlands (i.e. Frisia). Throughout the history of written Old English, it remained a highly synthetic language based on a single standard, while spoken Old English became increasingly analytic in nature, losing the more complex noun case system, with a heavier reliance on prepositions and fixed word-order. This is evident in the Middle English period, when literature is first recorded in the various spoken dialects of English of the time, after written Old English lost its status as the literary language of the nobility. It has been postulated that the early development of the language may have also been influenced by a Celtic substratum.[6][7] Later, it was influenced by the related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north and the east coast down to London, the area known as the Danelaw.
Then came the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. For about 300 years following, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only Anglo-Norman, which was very close to Old French. A large number of Norman words found their way into Old English. Later, a large number of words were borrowed directly from Latin and Greek, especially for scientific and technical terms, leaving a parallel vocabulary that 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. Early Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. Read full article here[1]
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, Scots (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. The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia 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 Norman and French, via Anglo-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, in so called "faux amis", or false-friends.
Geographical distribution
Over 380 million people speak English as their first language. English today is variously estimated as the second, third, or fourth largest language by number of native speakers. All estimates have it trailing Mandarin Chinese, and other estimates are mixed as to whether it outranks Hindi, Spanish, and a combination of the various Arabic dialects.[8][9] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second behind a combination of the Chinese languages.[10][11] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[12][13] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[14]
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), United Kingdom (58 million), Canada (17.6 million), Australia (17.5 million), Ireland (3.8 million), and New Zealand (3.4 million).[15][16][17][18][19] Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and it has been claimed that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[20] Following India are the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Nigeria, and Germany.[21][22][23][24]
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, 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, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Ireland (Hiberno-English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, 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, the United States (various forms of American English), and Zimbabwe.
In many other countries, where English is not a first language, it is an official language; these countries include 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, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa ("South African English"). English is also an important language in several former colonies or current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, such as in Hong Kong and Mauritius.
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%).[25] It is also the most studied in the People's Republic of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.[citation needed]
It is worth noting that English is not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.[26][27] Although the U.S. federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 25 of the 50 state governments.[28] For further reading see Wikipedia[2]
See Also
References
- Baugh, Albert C.; Thomas Cable (2002). A history of the English language, 5th ed., Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28099-0.
- Bragg, Melvyn (2004). The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-710-0.
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (2006). The Classics of Style: The Fundamentals of Language Style from Our American Craftsmen, 1st ed., The American Academic Press. ISBN 0-9787282-0-3.
- Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53032-6.
- Crystal, David (2004). The Stories of English. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9752-4.
- Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
- Halliday, MAK (1994). An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed., London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-340-55782-6.
- Hayford, Harrison; Howard P. Vincent (1954). Reader and Writer. Houghton Mifflin Company.
- McArthur, T. (ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-214183-X.
- Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8047-2221-8.
