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See also: English-speaking world and Anglosphere
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,[20][21] is the dominant language or in some instances even the required international language of communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.[22] Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late 19th century its reach was truly global.[23] Following the British colonisation of North America, it became the dominant language in the United States and in Canada. The growing economic and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the planet.[21]
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.
One impact of the growth of English has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition.[24] Conversely the natural internal variety of English along with creoles and pidgins have the potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time.[25]
[ Tags:United Nations,British Empire,Lingua Franca,Official Language,Modern English,Anglosphere,Dominant Language,International Language,British Isles,Superpower,Language Attrition,Creoles,Pidgins,United States,Canada, | |||||||||||||||||||||
| History |
Main article: History of the English language
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in the 5th century.[26] Up to that point, in Roman Britain the native population is assumed to have spoken the Celtic language Brythonic alongside the acrolectal influence of Latin, from the 400-year Roman occupation.[27]
One of these incoming Germanic tribes was the Angles,[28] whom Bede believed to have relocated entirely to Britain.[29] The names 'England' (from Engla land[30] "Land of the Angles") and English (Old English Englisc[31]) are derived from the name of this tribe—but Saxons, Jutes and a range of Germanic peoples from the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland and Southern Sweden also moved to Britain in this era.[32][33][34]
Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Great Britain[35] but one of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate, and it is in this that the poem Beowulf is written.
Old English was later transformed by two waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of the North Germanic language branch when Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless started the conquering and colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries (see Danelaw). The second was by speakers of the Romance language Old Norman in the 11th century with the Norman conquest of England. Norman developed into Anglo-Norman, and then Anglo-French - and introduced a layer of words especially via the courts and government. As well as extending the lexicon with Scandinavian and Norman words these two events also simplified the grammar and transformed English into a borrowing language—more than normally open to accept new words from other languages.
The linguistic shifts in English following the Norman invasion, produced what is now referred to as Middle English, with Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales being the best known work.
Throughout all this period Latin in some form was the lingua franca of European intellectual life, first the Medieval Latin of the Christian Church, but later the humanist Renaissance Latin, and those that wrote or copied texts in Latin[15] commonly coined new terms from Latin to refer to things or concepts for which there was no existing native English word.
Modern English, that includes the works of William Shakespeare[36] and the King James Bible, is generally dated from about 1550, and when the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others. As a result of the growth of the British Empire, English was adopted in North America, India, Africa, Australia and many other regions—a trend extended with the emergence of the United States as a superpower in the mid-20th century.
[ | Tags:Germanic,West Germanic,Latin,Oas,West Germanic Language,Anglo-saxon,England,Great Britain,Old English,Norman Conquest Of England,Middle English,Anglo-frisian,Old Saxon,Britain,Roman Britain,Celtic Language,Brythonic,Acrolectal,Roman Occupation,Angles,Bede,Saxons,Jutes,Frisia,Lower Saxony,Jutland,Sweden,Anglo-saxon Kingdoms Of Great Britain,Late West Saxon,Beowulf,North Germanic,Halfdan Ragnarsson,Ivar The Boneless,Danelaw,Romance Language,Old Norman,Anglo-norman,Anglo-french,Geoffrey Chaucer,The Canterbury Tales,Medieval Latin,Humanist,Renaissance Latin,William Shakespeare,King James Bible,Indigenous Languages,Frisian,Denmark,Netherlands,Germany,Scandinavian,French,Norman, Classification and related languages |
The English language belongs to the Anglo-Frisian sub-group of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family, a member of the Indo-European languages. Modern English is the direct descendant of Middle English, itself a direct descendant of Old English, a descendant of Proto-Germanic. Typical of most Germanic languages, English is characterised by the use of modal verbs, the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, and common sounds shifts from Proto-Indo-European known as Grimm's Law. The closest living relatives of English are the Scots language (spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Ireland), and Frisian (spoken on the southern fringes of the North Sea in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany).
After Scots and Frisian, come those Germanic languages that are more distantly related: the non-Anglo-Frisian West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese). With the exception of Scots, none of the other languages is mutually intelligible with English, owing in part to the divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology, and to the isolation afforded to the English language by the British Isles, although some such as Dutch do show strong affinities with English, especially to earlier stages of the language. Isolation has allowed English and Scots (as well as Icelandic and Faroese) to develop independently of the Continental Germanic languages and their influences over time.[37]
In addition to isolation, lexical differences between English and other Germanic languages exist due to heavy borrowing in English of words from Latin and French. For example, we say "exit" (Latin), vs. Dutch uitgang, literally "out-going" (though outgang survives dialectally in restricted usage) and "change" (French) vs. German Änderung (literally "alteration, othering"); "movement" (French) vs. German Bewegung ("be-way-ing", i.e. "proceeding along the way"); etc. Preference of one synonym over another also causes differentiation in lexis, even where both words are Germanic, as in English care vs. German Sorge. Both words descend from Proto-Germanic *karo and *surgo respectively, but *karo has become the dominant word in English for "care" while in German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages, the *surgo root prevailed. *Surgo still survives in English, however, as sorrow.
Although the syntax of English is significantly different from that of German and other West Germanic languages, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen and the Dutch Ik heb nooit iets op het plein gezien vs. English "I have never seen anything in the square"), English syntax remains extremely similar to that of the North Germanic languages, which are believed to have influenced English syntax during the Middle English Period (e.g., Danish Jeg har aldrig set noget på torvet; Icelandic Ég hef aldrei séð neitt á torginu).
