English language

English language}} English is a West Germanic languages that arose in the History of Anglo-Saxon England kingdoms of England and spread into South-East Scotland under the influence of the Angles medieval kingdom of Northumbria Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire and of the United States since the mid-20th century,#refAmmon2006 pp. 2245–2247.#refSchneider2007 p. 1.#refMazrui1998 p. 21.#refHowatt2004 pp. 127–133. it has been English-speaking world around the world, become the World language of international discourse, and has acquired use as [[lingua franca]]in many regions.#refCrystal1997 pp. 87–89.#refWardhaugh2006 p. 60. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth of Nations countries, as well as in many world organisations. It is the List of languages by number of native speakers language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language Historically, English originated from the fusion of languages and dialects, now collectively termed Old English which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century – with the word "English" being derived from the name of the Angles.lt;/ref> A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin because Latin in some form was the [[lingua franca]]of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life.lt;/ref> The language was further influenced by the Old Norse with Danelaw in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman language and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the superficial appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages lt;ref>http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyidab13http://www.orbilat.com/Influences_of_Romance/English/RIFL-English-Latin-The_Inflluences_on_Old_English.html to what had now become Middle English The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English English is arguably the largest language by number of words; the Oxford English Dictionary lists 500,000 words, not including technical and scientific terms.http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JohnnyLing.shtml Hypertextbook.com The Number of Words in the English Languagehttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/howmanywords Oxforddictionaries.com How many words are there in the English Language?

Significance

Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca lt;/ref> is the Linguistic imperialism or in some instances even the required international auxiliary language of communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.subscription}} 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.lt;/ref> 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 languages spread across the planet.lt;/ref> 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 Natural language#Linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition lt;/ref> Conversely the natural internal variety of English along with English-based creole languages and pidgin have the potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time.lt;/ref>

History

English is a West Germanic languages language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian languages and Old Saxon dialects brought to Great Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in the 5th century.lt;/ref> Up to that point, in Roman Britain the native population is assumed to have spoken the Celtic language British language (Celtic) alongside the acrolect l influence of Latin, from the 400-year Roman occupation of Britain http://www.information-britain.co.uk/historydetails/article/2/ "The Roman epoch in Britain lasted for 367 years", Information Britain website One of these incoming Germanic tribes was the Angles lt;/ref> whom Bede believed to have relocated entirely to Britain.lt;/ref> The names England (from Engla landlt;ref>lt;/ref> "Land of the Angles") and English(Old English Englisclt;ref>lt;/ref>) 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.lt;/ref>lt;/ref>lt;/ref> Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the History of Anglo-Saxon England lt;ref>David Graddol, Dick Leith, and Joan Swann, English: History, Diversity and Change(New York: Routledge, 1996), 101. but one of these dialects, West Saxon (Old English) 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 languages 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 languages Old Norman in the 11th century with the Norman conquest of England Norman developed into Anglo-Norman language and then Law 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 Renaissance humanism Renaissance Latin and those that wrote or copied texts in Latin 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 lt;ref>See Fausto Cercignani Shakespeares Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981. 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 language 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.

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the Anglo-Frisian languages sub-group of the West Germanic languages branch of the Germanic languages 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 verb , the division of verbs into Germanic Strong Verb and Germanic weak verb 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 languages (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 language Afrikaans Low German German language , and the North Germanic languages (Swedish language Danish language Norwegian language Icelandic language and Faroese language . With the exception of Scots, none of the other languages is mutually intelligible with English, owing in part to the divergences in lexis (linguistics) 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.A History of the English Language|Page: 336 | By: Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable | Publisher: Routledge; 5 edition (March 21, 2002) 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 outgangsurvives 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 carevs. German Sorge Both words descend from Proto-Germanic *karoand *surgorespectively, but *karohas become the dominant word in English for "care" while in German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages, the *surgoroot prevailed. *Surgostill 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 esehen 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 et 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 enden, German enden, English end; Dutch oud, German old, English old, etc.). It also gives rise to [[false friends]], see for example English ime vs Norwegian ime ("hour"), and differences in phonology can obscure words that really are related (ooth vs. German ahn; compare also Danish and). Sometimes both semantics nd phonology are different (German eit ("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 idings and etide, and phrases such as o tide over).{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} Several [[List of English words of Old Norse origin|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 nger, 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 hey (and its forms) and possibly re (the present plural form of o be).{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} More recent [[Scandinavian languages|Scandinavian]] imports include ngstrom, 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 (ee below: English language#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 language 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 language 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.).

