English language
English
Pronunciation
/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Spoken in
(see below)
Total speakers
First language: 309–400 million
Second language: 199–1,400
million[2][3]
Overall: 500 million–1.8 billion[4][3]
Ranking
3 (native speakers)[5]
Total: 1 or 2 [6]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Anglo–Frisian
English
Writing system
Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language
in
53 countries
United Nations
European Union
Commonwealth of Nations
NATO
NAFTA
UKUSA
Regulated by
No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1
en
ISO 639-2
eng
ISO 639-3
eng
Countries where English is a majority language are dark blue; countries
where it is an official but not a majority language are light blue. English
is also one of the official languages of the European Union.
English is a West Germanic language that originated in
Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, eco-
nomic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the
British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries
and of the United States since the late 19th century, it
has become the
lingua franca in many parts of the
world.[7] It is used extensively as a second language and
as an official language in Commonwealth countries and
many international organizations.
Historically, English originated from several dialects,
now called Old English, which were brought to Great Bri-
tain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th cen-
tury. The language was heavily influenced by the Old
Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman
conquest, Old English developed into Middle English,
borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French)
vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English
developed from there and continues to adopt foreign
words from a variety of languages, as well as coining
new words. A significant number of English words, espe-
cially technical words, have been constructed based on
roots from Latin and ancient Greek.
Significance
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global
lingua franca,[8][9] is the dominant international lan-
guage in communications, science, business, aviation,
entertainment, radio and diplomacy.[10] Its spread bey-
ond the British Isles began with the growth of the British
Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was
truly global.[11] It is the dominant language in the Un-
ited States, whose growing economic and cultural influ-
ence and status as a global superpower since World War
II have significantly accelerated the language’s adoption
across the planet.[9]
A working knowledge of English has become a re-
quirement in a number of fields, occupations and profes-
sions 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
also one of six official languages of the United Nations.
Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one
impact of this massive growth of English, in common
with other global languages, has been to reduce native
linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most par-
ticularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge
influence continues to play an important role in lan-
guage attrition.[12] Similarly, historical linguists, aware
of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change,
are always aware of the potential English contains
through the vast size and spread of the communities
that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its
creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct
languages over time.[13]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
1
History
English is a West Germanic language that originated
from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects
brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman aux-
iliary troops from various parts of what is now northw-
est Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th
century. One of these Germanic tribes were the
Angles,[14] who may have come from Angeln, and Bede
wrote that their whole nation came to Britain,[15] leav-
ing their former land empty. The names ’England’ (or
’Aenglaland’) and English are derived from the name of
this tribe.
The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from
the regions of Denmark and Jutland,[16][17] Before the
Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population
spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language.[18] Although the
most significant changes in dialect occurred after the
Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name
and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as
Old English.[19]
Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects,
reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon King-
doms of Great Britain.[20] One of these dialects, Late
West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original
Old English language was then influenced by two waves
of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the
Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they
conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the
8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in
the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed
an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over
the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element
under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of Eng-
lish, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of
Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to
become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a
truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the
word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of
speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid
tongue for basic communication).
Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a
significant grammatical simplification and lexical sup-
plementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the
later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that
Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from
the Italic branch of the European languages. This Nor-
man influence entered English largely through the
courts and government. Thus, English developed into a
"borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a
huge vocabulary.
The emergence and spread of the British Empire as
well as the emergence of the United States as a super-
power helped to spread the English language around the
world.
Classification and related
languages
The English language belongs to the western sub-branch
of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of
languages. The closest living relative of English is either
Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of North-
ern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as
either a separate language or else as a group of dialects
of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be
the next closest. After those are other Germanic lan-
guages which are more distantly related, namely the
West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low Ger-
man, High German), and the North Germanic languages
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.
With the exception of Scots and possibly Frisian, none of
these languages is mutually intelligible with English, be-
cause of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and
phonology.
Lexical differences with the other Germanic lan-
guages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage
in English of words taken from Latin (for example,
"exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with
"gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. Ger-
man Änderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (liter-
ally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the
way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also signific-
antly different from English, with different rules for set-
ting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie
etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never
seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a num-
ber of false friends between English and its relatives.
