User:Olena Lastovych
Insert non-formatted text here English as a World Language
1. General information
English is a Germanic language. Like German and Dutch it belongs to the western branch of Germanic languages. English is the most widespread language in the world and official language of most international organizations. English applies as a world language. Today English is spoken world-wide from approximately 340 million people as a native language, that is approximately 340 million people are Anglophones. If you add also the bilinguals, than there are about 510 million English speaker.Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, airlines, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the most widely learned second language in the world, although other languages such as French and Spanish also retain much importance worldwide.
2. History of the English Language A short history of the origins and development of English The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.
Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century. Old English (450-1100 AD)
Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English. The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100. Middle English (1100-1500)
An example of Middle English by Chaucer. In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today. Modern English Early Modern English (1500-1800) Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.
Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published. Late Modern English (1800-Present) The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. Varieties of English From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English). Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. The Germanic Family of Languages
English is a member of the Germanic family of languages. Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family. A brief chronology of English 55 BC Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. Local inhabitants speak Celtish AD 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain. 436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete. 449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins 450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old English 1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England. c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English. Middle English 1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools. 1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time. c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales. c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins. 1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press. Early Modern English 1564 Shakespeare is born. 1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published. 1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established. 1616 Shakespeare dies. 1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published 1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London. 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary. 1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence. 1782 Britain abandons its colonies in what is later to become the USA. 1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary. Late Modern English 1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded. 1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published.
3. English as a world language
English is only in the course of the last hundred years that English is become a world language. In Shakespeare's time it was a provincial language of secondary importance with only 6 million native speakers. Nowadays English has-become the world's most important language in politics, science. It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic It is also spoken as a second l-ge by many people in India, Pakistan.
The working languages of the United nations are English and French. All documents are written only in the working languages. English has become now the language of international communication. At present no other language on Earth is better suited to play the role of world language. People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learnt it as their native language, those who have learnt it as a second language in a society which is mainly bilingual and those who are force to use it for a practical purpose - professional or educational. Nowadays when science and technology are progressing so fast all kind of specialists need English in their work. In the following countries English is the official language:
Antigua and Barbuda Barbados Belize Botswana Cameroon Canada Commonwealth of Australia Dominica Fiji Ghana Grenada Guyana India Ireland Jamaica Kenya Kiribati Lesotho Liberia Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Micronesia Namibia Nauru New Zealand Nigeria Pakistan Papua New Guinea Rwanda Salomon Seychelles Sierra Leone Simbabwe Singapore South Africa St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadinen Swaziland Tanzania The Bahamas The Gambia The Philippines Trinidad and Tobago Tuvalu Uganda United Kingdom United States of America Vanuatu Zambia
4. Linguistic classification Linguistic classification the English belongs to the Indo-European languages which showed originally very strongly inflecting characteristic features. All Indo-European languages show more or less this characteristic until today. However, there is a tendency away from inflecting and towards isolating forms in all these languages. Into English this tendency has particularly been coined, so that it has strongly turned in the course of its development in the nature. However, there is a tendency away from inflecting and towards isolating forms in all these languages. This tendency has particularly been coined into English, so that it has strongly turned in the course of its development in the nature. Today the English language carries mainly isolating characteristic and resembles structurally partly stronger isolating languages like the Chinese as the genetically closely related languages like the German. Today, moreover, the language has divided itself by the long spreading in many dialects. Many European languages also form completely new notions on the basis of the English language (Anglicisms). Also in some technical languages the terms are stamped by Anglicisms, e.g., in the areas of Informatics and economy. The Language code is en or close (after ISO 639); the code for Oldenglish (approximately 450 to 1100) is ang and the code for Middlenglish (approximately 1100 to 1500) is enm.
5.Linguistic variants of the English language Due to the world-wide spreading of the English, this language has developed many variants of its structure in different regions. The most famous and strangest variant of the English is a Pidginise. It means that a language begins to divide itself several languages which are hardly compatible together. There are following linguistic variants: Afro-American English American English Australian English (also "Strine") British English English of New Zealand Hawaiian English Hiberno English (in Ireland) Hong Kong English Indian English Jamaican English Canadian English Caribbean English Liberian English Malaysian English (also Manglish) Philippine English Scottish English Scots (do not mistake with below named!) Singapore English (also Singlish) South African English Welsh English