Geographical distribution

File:English dialects1997 modified.svg Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language http://web.archive.org/web/19990429232804/www.sil.org/ethnologue/top100.html Ethnologue, 1999]https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html CIA World Factbook], Field Listing — Languages (World). 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 language (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects").http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm Languages of the World (Charts)], Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm The Worlds Most Widely Spoken Languages]lt;/ref> 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.lt;/ref>http://www.oxfordseminars.com/Tesol/Pages/Teach/teach_20000jobs.php 20,000 Teaching ]lt;/ref> Linguistics professor David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. cited in lt;/ref> The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million),lt;/ref> Canada (18.2 million),http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/language/Table401.cfm Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories–20% sample data], Census 2006, Statistics Canada Australia (15.5 million),http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/ViewData?action404&documentproductno0&documenttypeDetails&order1&tabnameDetails&areacode0&issue2006&producttypeCensus%20Tables&javascripttrue&textversionfalse&navmapdisplayedtrue&breadcrumbTLPD&&collectionCensus&period2006&productlabelLanguage%20Spoken%20at%20Home%20by%20Sex%20-%20Time%20Series%20Statistics%20(1996,%202001,%202006%20Census%20Years)&producttypeCensus%20Tables&methodPlace%20of%20Usual%20Residence&topicLanguage& Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics] Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Nigeria (4 million),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. "http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol15num3/ihemere.pdf A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin.]" Nordic Journal of African Studies15(3): 296–313. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million),http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/CinBrief/CinBrief2001.pdf Census in Brief], page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa lt;/ref> and New Zealand (3.6 million) 2006 Census.(links to Microsoft Excel files) Countries such as the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continuum ranging from an English-based creole languages 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.http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,1355064,00.html Subcontinent Raises Its Voice], Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004.Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377–390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census).

Countries in order of total speakers

| class"wikitable sortable" style"text-align:center;" |- ! Country !! Total !! Percent of population !! First language !! As an additional language !! Population !! class"unsortable" | Comment |- | United States of America ||251,388,301||96%||215,423,557||35,964,744||262,375,152||Source: US Census 2000: http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf 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 secondlanguage speakers.
38,993,066 thirdlanguage speakers ||1,028,737,436||Figures include both those who speak English as a second languageand those who speak it as a third language 2001 figures.Table C-17: Population by Bilingualism and trilingualism, 2001 Census of India http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/C-Series/C-Series_link/C17_Bill_Tril.pdf]Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. http://www.lilaproject.org/docs/India%20and%20its%20Languages%20v1.0.pdf India and its Languages]. Siemens AG, Munich The figures include English speakers but not English usersFor the distinction between "English Speakers" and "English Users", see: TESOL-India (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). Their article explains the difference between the 350 million number mentioned in a previous version of this Wikipedia article and a more plausible 90 million number: lt;/ref> |- | 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. "http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol15num3/ihemere.pdf A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin.]" Nordic Journal of African Studies15(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%||3,427,000lt;/ref>||43,974,000||84,566,000||Total speakers: Census 2000, http://www.census.gov.ph/data/sectordata/sr05153tx.html 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 http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/019/0487/jmmd0190487.pdf 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. |- | Canada ||25,246,220||85%||17,694,830||7,551,390||29,639,030||Source: 2001 Census – http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/highlight/LanguageComposition/Page.cfm?LangE&GeoPR&View1b&Table1a&StartRec1&Sort2&B1Counts&B2Both Knowledge of Official Languages] and http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/highlight/LanguageComposition/Page.cfm?LangE&GeoPR&View1a&Table1a&StartRec1&Sort2&B1Counts&B2Both 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.lt;/ref> 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. |- | colspan"8" | Note: Total First language + Other language; Percentage Total / Population |}

Countries where English is a major language

English is the primary language in Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Australian English the Bahamas Barbados Languages of Belize Bermuda the British Indian Ocean Territory the British Virgin Islands Canadian English the Cayman Islands Dominica the Falkland Islands Gibraltar Grenada Guam Channel Island English Guyana Hiberno-English , The Manx English Jamaican English Jersey Montserrat Nauru New Zealand English 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 The 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 Solomon Islands Sri Lanka the Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Uganda Zambia and Zimbabwe It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English . English is also the official language in current dependent territory of Australia (Norfolk Island Christmas Island and Cocos Island and of the United States (American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands ,lt;/ref> and the former British colony of Hong Kong (See List of countries where English is an official language for more details.) English is not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/USlanguages.html Languages Spoken in the U.S.], National Virtual Translation Center, 2006.http://www.us-English.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID22&TID1 U.S. English Foundation], Official Language ResearchUnited Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.lt;/ref> Although falling short of official status, English is also an important language in several former colonies and protectorate of the United Kingdom, such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. English is not an official language of Israel, but is taken as a required second language at all Jewish and Arab schools and therefore widely spoken.http://www.lprc.org.il/lprc/generalPage.aspx?pageIDMultiLingualism], Language Policy Research Center It is also spreading as a second language for commerce and tourism in Corsica Sardinia Sicily and the Balearic Islands

