English language

English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England.[3][4][5] It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots and then most closely related to the Low German and Frisian languages, English is genealogically Germanic. However, its vocabulary also shows major influences from French (about 28% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 28%),[6] plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language).[7][8][9] Speakers of English are called Anglophones.

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English
Pronunciation	/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Native speakers	360–400 million (2006)[2][needs update] L2 speakers: 750 million; as a foreign language: 600–700 million[2][needs update]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet) Anglo-Saxon runes (historically) English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms	Manually coded English (multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in	59 countries 27 non-sovereign entities Various organisations United Nations European Union Commonwealth of Nations Council of Europe ICC IMF IOC ISO NATO WTO NAFTA OAS OECD OIC OPEC GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development PIF UKUSA Agreement ASEAN ASEAN Economic Community SAARC Caribbean Community Organization of Turkic States Türksoy ECO
Recognised minority language in	Malaysia Sri Lanka
Language codes
ISO 639-1	en
ISO 639-2	eng
ISO 639-3	eng
Glottolog	stan1293
Linguasphere	52-ABA
States and territories where English and/or an English-based creole language is the native language of the majority   States and territories where English is a co-official language, and the most spoken language of the majority   States and territories where English is an official language, but not the most spoken language of the majority   States and territories where English is a working language of the government, a language of education, and/or spoken by more than 20% of the population
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The earliest forms of English, collectively known as "Old English", evolved from a group of North Sea Germanic dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th centuries. Middle English began in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest of England, when considerable Old French (especially Old Norman French) and Latin-derived vocabulary was incorporated into English over some three hundred years.[10][11] Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots into English, concurrent with the introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare.[12][13]

Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent-marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection and a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order.[14] Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspects and moods, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives, and some negation.

Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States of America. Through all types of printed and electronic media in these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation, and law.[3] English is the most spoken language in the world[15] and the third most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish.[16] It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers. As of 2005^[update], it was estimated that there were over 2 billion speakers of English.[17] English is the majority native language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland (see Anglosphere) and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.[18] It is the co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international and regional organisations. English accounts for at least 70% of speakers of the Germanic language branch of the Indo-European family.