The kinship with other Germanic languages can be seen in the large amount of cognates (e.g. Dutch zenden, German senden, English send; Dutch goud, German Gold, English gold, etc.). It also gives rise to false friends, see for example English time vs Norwegian time ("hour"), and differences in phonology can obscure words that really are related (tooth vs. German Zahn; compare also Danish tand). Sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit ("time") is related to English "tide", but the English word, through a transitional phase of meaning "period"/"interval", has come primarily to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon, though the original meaning is preserved in forms like tidings and betide, and phrases such as to tide over).[citation needed]
Several North Germanic words also entered English due to the settlement of Viking raiders and Danish invasions which began around the 9th century (see Danelaw). Many of these words are common words, often mistaken for being native, which shows how close-knit the relations between the English and the Scandinavian settlers were. These include such common words as anger, awe, bag, big, birth, blunder, both, cake, call, cast, cosy, cut, die, dirt, drag, drown, egg, fellow, flat, flounder, gain, get, gift, give, guess, guest, gust, hug, husband, ill, kid, law, leg, lift, likely, link, loan, loose, low, mistake, odd, race (running), raise, root, rotten, same, scale, scare, score, seat, seem, sister, skill, skin, skirt, skull, sky, stain, steak, sway, take, though, thrive, Thursday, tight, till (until), trust, ugly, want, weak, window, wing, wrong, and even the pronoun they (and its forms) and possibly are (the present plural form of to be).[citation needed] More recent Scandinavian imports include angstrom, fjord, geyser, kraken, litmus, nickel, ombudsman, saga, ski, slalom, smorgasbord, and tungsten. Dutch and Low German also had a considerable influence on English vocabulary, contributing common everyday terms and many nautical and trading terms (See below: Word Origins: Dutch and Low German origins).
Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes "‑hood", "-ship", "-dom" and "-ness". All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix "-heit" being cognate of English "-hood", while English "-dom" is cognate with German "-tum"). The Germanic languages Icelandic and Faroese also follow English in this respect, since, like English, they developed independent of German influences.
Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker, especially when they are seen in writing (as 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 subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (e.g. inflectional endings, use of old French spellings, lack of diacritics, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends: for example, compare "library" with the French librairie, which means bookstore; in French, the word for "library" is bibliothèque. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with the exception of a handful of more recently borrowed words such as mirage, genre, café; or phrases like coup d’état, rendez-vous, etc.) has become largely anglicised and follows a typically English phonology and pattern of stress (compare English "nature" vs. French nature, "button" vs. bouton, "table" vs. table, "hour" vs. heure, "reside" vs. résider, etc.).[citation needed]
[ | Tags:/,Indo-european,Scotland,Germanic Family,Indo-european Languages,Proto-germanic,Modal Verbs,Strong,Weak,Proto-indo-european,Grimm's Law,Scots Language,Ireland,North Sea,West Germanic Languages,Dutch,Afrikaans,Low German,High German,North Germanic Languages,Swedish,Danish, Geographical distribution |
See also: List of countries by English-speaking population
Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world
Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.[38] English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[13][39] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects").[6][40]
Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined and measured.[41][42] Linguistics professor David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[43]
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[44] United Kingdom (61 million),[45] Canada (18.2 million),[46] Australia (15.5 million),[47] Nigeria (4 million),[48] Ireland (3.8 million),[45] South Africa (3.7 million),[49] and New Zealand (3.6 million) 2006 Census.[50]
Countries such as the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English'). Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[51][52]
[ | Tags:Second Language,Mandarin Chinese,Spanish, Countries in order of total speakers |
Country
Total
Percent of population
First language
As an additional language
Population
Comment
United States of America
251,388,301
96%
215,423,557
35,964,744
262,375,152
Source: US Census 2000: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000, Table 1. Figure for second language speakers are respondents who reported they do not speak English at home but know it "very well" or "well". Note: figures are for population age 5 and older
India
125,344,736
12%
226,449
86,125,221 second language speakers.
38,993,066 third language speakers
1,028,737,436
Figures include both those who speak English as a second language and those who speak it as a third language. 2001 figures.[53][54] The figures include English speakers, but not English users.[55]
Nigeria
79,000,000
53%
4,000,000
>75,000,000
148,000,000
Figures are for speakers of Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based pidgin or creole. Ihemere gives a range of roughly 3 to 5 million native speakers; the midpoint of the range is used in the table. Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu. 2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin." Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(3): 296–313.
United Kingdom
59,600,000
98%
58,100,000
1,500,000
60,000,000
Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109.
Philippines
48,800,000
58%[56]
3,427,000[56]
43,974,000
84,566,000
Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew González in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487–525. (1998). Ethnologue lists 3.4 million native speakers with 52% of the population speaking it as a additional language.[56]
Canada
25,246,220
85%
17,694,830
7,551,390
29,639,030
Source: 2001 Census – Knowledge of Official Languages and Mother Tongue. The native speakers figure comprises 122,660 people with both French and English as a mother tongue, plus 17,572,170 people with English and not French as a mother tongue.
Australia
18,172,989
92%
15,581,329
2,591,660
19,855,288
Source: 2006 Census.[57] The figure shown in the first language English speakers column is actually the number of Australian residents who speak only English at home. The additional language column shows the number of other residents who claim to speak English "well" or "very well". Another 5% of residents did not state their home language or English proficiency.
Note: Total = First language + Other language; Percentage = Total / Population
[ | Tags: Countries where English is a major language |
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland , The Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, 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 and the United States.
In some countries where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the | Tags: |