English as a global language

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language , the [[lingua franca]]of the modern era, and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural property of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications.lt;/ref> English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union, by 89% of schoolchildren, ahead of French at 32%, while the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages amongst Europeans is 68% in favour of English ahead of 25% for French.http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/doc631_en.pdf 2006 survey] by Eurobarometer in http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html the Official EU languages] website Among some non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the adult population can converse in English — in particular: 85% in Sweden, 83% in Denmark, 79% in the Netherlands, 66% in Luxembourg and over 50% in Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.lt;/ref> Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The impact of the English language globally has sometimes had a large impact on other languages, leading to language shift and even language death lt;ref>David Crystal (2000) Language Death, Preface; viii, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and to claims of "Linguistic imperialism . English itself is now open to language shift as multiple List of dialects of the English language feed back into the language as a whole.Jambor, Paul Z. http://www.eilj.com/EILJ_Vol_2.swf English Language Imperialism: Points of View], Journal of English as an International Language, April 2007 - Volume 1, pages 103-123 (Accessed in 2007) For this reason, the English language is forever evolving.Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable (1993), A history of the English language page 50, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London

Dialects and regional varieties

The expansion of the British Empire and—since World War II the influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of List of dialects of the English language and English-based creole language and pidgin . Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the world—one based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queens) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation . The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) that have had either close association with the United States, or a desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects, there are numerous other variety (linguistics) of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney Scouse and Geordie within British English Newfoundland English within Canadian English and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English English is a pluricentric language without a central language authority like Frances Académie française and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. history of the Scots language has its origins in early Northern Middle EnglishAitken, A. J. and McArthur, T. Eds. (1979) Languages of Scotland Edinburgh,Chambers. p.87 and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from Standard English, causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute, although the UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/minorities/2._framework_convention_%28monitoring%29/2._monitoring_mechanism/3._state_reports_and_unmik_kosovo_report/2._second_cycle/PDF_2nd_SR_UK_en.pdf Second Report submitted by the United Kingdom pursuant to article 25, paragraph 1 of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities] There are a number of regional dialects of Scots, and pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. English speakers have many different [[accent (linguistics)|accents]], which often signal the speakers native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see [[Regional accents of English]], and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see [[List of dialects of the English language]]. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the [[Survey of English Dialects]], grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out.Peter Trudgill, he Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English [[loanword]]s now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several [[pidgin]]s and [[creole language]]s have been formed on an English base, such as [[Jamaican (language)|Jamaican Patois]], [[Nigerian Pidgin]], and [[Tok Pisin]]. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. ===Constructed varieties of English=== * [[Basic English]] is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * [[E-Prime]] excludes forms of the verb o be. * [[English spelling reform|English reform]] is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * [[Manually Coded English]] constitutes a variety of systems that have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as [[British Sign Language]] and [[American Sign Language]] used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * [[Seaspeak]] and the related [[NATO phonetic alphabet|Airspeak]] and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a [[tunnelspeak]] for use in the [[Channel Tunnel]]. * [[Simplified English|Simplified Technical English]] was historically developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals and is now used in various industries. * [[Special English]] is a simplified version of English used by the [[Voice of America]]. