English language
[[pl:J%EAzyk angielski]]
English is the Germanic language that originally developed in England. From there, it spread to the rest of the British Isles and to Britain's overseas colonies. English is probably the third or fourth most popular world language in numbers of native speakers (322,000,000 in 1999), but the most popular second and learning language in the world. The cultural, economic, military, political and scientific importance of the United States of America and the United Kingdom for the last two centuries has given English pre-eminent status as a language of international communication. It belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages.
English's closest living relative is Frisian, still spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province of Friesland, on a few islands in the North Sea, and in nearby areas of Germany. The second closest relative is the modern low saxon of the eastern Netherlands and northern Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, Afrikaans, and German. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from French after the Norman conquest (see below).
History
English descends from the language spoken by the Germanic tribes that invaded Britain during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, although it received outside influences until much later.
The principal invading Germanic tribes were Angles, Saxons and Frisians. Their Anglo-Saxon dialects developed into Old English. Although the most commonly used words today derive from those early Anglo-Saxon roots, its vocabulary was greatly influenced over time firstly by Danish invaders who spoke Old Norse, and then, to an even greater extent, by Norman invaders who spoke French.
For over two hundred years, the Norman French rulers governed and ran the church, educational and court systems in French, and French was the language of the aristocracy. As a result, English changed from its roots to such an extent that Modern English speakers cannot understand Old English. It lost most of its word inflections and gained a great deal of French vocabulary.
By about the time of the Renaissance, the language had evolved into what is known as Middle English, which Modern English speakers can understand with a little difficulty. From the late 1400s, the language changed further into what is described as Modern English. English has continued to assimilate foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, even to the present time. As a result of this history of assimilation, English today is commonly believed to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world.
In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.
Historic English text samples
Old English
From Beowulf, approximately 900 CE
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
Middle English
From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer, 14th century
Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
Early modern English
From Othello by William Shakespeare, 1603
IAGO Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience
To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO 'Tis better as it is.
Modern English
From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, by Thomas Jefferson
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
English in the world
English is the first language in Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Also, English is one of the primary languages of Belize (with Spanish), Canada, Dominica, St. Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (with French), Federated States of Micronesia, Ireland (with Irish), Liberia (with African lenguages), Singapore and South Africa (with Afrikaans and other African languages).
It is an official language, but not native, in Fiji, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta, Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands Samoa, Sierra Leone, Swazilandia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Also, English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in Europe (32.6%) or Japan, followed by French, German and Spanish.
Major Dialects of English
- American English
- Australian English
- British English
- Canadian English
- Hiberno-English
- Jamaican English
- Newfoundland English
- New Zealand English
- South African English
- Singapore English - sometimes called Singlish
- Malaysian English - sometimes called Manglish
These varieties may, in most cases, contain several subvarieties, such as Cockney within British English and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) (aka Ebonics, spoken among some African-Americans).
Due to its wide use as a second language, English is spoken with many different accents, which may identify the speaker's native language. For some distinctive characteristics of certain accents, see how to tell the origin of an accent.
Phonology
English orthography is historical, not phonological orthography and diverges considerably from the spoken language. This is English's Consonantal System (including dialect sounds):
| Labial | Labio-dental | (Inter)Dental | Alveolar | Alveo-palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Stop | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| Fricative | f v | T D | s z | S Z | x¹ | h | |
| Affricate | tS dZ | ||||||
| Approximant | l | r | |||||
| Semi-vowel | w W² | j | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | N |
- This is a velar fricative and is found only in Scots in Gaelic loanwords such as loch (`lax)
- Voiceless w (/W/) is found in Scots and upper-class British.
See also List of Archaic English Words and Their Modern Equivalents, List of words commonly mispronounced, rhotic, singular they, Received Pronunciation, General American pronunciation, Standard Midwestern pronunciation, non-sexist language
Grammar
English grammar is based on that of its Germanic roots, though some scholars during the 1700s and 1800s attempted to impose Latin grammar upon it, with little success. All in all English is a much less inflected language than the bulk of Indo-European languages, placing more of the information in the word order. English is a slightly inflected language, retaining features like:
- Possessive (which has developed into a clitic)
- He is Alfredo's best friend. -'s
- 3rd person singular present
- Alfredo works. -s
- past tense
- Alfredo worked. -ed
- present participle/ progressive
- Alfredo is working. -ing
- past participle
- The car was stolen. -en
- Alfredo has talked to the police. -ed
- plural
- All your sigs are mine. -s
- comparative
- Alfredo is smarter than Ricky. -er
- superlative
- Alfredo has the bluest eyes. -est
Vocabulary
English is noted for the vast size of its active vocabulary and its fluidity. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and imports new words which often come into common usage. In addition, slang provides new meanings for old words. In fact this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made from formal and correct forms of English and contemporary usage. See also sociolinguistics.
Loanwords
From African languages
| banana | (via Portuguese or Spanish ) |
| dengue | (from Swahili via Spanish ) |
From Afrikaans
| trek | |
| boorish |
From Native American languages
| alpaca | (from Aymara via Spanish) |
| cannibal | (from Caribbean, via Spanish) |
| canoe | (from Caribbean, via Spanish) |
| chocolate | (from Nahuatl, via Spanish) |
| cocaine | (from Quechua, via Spanish) |
| hurricane | (from Caribbean, via Spanish) |
| tomato | (from Nahuatl, via Spanish) |
| coyote | (from Nahuatl, via Spanish) |
| moose | (from Algonquian languages) |
| racoon | (from Algonquian languages) |
| moccasin | (from Algonquian languages) |
| squaw (archaic, pejorative) | (from Cree iskwe) |
| Eskimo | (from Cree) |
| igloo | (from Innuktitut) |
| wigwam | (from Algonquian languages) |
| kayak | (from Innuktitut) |
| ocelot | (from Nahuatl, via Spanish) |
| potato | (via Spanish) |
| jaguar | (from Tupi, via Portuguese) |
From Arabic
| alcove | (via Spanish alcoba) |
| alcohol | |
| algebra |
From French
From German
| pretzel | a traditionally salted and often hard bread snack. |
| stein | a German style beer glass. |
| wanderlust | a nomadic urge. |
| sauerkraut | a mixture of cabbage in brine. |
| frankfurter | a hot dog. |
| hamburger | a sandwich featuring a ground beef patty or often simply ground beef. |
From Greek Thousands of English words came from Greek. Examples include philosophy and philology. 'tele' as in telecommunications also came from Greek.
From Japanese
| kamikaze | suicide attack. Japanese for Divine Wind |
| karaoke | |
| karate | Japanese for the Unarmed Way |
| origami | paper crafts |
| sake | a Japanese liquor |
| tycoon | wealthy and powerful businessperson. Japanese for big monarch |
| tsunami | tidal wave |
From Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch)
| dunk | to dip |
From Spanish
| alligator | (from el lagarto, "the lizard") |
| canyon | (from cañon) |
| guerrilla | |
| marijuana | |
| mosquito | |
| mulatto | (from mulato) |
| siesta |
From Portuguese
| tank | (from tanque) |
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 simplied version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
English language/Vocabulary non-standard adjectives