English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually

became a global lingua franca.[5][6] It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to
the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a
peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary
has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic
language), and to a greater extent by Latin and French.[7]
English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a group
of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th
century, are collectively called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman
conquest of England; this was a period in which the language was influenced by French. [8] Early Modern
English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of
the King James Bibleand the start of the Great Vowel Shift.[9]
Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, and later the United States, Modern English has
been spreading around the world since the 17th century. Through all types of printed and electronic
media, and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, 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.[10]
English is the largest language by number of speakers,[11] and the third most-spoken native language in
the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish.[12] It is the most widely learned second language and is
either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more
people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. It is estimated that
there are over 2 billion speakers of English.[13] English is the most commonly spoken language in
the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely
spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.[14] It is a co-official language of the United
Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most
widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European
branch. English has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words any language has is
impossible.[15][16] English speakers are called "Anglophones".
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, a fairly fixed SVO word order and a complex syntax.[17] Modern
English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of
complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation.
The variation among the accents and dialects of Englishused in different countries and regions—in terms
of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, grammar, and spelling—can often be
understood by speakers of different dialects, but in extreme cases can lead to confusion or even mutual
unintelligibility between English speakers.

Proto-Germanic to Old English

The opening to the Old English epic poem Beowulf, handwritten in half-uncial script:
Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon...
"Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."The earliest
form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon (c. 550–1066 CE). Old English developed from a set
of North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken along the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland, and
Southern Sweden by Germanic tribes known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. From the 5th century CE,
the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain as the Roman economy and administration collapsed. By the 7th
century, the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain, replacing the
languages of Roman Britain (43–409 CE): Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to
Britain by the Roman occupation.[28][29][30] England and English (originally Ænglaland and Ænglisc) are
named after the Angles.[31]
Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian) and the
Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon.[32] Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the 9th
century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex, the West Saxon dialect became the standard written
variety.[33] The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Cædmon's
Hymn, is written in Northumbrian.[34] Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots
language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the early period of Old English
were written using a runic script.[35] By the 6th century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-
uncial letterforms. It included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin
letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash⟨æ⟩.[35][36]
Old English is very different from Modern English, and is difficult for 21st-century English speakers to
understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern German, and its closest relative is Old
Frisian. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs had many more inflectional endings and forms, and word
order was much freer than in Modern English. Modern English has case forms in pronouns (he, him, his)
and has a few verb inflections (speak, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken), but Old English had case
endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more personand number endings
Middle English
Main articles: Middle English and Influence of French on English
Englischmen þeyz hy hadde fram þe bygynnyng þre manner speche, Souþeron, Northeron, and Myddel
speche in þe myddel of þe lond, ... Noþeles by comyxstion and mellyng, furst wiþ Danes, and afterward
wiþ Normans, in menye þe contray longage ys asperyed, and som vseþ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng,
harryng, and garryng grisbytting.

Although, from the beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and
midlands speech in the middle of the country, ... Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with
Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange
stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing.
John of Trevisa, ca. 1385[41]

From the 8th to the 12th century, Old English gradually transformed through language contact into Middle
English. Middle English is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the conquest of England by William
the Conqueror in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 1200–1450.
First, the waves of Norse colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries put
Old English into intense contact with Old Norse, a North Germanic language. Norse influence was
strongest in the north-eastern varieties of Old English spoken in the Danelaw area around York, which
was the centre of Norse colonisation; today these features are still particularly present
in Scots and Northern English. However the centre of norsified English seems to have been in the
Midlands around Lindsey, and after 920 CE when Lindsey was reincorporated into the Anglo-Saxon
polity, Norse features spread from there into English varieties that had not been in direct contact with
Norse speakers. An element of Norse influence that persists in all English varieties today is the group of
pronouns beginning with th- (they, them, their) which replaced the Anglo-Saxon pronouns with h-(hie,
him, hera).[42]
With the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the now norsified Old English language was subject to
contact with the Old Norman language, a Romance language closely related to Modern French. The
Norman language in England eventually developed into Anglo-Norman. Because Norman was spoken
primarily by the elites and nobles, while the lower classes continued speaking Anglo-Saxon, the main
influence of Norman was the introduction of a wide range of loanwords related to politics, legislation and
prestigious social domains.[43] Middle English also greatly simplified the inflectional system, probably in
order to reconcile Old Norse and Old English, which were inflectionally different but morphologically
similar. The distinction between nominative and accusative cases was lost except in personal pronouns,
the instrumental case was dropped, and the use of the genitive case was limited to indicating possession.
The inflectional system regularised many irregular inflectional forms,[44] and gradually simplified the
system of agreement, making word order less flexible.[45] In the Wycliffe Bible of the 1380s, the verse
Matthew 8:20 was written:
Foxis han dennes, and briddis of heuene han nestis[46]
Here the plural suffix -n on the verb have is still retained, but none of the case endings on the nouns
are present.
By the 12th century Middle English was fully developed, integrating both Norse and Norman features;
it continued to be spoken until the transition to early Modern English around 1500. Middle English
literature includes Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In the
Middle English period, the use of regional dialects in writing proliferated, and dialect traits were even
used for effect by authors such as Chaucer.
Early Modern English
Main article: Early Modern English

Graphic representation of the Great Vowel Shift, showing how the pronunciation of the long vowels
gradually shifted, with the high vowels i: and u: breaking into diphthongs and the lower vowels each
shifting their pronunciation up one level