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. ==Phonology== {{Main| English phonology}} ===Vowels=== {{See also|IPA chart for English dialects}} {{Cleanup-section|date=December 2008}} It is the [[vowel]]s that differ most from region to region. Length is not phonemic in most varieties of [[North American English]]. {| class="wikitable" |- ![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] !! Description !! word |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left; background:#dedede"| [[monophthong]]s |- | {{IPA|iː}} || [[Close front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|ea}}d |- | {{IPA|ɪ}} || [[Near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|i}}d |- | {{IPA|ɛ}} || [[Open-mid front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|e}}dIn RP, this is closer to {{IPA|[e]}} |- | {{IPA|æ}} || [[Near-open front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|a}}dIn younger speakers of RP, this is closer to {{IPA|[a]}} |- | {{IPA|ɒ}} || [[Open back rounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|o}}xMany American English dialects lack this sound; in such dialects, words with this sound elsewhere are pronounced with {{IPA|/ɑː/}} or {{IPA|/ɔː/}}. See [[Phonological history of English low back vowels#Lot-cloth split|ot-cloth split]]. |- | {{IPA|ɔː}} || [[Open-mid back rounded vowel]] || p{{bold dark red|aw}}edSome dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See [[phonological history of English low back vowels#Cot-caught merger|ot-caught merger]]. |- | {{IPA|ɑː}} || [[Open back unrounded vowel]] || br{{bold dark red|a}} |- | {{IPA|ʊ}} || [[Near-close near-back vowel]] || g{{bold dark red|oo}}d |- | {{IPA|uː}} || [[Close back rounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|oo}}edThe letter <> can represent either {{IPA|/uː/}} or the [[iotation|iotated]] vowel {{IPA|/juː/}}. In BRP, if this iotated vowel {{IPA|/juː/}} occurs after {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}, {{IPA|/s/}} or {{IPA|/z/}}, it often triggers palatalisation of the preceding consonant, turning it to {{IPA|[t͡ɕ]}}, {{IPA|[d͡ʑ]}}, {{IPA|[ɕ]}} and {{IPA|[ʑ]}} respectively, as in une, uring, ugar, and zure. In American English, palatalisation does not generally happen unless the {{IPA|/juː/}} is followed by , with the result that {{IPA|/(t, d, s, z)juːr/}} turn to {{IPA|[tʃər]}}, {{IPA|[dʒər]}}, {{IPA|[ʃər]}} and {{IPA|[ʒər]}} respectively, as in ature, erdure, ure, and reasure. |- | {{IPA|ʌ}} || [[Open-mid back unrounded vowel]], [[near-open central vowel]]The back-vowel symbol {{IPA|ʌ}} is conventional for this English central vowel. It is actually generally closer to a {{IPA|[ɐ]}} In the northern half of England, this vowel is not used and {{IPA|ʊ}} is used in its place. || b{{bold dark red|u}}d. |- | {{IPA|ɜr}} || [[Open-mid central unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|ir}}dThe North American variation of this sound is a [[r-colored vowel|rhotic vowel]] {{IPA|[ɝ]}}, the RP version a long central vowel {{IPA|[ɜː]}}. |- | {{IPA|ə}} || [[Schwa]] || Ros{{bold dark red|a}}sSome speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels, pronounce the second vowel of roses as {{IPA|ɪ̈ }} rather than {{IPA|ɨ}}, which falls in between the two. [[schwa]] {{IPA|/ə/}}. |- | {{IPA|ɨ}} || [[Close central unrounded vowel]] || ros{{bold dark red|e}}sThis sound is often transcribed with {{IPA|/ə/}} or with {{IPA|/ɪ/}}. |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left; background:#dedede"| [[diphthong]]s |- | {{IPA|eɪ}} || [[Close-mid front unrounded vowel]]-
[[Close front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|ay}}edThe diphthongs {{IPA|/eɪ/}} and {{IPA|/oʊ/}} are monophthongal {{IPA|[eː]}} and {{IPA|[oː]}} in many dialects, including General American, Scottish, Irish and Northern English. |- | {{IPA|oʊ}} || [[Close-mid back rounded vowel]]-
[[Near-close near-back vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|o}}deIn RP and parts of North America, this is closer to {{IPA|[əʊ]}}. As a reduced vowel, it may become {{IPA|[ɵ]}} ({{IPA|[ɵʊ]}} before another vowel) or {{IPA|[ə]}}, depending on accent. |- | {{IPA|aɪ}} || [[Open front unrounded vowel]]
[[Near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] || cr{{bold dark red|y}}In parts of North America {{IPA|/aɪ/}} is pronounced {{IPA|[ʌɪ]}} before voiceless consonants, so that writer and ider and distinguished by their vowels, {{IPA|[ˈɹʌɪɾɚ, ˈɹaɪɾɚ]}}, rather than their consonants. This is near-universal in Canada, and most non-Southern American English dialects also have undergone the shift; in the 2008 presidential election, both candidates as well as their vice-presidents all used {{IPA|[ʌɪ]}} for the word "right". {{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} |- | {{IPA|aʊ}} || [[Open front unrounded vowel]]
[[Near-close near-back vowel]] || c{{bold dark red|ow}}In Canada, this is pronounced {{IPA|[ʌʊ]}} before a voiceless consonant. |- | {{IPA|ɔɪ}} || [[Open-mid back rounded vowel]]
[[Close front unrounded vowel]] || b{{bold dark red|oy}} |- | {{IPA|ʊər}} || [[Near-close near-back vowel]]
[[Schwa]] || b{{bold dark red|oor}}In many accents, this sound is coming to be pronounced {{IPA|[ɔː(r)]}} rather than {{IPA|[ʊə(r)]}}. See [[English-language vowel changes before historic r]]. |- | {{IPA|ɛər}} || [[Open-mid front unrounded vowel]]
[[Schwa]] || f{{bold dark red|air}}In some non-rhotic accents, the schwa offglide of {{IPA|/ɛə/}} may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to {{IPA|[ɛː]}}. |} ====Notes==== {{Reflist|2|group=vn}} ===Consonants=== This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA). {| class="wikitable" |- ! ![[bilabial consonant|Bilabial]] ![[labiodental consonant|Labio-
dental]] ![[interdental consonant|Dental]] ![[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] ![[postalveolar consonant|Post-
alveolar]] ![[palatal consonant|Palatal]] ![[velar consonant|Velar]] ![[Labial-velar consonant|Labial-
