GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
PIF
UKUSA Agreement
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ASEAN Economic Community
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Caribbean Community
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Malaysia
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Language codes
ISO 639-1
en
ISO 639-2
eng
ISO 639-3
eng
Glottolog
stan1293
Linguasphere
52-ABA
Countries and territories where English is the native language of the majority
Countries and territories where English is an official or administrative language but not a majority native language
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see also: List of dialects of English
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English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England.[4][5][6] The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain.
English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States of America.[7] English is the third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish;[8] it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers.
English is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states (such as in India, Ireland, and Canada). In some other countries, it is the sole or dominant language for historical reasons without being explicitly defined by law (such as in the United States or United Kingdom).[9] It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international and regional organisations. It has also become the de facto lingua franca language of diplomacy, science, technology, international trade, logistics, tourism, aviation, entertainment and the internet.[10] English accounts for at least 70% of total speakers of the Germanic language branch, and as of 2005[update], it was estimated that there were over two billion speakers worldwide.[11]
Old English emerged from a group of West Germanic dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Late Old English borrowed some grammar and core vocabulary from Old Norse, a North Germanic language.[12][13][14] Then, Middle English borrowed words extensively from French dialects, which make up about 28% of Modern English vocabulary, and from Latin, which also provides about 28%.[15] Thus, although most of its total vocabulary now comes from Romance languages, its grammar, phonology, and most commonly-used words keep it genealogically classified under the Germanic branch. English exists on a dialect continuum with Scots and then is most closely related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages.
^Oxford Learner's Dictionary 2015, Entry: English – Pronunciation.
^"What are the top 200 most spoken languages?". Ethnologue. 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^English at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^The Routes of English.
^Crystal 2003a, p. 6.
^Wardhaugh 2010, p. 55.
^English at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
^Ethnologue 2010.
^Crystal 2003b, pp. 108–109.
^Chua, Amy (18 January 2022). "How the English Language Conquered the World". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022.
^Crystal, David (2008). "Two thousand million?". English Today. 24 (1): 3–6. doi:10.1017/S0266078408000023. S2CID 145597019.
^Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Dieter Wolff (1973). Ordered profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon. C. Winter. ISBN 978-3-533-02253-4.
^Bammesberger 1992, p. 30.
^Svartvik & Leech 2006, p. 39.
^Burnley, David (1992). "LEXIS AND SEMANTICS". In N. Blake (Ed.), The Cambridge History of the English Language (The Cambridge History of the English Language, pp. 409–499). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521264754.006: "Latin and French each account for a little more than 28 per cent of the lexis recorded in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Finkenstaedt & Wolff 1973)".
English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England. The...
Old English (Englisċ, pronounced [ˈeŋɡliʃ]), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the Englishlanguage, spoken in England and southern and...
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages, often with students whose native language is...
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is the set of varieties of the Englishlanguage native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer...
The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on...
English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the Englishlanguage native to the United States. English...
English is a West Germanic language that originated from Ingvaeonic languages brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants...
The Englishlanguage in Europe, as a native language, is mainly spoken in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Outside of these states, it has official status...
The following is a list of countries and territories where English is an official language used in citizen interactions with government officials. As...
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the Englishlanguage that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The...
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of varieties of English only in of pronunciation, see regional accents of English. Dialects can be defined as "sub-forms of languages which are, in general...
translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100...
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former Soviet Union, and English is known as a foreign language by a significant proportion of the Israeli population as English is used widely in official...
International English is the concept of using the Englishlanguage as a global means of communication similar to an international auxiliary language, and often...
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varieties of Modern English World EnglishesLanguages of England Englishlanguage Fingallian Languages of England Scots language Yola (language) This disambiguation...
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the Englishlanguage. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts...
varieties of the Englishlanguage native to Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English (indistinguishable...
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