The next period in the history of English was Early Modern English (1500–1700). Early Modern
English was characterised by the Great Vowel Shift (1350–1700), inflectional simplification, and
linguistic standardisation.
The Great Vowel Shift affected the stressed long vowels of Middle English. It was a chain shift,
meaning that each shift triggered a subsequent shift in the vowel system. Mid and open
vowels were raised, and close vowels were broken into diphthongs. For example, the word bite was
originally pronounced as the word beet is today, and the second vowel in the word about was
pronounced as the word boot is today. The Great Vowel Shift explains many irregularities in spelling
since English retains many spellings from Middle English, and it also explains why English vowel
letters have very different pronunciations from the same letters in other languages.[47][48]
 English began to rise in prestige, relative to Norman French, during the reign of Henry V. Around
1430, the Court of Chancery in Westminster began using English in its official documents, and a new
standard form of Middle English, known as Chancery Standard, developed from the dialects of
London and the East Midlands. In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing pressto England and
began publishing the first printed books in London, expanding the influence of this form of
English.[49] Literature from the Early Modern period includes the works of William Shakespeare and
the translation of the Bible commissioned by King James I. Even after the vowel shift the language
still sounded different from Modern English: for example, the consonant clusters /kn ɡn
sw/ in knight, gnat, and sword were still pronounced. Many of the grammatical features that a modern
reader of Shakespeare might find quaint or archaic represent the distinct characteristics of Early
Modern English.[50]
In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, written in Early Modern English, Matthew 8:20 says:
The Foxes haue holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests [40]
This exemplifies the loss of case and its effects on sentence structure (replacement with Subject-
Verb-Object word order, and the use of of instead of the non-possessive genitive), and the
introduction of loanwords from French (ayre) and word replacements (bird originally meaning
"nestling" had replaced OE fugol).
Spread of Modern English
By the late 18th century, the British Empire had spread English through its colonies and
geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal
education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also
facilitated worldwide international communication.[51][10] England continued to form new colonies,
and these later developed their own norms for speech and writing. English was adopted in parts
of North America, parts of Africa, Australasia, and many other regions. When they obtained
political independence, some of the newly independent nations that had multiple indigenous
languages opted to continue using English as the official language to avoid the political and other
difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others. [52][53][54] In the
20th century the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its status as
a superpower following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in English
by the BBC[55] and other broadcasters, caused the language to spread across the planet much
faster.[56][57] In the 21st century, English is more widely spoken and written than any language
has ever been.[58]
As Modern English developed, explicit norms for standard usage were published, and spread
through official media such as public education and state-sponsored publications. In
1755 Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of the English Language which introduced
standard spellings of words and usage norms. In 1828, Noah Webster published the American
Dictionary of the English language to try to establish a norm for speaking and writing American
English that was independent of the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class
dialect features were increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of the prestige
varieties among the middle classes.[59]
In modern English, the loss of grammatical case is almost complete (it is now only found in
pronouns, such as he and him, she and her, who and whom), and SVO word-order is mostly
fixed.[59] Some changes, such as the use of do-support have become universalised. (Earlier
English did not use the word "do" as a general auxiliary as Modern English does; at first it was
only used in question constructions, and even then was not obligatory. [60] Now, do-support with
the verb have is becoming increasingly standardised.) The use of progressive forms in -ing,
appears to be spreading to new constructions, and forms such as had been being built are
becoming more common. Regularisation of irregular forms also slowly continues
(e.g. dreamed instead of dreamt), and analytical alternatives to inflectional forms are becoming
more common (e.g. more polite instead of politer). British English is also undergoing change
under the influence of American English, fuelled by the strong presence of American English in
the media and the prestige associated with the US as a world power.
Three circles of English-speaking countries
Braj Kachru distinguishes countries where English is spoken with a three circles model.[66] In his model,

 the "inner circle" countries have large communities of native speakers of English,
 "outer circle" countries have small communities of native speakers of English but widespread use of
English as a second language in education or broadcasting or for local official purposes, and
 "expanding circle" countries are countries where many people learn English as a foreign language.
 Syntax

 Modern English syntax language is moderately analytic.[190] It has developed features such as modal
verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such
as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.

 THE POLITICS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING The expansion of English worldwide has
been predicted ever since British occupation of North America. Throughout the British empire English
was the language of power. Postcolonial states have largely perpetuated the role of English in
government and education, and are heavily influenced by Anglo-American academic structures,
 know-how and books. English Language Teaching (ELT), a general term for the teaching of English
as a second/foreign language (TESOL), has expanded exponentially since the 1950s so as to
promote and service English worldwide and to meet a demand domestically in Britain and the neo-
Europes (USA, Australia, New Zealand, ... ). It has been prominent in foreign 'aid'. In Europe, moves
towards greater economic and political integration have consolidated the position of English as the
first foreign language. Although English is currently the triumphal 'world' language, and is therefore a
major political factor, the primary concerns of ELT professionalism are linguistic and pedagogical. The
educational, social and political ramifications of ELT are however increasingly of concern to scholars
in 'North' and 'South' countries.
 Oxford Learner's Dictionary 2015, Entry: English – Pronunciation..
 ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "English". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max
Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
 ^ Jump up to:a b Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Dieter Wolff (1973). Ordered profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon.
C. Winter. ISBN 978-3-533-02253-4.