velar]] ![[glottal consonant|Glottal]] |- ![[nasal consonant|Nasal]] | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|m}} | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|n}} | | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|ŋ}}The [[velar nasal]] {{IPA|[ŋ]}} is a non-phonemic allophone of {{IPA|/n/}} in some northerly British accents, appearing only before {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in [[syllable coda]]s. | | |- ![[Stop consonant|Plosive]] | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|p b}} | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|t d}} | | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|k ɡ}} | | |- ![[affricate consonant|Affricate]] | | | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|tʃ dʒ}}The sounds {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, and {{IPA|/ɹ/}} are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of [[General American]] realise (always rhoticised) as the [[retroflex approximant]] {{IPA|/ɻ/}}, whereas the same is realised in [[Scottish English]], etc. as the [[alveolar trill]]. | | | | |- ![[fricative consonant|Fricative]] | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|f v}} | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|θ ð}}In some dialects, such as [[Cockney]], the interdentals {{IPA|/θ/}} and {{IPA|/ð/}} have usually merged with {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/v/}}, and in others, like [[African American Vernacular English]], {{IPA|/ð/}} has merged with dental {{IPA|/d/}}. In some Irish varieties, {{IPA|/θ/}} and {{IPA|/ð/}} become dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives. | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|s z}} | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|ʃ ʒ}} | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|ç}}The [[voiceless palatal fricative]] {{IPA|/ç/}} is in most accents just an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/h/}} before {{IPA|/j/}}; for instance uman /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters|this]]), the {{IPA|/j/}} has dropped, but the initial consonant is the same. | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|x}}The [[voiceless velar fricative]] /x/ is used by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as och {{IPA|/lɒx/}} or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like ach {{IPA|/bax/}} or hanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in South African English. In some dialects such as [[Scouse]] ([[Liverpool]]) either {{IPA|[x]}} or the [[affricate consonant|affricate]] {{IPA|[kx]}} may be used as an [[allophone]] of /k/ in words such as ocker {{IPA|[dɒkxə]}}. | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|h}} |- ![[flap consonant|Flap]] | | | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|ɾ}}{{#tag:ref|The [[alveolar tap]] {{IPA|[ɾ]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} in unstressed syllables in [[North American English]] and [[Australian English]].{{cite journal|last=Cox |first=Felicity |year=2006 |title=Australian English Pronunciation into the 21st century |url=http://www.shlrc.mq.edu.au/~felicity/Papers/Prospect_Erratum_v1.pdf |format=PDF|accessdate=2007-07-22 |journal=Prospect |volume=21 |pages=3–21}} This is the sound of t or d in the words atter and adder, which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as [[Scottish English]] and [[Indian English]] it replaces {{IPA|/ɹ/}}. This is the same sound represented by single in most varieties of [[Spanish language|Spanish]].|group=cn|name=c2}} | | | | |- ![[approximant consonant|Approximant]] | | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|ɹ}} | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|j}} | | style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|ʍ w}}Voiceless w {{IPA|[ʍ]}} is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English. In most other dialects it is merged with {{IPA|/w/}}, in some dialects of Scots it is merged with {{IPA|/f/}}. | |- ![[lateral consonant|Lateral]] | | | | style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA|l}} | | | | | |} ====Notes==== {{Reflist|2|group=cn}} ====Voicing and aspiration==== [[Voice (phonetics)|Voicing]] and [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] of [[stop consonant]]s in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless [[stop consonant|plosives]] and [[affricate consonant|affricates]] ({{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/k/}}, and {{IPA|/tʃ/}}) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable{{ndash}} compare in {{IPA|[pʰɪn]}} and pin {{IPA|[spɪn]}}, rap {{IPA|[kʰɹ̥æp]}} and crap {{IPA|[skɹæp]}}. ** In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. ** In other dialects, such as [[Indian English]], all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: ap {{IPA|[tʰæp̚]}}, ack {{IPA|[sæk̚]}}. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of [[American English]]){{ndash}} examples: ad {{IPA|[sæd̥]}}, ag {{IPA|[bæɡ̊]}}. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. ===Supra-segmental features=== ====Tone groups==== English is an [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation language]]. This means that the [[pitch (music)|pitch]] of the [[human voice|voice]] is used [[syntax|syntactically]]; for example, to convey surprise or irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups, or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : {{IPA|/duː juː ˈniːd ˈɛnɪθɪŋ/}} o you need anything? : {{IPA|/aɪ ˈdoʊnt | ˈnoʊ/}} dont, no : {{IPA|/aɪ doʊnt ˈnoʊ/}} dont know (contracted to, for example, {{IPA|[ˈaɪ doʊnoʊ]}} or {{IPA|[ˈaɪdənoʊ]}} dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don and know even further)

