English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the extensive influence 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, it has been widely dispersed around the world, becoming the leading language of international discourse and the
lingua franca in many regions.It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organisations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.It is the most widely spoken language across the world.
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 by the 5th century – with the word
English being derived from the name of the Angles, and ultimately from their ancestral region of Angeln (in what is now Schleswig-Holstein).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.
The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.
The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the superficial appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages
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 that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.
Owing to the assimilation of words from many other languages
throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary.
Modern English has not only assimilated words from other European
languages but also from all over the world, including words of Hindi and African origin. The
Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical, scientific, or slang terms, or words that belong to multiple word classes.
Differences between American and British English
This is one of a series of articles about the differences between
British English and
American English, which,
for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows :
American English
British English
- British English (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom.
- American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States.
Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers
and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only
occasional noticeable differences in comparable media
(comparing American newspapers with British newspapers, for example).
This kind of formal English, particularly written English, is often
called "standard English".
The spoken forms of British English vary considerably, reflecting a
long history of dialect development amid isolated populations. Dialects
and accents vary not only among the countries of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also within these individual countries.
There are also differences in the English spoken by different groups of people in any particular region. Received Pronunciation
(RP) has traditionally been regarded as proper English; this is also
referred to as "BBC English" or "the Queen's English". The BBC and other
broadcasters
now intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British
accents and dialects, and the concept of "proper English" is now far
less prevalent.
An unofficial standard for
spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and geographic and social mobility, and broadly describes the English typically heard from network newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech.
Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American
English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according
to linguist William Labov.
[citation needed]
Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements
of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region
of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern, Midland, and Western.
After the American Civil War,
the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led
to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most
strongly differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were
settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct
variations, such as in Southern Appalachia and New York.
British and American English are the reference norms for English as
spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance the
English-speaking members of the Commonwealth
often closely follow British English forms while many new American
English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States.
Although most dialects of English used in the former
British Empire
outside of North America are, to various extents, based on British
English, most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique
dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation, idioms and vocabulary. Chief among other English dialects are Canadian English, based on the English of United Empire Loyalists who left the 13 Colonies,
and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in number of
native speakers.
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