English language

For other uses, see English (disambiguation).

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is
now a global lingua franca.[4][5] Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that
migrated to England, it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia (Angeln) peninsula in the
Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the Frisian languages, but its vocabulary has been
significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic
language), as well as by Latin and French.[6]

English
Pronunciation
/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Region
Worldwide
Native speakers
360–400 million (2006)[2]
L2 speakers: 400 million;
as a foreign language: 600–700 million[2]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
Anglic
English
Early forms
Old English
Middle English
Early Modern English
Writing system
Latin script (English alphabet)
English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms
Manually coded English
(multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in
67 countries
27 non-sovereign entities
Various organisations
United Nations
European Union
Commonwealth of Nations
Council of Europe
ICC
IMF
IOC
ISO
NATO
WTO
NAFTA
OAS
OECD
OIC
OPEC
GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
PIF
UKUSA Agreement
ASEAN
ASEAN Economic Community
SAARC
CARICOM
Turkic Council
ECO
Language codes
ISO 639-1
en
ISO 639-2
eng
ISO 639-3
eng
Glottolog
stan1293[3]
Linguasphere
52-ABA
Anglospeak.svg
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
Countries where English is official but not a majority native language
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English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of
English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in
the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with
the Norman conquest of England and was a period in which the language was influenced by
French.[7] Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the
printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great
Vowel Shift.[8]

Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the
world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through all types of printed and electronic media,
and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has
become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many
regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.[9]

English is the third most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and
Spanish.[10] It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language
or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more people who
have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. English is the most
commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia,
Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and
South Asia.[11] It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and
many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken
Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch.
English has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words any language has is
impossible.[12][13] English speakers are called "Anglophones".

Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European
dependent marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order
to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, a fairly fixed SVO word order and a complex
syntax.[14] Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression
of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and
some negation. Despite noticeable variation among the accents and dialects of English used
in different countries and regions – in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes
also vocabulary, grammar and spelling – English-speakers from around the world are able to
communicate with one another with relative ease.

Contents
Classification

Anglic languages
English
Scots
Anglo-Frisian languages
Anglic and
Frisian
North Sea Germanic languages Anglo-Frisian and
Low German/Low Saxon
West Germanic languages
North Sea Germanic and
Dutch
German

Phylogenetic tree showing the historical relations between the languages of the West
Germanic branch of the Germanic languages
English is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the
Germanic languages.[15] Old English originated from a Germanic tribal and linguistic
continuum along the coast of the North Sea, whose languages are now known as the Anglo-
Frisian subgroup within West Germanic. As such, the modern Frisian languages are the
closest living relatives of Modern English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related,
and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and Low German are grouped together as
the Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic) languages, though this grouping remains debated.[16]
Old English evolved into Middle English, which in turn evolved into Modern English.[17]
Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic
languages, including Scots[18] and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy (Yola) dialects
of Ireland.[19]

Like Icelandic and Faroese, the development of English on the British Isles isolated it from
the continental Germanic languages and influences, and has since undergone substantial
evolution. English is thus not mutually intelligible with any continental Germanic language,
differing in vocabulary, syntax, and phonology, although some, such as Dutch or Frisian, do
show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.[20]