Characteristics of intonation—stress

English is a strongly stress (linguistics) in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressedand the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed Stress can also be used in English to distinguish between certain verbs and their noun counterparts. For example, in the case of the verb contract the second syllable is stressed: in case of the Initial-stress-derived noun the first syllable is stressed: Vowel in unstressed syllables can also Vowel reduction hence the verb contractoften becomes (and indeed is listed in Oxford English Dictionary as) Oxford English Dictionary, see entry "contract" In each word, there can be only one principal stress, but in long words, there can be secondary stress(es) too, e.g. in civilisation the 1st syllable carries the secondary stress, the 4th syllable carries the primary stress, and the other syllables are unstressed.Oxford English Dictionary, see entry "civilisation" Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | one! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and one, which are stressed. est is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : ohn had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John ad not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not tolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen hat money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that oney. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I id not tell her that. (... You said I did. or... but now I will) : I did not ell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell er that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her hat. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : h, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, eally? (...I disbelieve you. or... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positive–negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : hen do you want to be paid? : ow? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : ow. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") ==Grammar== {{Main| English grammar}} English grammar has minimal [[inflection]] compared with most other [[Indo-European languages]]. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the [[Romance languages]], lacks [[grammatical gender]] and [[agreement (linguistics)|adjectival agreement]]. [[Grammatical case|Case]] marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in [[pronoun]]s. The patterning of [[strong inflection|strong]] (e.g. peak/spoke/spoken) versus [[Germanic weak verb|weak verbs]] (e.g. ove/loved or kick/kicked) inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as [[plural]] marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more [[Isolating language|analytic]], and has developed features such as [[modal verb]]s and [[word order]] as resources for conveying meaning. [[Auxiliary verb]]s mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the [[Grammatical voice|passive voice]] and progressive [[grammatical aspect|aspect]]. ==Vocabulary== The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries.For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. [http://www1.ku-eichstaett.de/SLF/EngluVglSW/OnOnMon1.pdf nglish and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner)] Like many languages deriving from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns , from [[Old English language|Old English]] c, (cf. German ch, Gothic k, Latin go, Greek go, Sanskrit ham), e (cf. German ich, mir, Gothic ik, mīs, Latin e, Greek me, Sanskrit am), numbers (e.g. ne, wo, hree, cf. Dutch en, wee, rie, Gothic ins, wai, hreis (þreis), Latin nus, duo, tres, Greek inos "ace (on dice)", uo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc. (cf. Dutch oeder, Greek eter, Latin ater, Sanskrit atṛ; other), names of many animals (cf. German aus, Dutch uis, Sankrit us, Greek ys, Latin us; ouse), and many common verbs (cf. Old High German nājan, Old Norse nā, Greek ignōmi, Latin noscere, Hittite anes;to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Old Norse origin) tend to be shorter than Latinate words in Modern English, and are more common in ordinary speech, and include nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The shortness of the words is generally due to [[Syncope (phonetics)|syncope]] in Middle English (e.g. OldEng ēafod > ModEng ead, OldEng āwol > ModEng oul) and to the loss of final syllables due to stress (e.g. OldEng amen > ModEng ame, OldEng rende > ModEng rrand), not because Germanic words are inherently shorter than Latinate words. (The lengthier, higher-register words of Old English were largely forgotten following the subjugation of English after the Norman Conquest, and most of the Old English lexis devoted to literature, the arts, and sciences ceased to be productive when it fell into disuse. Only the shorter, more direct, words of Old English tended to pass into the Modern language.) Longer Latinate words in Modern English are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to [[Obfuscation|obfuscate]] an issue. [[George Orwell]]s essay "[[Politics and the English Language]]", considered an important scrutinisation of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or rrive; ight or ision; reedom or iberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (versee), a Latin derived word (upervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (urvey); or even words [[Anglo-Norman language|derived from Norman French]] (e.g., arranty) and Parisian French (uarantee), and even choices involving multiple Germanic and Latinate sources are possible: ickness (Old English), ll (Old Norse), nfirmity (French), ffliction (Latin). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Yet the ability to choose between multiple synonyms is not a consequence of French and Latin influence, as this same richness existed in English prior to the extensive borrowing of French and Latin terms. Old English was extremely resourceful in its ability to express synonyms and shades of meaning on its own, in many respects rivaling or exceeding that of Modern English (synonyms numbering in the thirties for certain concepts were not uncommon). Take for instance the various ways to express the word "astronomer" or "astrologer" in Old English: unglere, tungolcræftiga, tungolwītega, tīdymbwlātend, tīdscēawere.Baugh, Cable, History of the English Language Fifth Edition, 50. In Modern English, however, the role of such synonyms has largely been replaced in favour of equivalents taken from Latin, French, and Greek. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their [[register (sociolinguistics)|linguistic register]]. See: [[List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English]], [[Doublet (linguistics)]]. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to a handful of languages, English included, is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: eer and enison; ow and eef; wine/ig and ork; and heep/amb and lamb and mutton|mutton]]. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman invasion]], where an Anglo-Norman-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by lower classes, which happened to be largely Anglo-Saxon {{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}, though this same duality can also be seen in other languages like French, which did not undergo such linguistic upheaval (e.g. oeuf "beef" vs. ache "cow"). With the exception of eef and ork, the distinction today is gradually becoming less and less pronounced (enison is commonly referred to simply as eer meat, utton is amb, and hicken is both the animal and the meat over the more traditional term oultry). There are Latinate words that are used in everyday speech. These words no longer appear Latinate and oftentimes have no Germanic equivalents. For instance, the words ountain, alley, iver, unt, ncle, ove, se, ush and tay ("to remain") are Latinate. Likewise, the inverse can occur: cknowledge, eaningful, nderstanding, indful, ehaviour, orbearance, ehoove, orestall, llay, hyme, tarvation, mbodiment come from Anglo-Saxon, and llegiance, bandonment, ebutant, eudalism, eizure, uarantee, isregard, ardrobe, isenfranchise, isarray, andolier, ourgeoisie, ebauchery, erformance, urniture, allantry are of Germanic origin, usually through the Germanic element in French, so it is oftentimes impossible to know the origin of a word based on its register. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as HTTP cookie|cookie]], Internet]] and Uniform Resource Locator|URL]] (technical terms), as well as genre]], über]], lingua franca]] and migo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, [[slang]] often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. {{See also|sociolinguistics}} ===Number of words in English=== The eneral Explanations at the beginning of the xford English Dictionary states: {{bquote|The Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference.}} The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages such as French (the [[Académie française]]), German ([[Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung]]), Spanish ([[Real Academia Española]]) and Italian ([[Accademia della Crusca]]), there is no academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. [[Neologism]]s are coined regularly in medicine, science, technology and other fields, and new [[slang]] is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary]], 2nd edition OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: {{bquote|It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the ED, 1933).It went on to clarify,{{bquote|Hence we exclude all words that had become obsolete by 1150 [the end of the [[Old English]] era]... Dialectal words and forms which occur since 1500 are not admitted, except when they continue the history of the word or sense once in general use, illustrate the history of a word, or have themselves a certain literary currency.}}}} The editors of Websters Dictionary|Websters Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged]] (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." ibrary Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw The [[Global Language Monitor]] announced that the English language had crossed the 1,000,000-word threshold on June 10, 2009.{{cite web|author=By John D. Sutter CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/10/million.words/index.html#cnnSTCOther1 |title=English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says|publisherEdition.cnn.com |date2009-06-10 |accessdate2010-04-21}} The announcement was met with strong scepticism by linguists and lexicographers,http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14shuessler.html?_r1 Keeping it Real on Dictionary Row] though a number of non-specialist reportslt;/ref>lt;/ref> accepted the figure uncritically.

Word origins

One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words that are Germanic languages (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those that are "Latinate" (derived directly from Latin or through Norman French or other Romance languages). The situation is further compounded, as French, particularly Old French and Anglo-Norman were also contributors in English of significant numbers of Germanic words, mostly from the Old Frankish element in French (see [[List of English Latinates of Germanic origin]]. The majority (83%) of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic.lt;/ref> However, the majority of more advanced words in subjects such as the sciences, philosophy and maths come from Latin or Greek, with Arabic also List of Arabic loanwords in English in astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry.http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2008/April/20080608224127srenoD0.9640619.html "From Arabic to English"], www.america.gov Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary(3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusionby Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973)lt;/ref> that estimated the origin of English words as follows: File:Origins of English PieChart 2D.svg ] * [[Langues doïl|Langue dïl]], including French and [[Old Norman]]: [[List of English words of French origin|28.3%]] * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: [[List of Latin words with English derivatives|28.24%]] * Other [[Germanic languages]] (including words directly inherited from [[Old English]]; does not include Germanic words coming from the Germanic element in French, Latin or other Romance languages): 25% * Greek: [[List of Greek words with English derivatives|5.32%]] * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages: less than 1% A survey by [[Joseph M. Williams]] in rigins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:{{cite web|url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/0029344700 |title=Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at |publisher=Amazon.com |date= |accessdate=2010-04-21}} * French (langue doïl): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% ====Dutch and Low German origins==== {{Main|List of English words of Dutch origin}} Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (acht), kipper (chipper), ruiser (ruiser), lag (lag), reight (racht), urlough (erlof), reeze (ries), oist (ijsen), ceberg (jsberg), oom (oom), and aelstrom (aalstroom) are examples. Other words pertain to art and daily life: asel (zel), tch (tsen), lim (lim), taple (Middle Dutch tapel "market"), lip (Middle Dutch lippen), andscape (andschap), ookie (oekje), url (rul), hock (chokken), loof (oef), oss (aas), rawl (rallen "to boast"), mack (makken "to hurl down"), oleslaw (oolsla), ope (oop "dipping sauce"), lender (Old Dutch linder), light (Middle Dutch licht), as (as). Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. pook, and the now obsolete nyder (tailor) and tiver (small coin). Words from Low German include rade (Middle Low German rade), muggle (muggeln), and ollar (aler/thaler). ====French origins==== {{Main|List of French words and phrases used by English speakers}} A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or [[Langues doïl]] origin, and was transmitted to English via the [[Anglo-Norman language]] spoken by the [[upper class]]es in England in the centuries following the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]]. Words of French origin include competition, ountain, rt, able, ublicity, olice, ole, outine, achine, orce, and thousands of others, most of which have been [[anglicisation|anglicised]] to fit English rules of [[phonology]], pronunciation and spelling, rather than those of French (with a few exceptions, for example, [[wikt:façade|façade]] and [[wikt:affaire de cœur|affaire de cœur]].) ==Writing system== {{Main|English alphabet|English orthography}} Since around the 9th century, English has been written in the [[Latin alphabet]], which replaced [[Anglo-Saxon runes]]. The spelling system, or [[orthography]], is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the [[phonology]] of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable.Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalisations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233–245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic.Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. However, English has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the letter sequence ough (orthography)|ough]] can be pronounced in 10 different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging.Diane McGuinness, hy Our Children Cant Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156–169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish.Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. sychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3–29. "English-speaking children take up to two years more to learn reading than do children in 12 other European countries."(Professor Philip H K Seymour, University of Dundee, 2001){{cite web|url=http://www.spellingsociety.org/media/research.php |title=Media centre |publisher=Spelling Society |date= |accessdate=2010-04-21}} "[dyslexia] is twice as prevalent among dyslexics in the United States (and France) as it is among Italian dyslexics. Again, this is seen to be because of Italians ransparent orthography." (Eraldo Paulesu and 11 others. Science, 2001) There are many individuals and organisationswhose aim is to modernise or regularise English spelling.

Basic sound-letter correspondence

| class"wikitable" ! IPA || style"text-align:left;"| Alphabetic representation || Dialect-specific |- | voiceless bilabial plosive || p || |- | voiced bilabial plosive || b || |- | voiceless alveolar plosive || t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames|| th thing([[African American Vernacular English|African American]], [[New York dialect|New York]]) |- | voiced alveolar plosive || d || th that(African American, New York) |- | voiceless velar plosive || c (+ a, o, u, consonants) k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer kh (in foreign words)|| |- | voiced velar plosive || g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i) gue (final position)|| |- | bilabial nasal || m || |- | alveolar nasal || n || |- | velar nasal || n (before g or k) ng || |- | voiceless labiodental fricative || f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough|| th thing(many forms of [[English language in England]]) |- | voiced labiodental fricative || v || th with([[Cockney]], [[Estuary English]]) |- | voiceless dental fricative || th thick, think, through|| |- | voiced dental fricative || th that, this, the|| |- | voiceless alveolar fricative || s, c (+ e, i, y) sc (+ e, i, y) ç often c (façade/facade)|| |- | voiced alveolar fricative || z, s (finally or occasionally medially) ss (rarely) possess, dessert word-initial x xylophone|| |- | voiceless postalveolar fricative || sh, sch, ti (before vowel) portion ci/ce (before vowel) suspicion ocean si/ssi (before vowel) tension mission ch (esp. in words of French origin) rarely s/ss before u sugar issue chsi in fuchsiaonly|| |- | voiced postalveolar fricative || medial si (before vowel) division medial s (before "ur") pleasure zh (in foreign words) z before u azure g (in words of French origin) (+e, i, y) genre j (in words of French origin) bijou|| |- | voiceless velar fricative || kh, ch, h (in foreign words)|| occasionally ch loch([[Scottish English]], [[Welsh English]]) |- | voiceless glottal fricative || h (syllable-initially, otherwise silent) j (in words of Spanish origin) jai alai|| |- | voiceless postalveolar affricate || ch, tch, t before u future culture|t (+ u, ue, eu)tune, Tuesday, Teutonic(several dialects – see [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters]]) |- | voiced postalveolar affricate || j, g (+ e, i, y) dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment|| d (+ u, ue, ew)dune, due, dew(several dialects – another example of yod coalescence) |- | alveolar approximant || r, wr (initial) wrangle|| |- | palatal approximant || y (initially or surrounded by vowels) j hallelujah|| |- | alveolar lateral approximant || l || |- | Voiced labial-velar approximant || w || |- | Voiceless labio-velar approximant || wh (pronouncedhw)|| Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English |}

Written accents

Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritic except in foreign loanword (like the acute accent in café, and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naïve, Zoë. Words such as décor, café, résumé/lt;!-- Please do not change this to "résumé/résumé", as it is intended to show that using only one diacritical mark is acceptable. -->, entrée, fiancée and naïve are frequently spelled both with or without diacritics. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as [[Animé (oleo-resin)|animé]], [[Investigative journalism|exposé]], [[Lamé (fencing)|lamé]], [[öre]], [[pâté]], [[piqué]],and [[rosé]] though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, [[résumé]]/{{Typo|res|umé}}lt;!-- Please do not change this to "résumé/résumé", as using only one diacritical mark is acceptable, which is what this is illustrating. -->, is often spelt resumein the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as maté from Spanish [[yerba mate]] or Malé the capital of the Maldives following the French usage.

Formal written English

A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialect , accent (linguistics) and varieties of slang and of colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the American and British English spelling differences along with a few minor differences in grammar and lexis.

Basic and simplified versions

To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named [[Basic English]] a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar(1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus, Basic English may be employed by companies that need to make complex books for international use, as well as by language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not include any words in Basic English that could be said with a combination of other words, and he worked to make the vocabulary suitable for speakers of any other language. He put his vocabulary selections through a large number of tests and adjustments. Ogden also simplified the grammar but tried to keep it normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace.Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English exists, which is a controlled natural language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardisedlt;/ref> subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word closecan be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear".

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * Fausto Cercignani Shakespeares Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981. * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * * * *

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