Phonology differences obscure words which actually are
genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and
sometimes both semantics and phonology are different
(German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the
English word has come to mean gravitational effects on
the ocean by the moon).
Finally, English has been forming compound words
and affixing existing words separately from the other
Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has differ-
ent 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).
Many written French words are also intelligible to an
English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite
different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary
from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the
Norman Conquest and directly from French in sub-
sequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
2
vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor
spelling differences (word endings, use of old French
spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in
meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of
most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such
as mirage or phrases like coup d’état) has become com-
pletely anglicised and follows a typically English pattern
of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered Eng-
lish due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see
Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window",
"egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the
present plural form of "to be").
Geographical distribution
See also:
List
of
countries by English-speaking
population
Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English
speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world
Approximately 375 million people speak English as
their first language.[21] English today is probably the
third largest language by number of native speakers,
after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[22][23] 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 languages (depending on whether or not dis-
tinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or
"dialects)".[6][24] Estimates that include second language
speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion
depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[25][26]
There are some who claim that non-native speakers now
outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[27]
The countries with the highest populations of native
English speakers are, in descending order: United States
(215 million),[28] United Kingdom (61 million),[29]
Canada (18.2 million),[30] Australia (15.5 million),[31] Ire-
land (3.8 million),[29] South Africa (3.7 million),[32] and
New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[33] Countries such as Ja-
maica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers
of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole
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’) and linguistics
professor David Crystal claims that, combining native
and non-native speakers, India now has more people
who speak or understand English than any other coun-
try in the world.[34] Following India is the People’s Re-
public of China.[35]
Countries in order of total speakers
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and
Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas,
Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British
Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands,
Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the
Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey
(Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-Eng-
lish), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican Eng-
lish), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zeal-
and 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, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States.
In many other countries, where English is not the
most spoken language, it is an official language; these
countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji,
the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, In-
dia, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta,
the Marshall
Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines
(Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon
Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri
Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimb-
abwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are
given equal status in South Africa (South African Eng-
lish). English is also the official language in current de-
pendent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christ-
mas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States
(Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto
Rico)[40], former British colony of Hong Kong, and Neth-
erlands Antilles.
English is an important language in several former
colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but
falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei,
United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English
is also not an official language in either the United
States or the United Kingdom.[41][42] Although the Un-
ited States federal government has no official languages,
English has been given official status by 30 of the 50
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
3
Rank Country
Total
Percent of
population
First
language
As an addi-
tional
language
Population
Comment
1
United
States
251,388,301 96%
215,423,557 35,964,744 262,375,152
Source: US Census 2000: 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: fig-
ures are for population age 5 and older
2
India
90,000,000 8%
178,598
65,000,000
second lan-
guage
speakers.
25,000,000
third lan-
guage
speakers
1,028,737,436 Figures include both those who speak
English as a second language and those
who speak it as a third language. 1991 fig-
ures.[36][37] The figures include English
speakers, but not English users.[38]
3
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 mid-
point of the range is used in the table.
Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu.
2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic
Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian
Pidgin." Nordic Journal of African Studies
15(3): 296–313.
4
United
Kingdom
59,600,000 98%
58,100,000 1,500,000
60,000,000
Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109.
5
Philippines 45,900,000 52%
27,000
42,500,000 88,000,000
Total speakers: Census 2000, 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 Gonzalez in The Lan-
guage Planning Situation in the Philip-
pines, Journal of Multilingual and Multi-
cultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487-525.
(1998)
6
Canada
25,246,220 85%
17,694,830 7,551,390
29,639,030
Source: 2001 Census - Knowledge of Offi-
cial Languages and 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.
7
Australia
18,172,989 92%
15,581,329 2,591,660
19,855,288
Source: 2006 Census.[39] 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 lan-
guage column shows the number of
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
4
other residents who claim to speak Eng-
lish "well" or "very well". Another 5% of
residents did not state their home lan-
guage or English proficiency.
8
Singapore 3,850,000
91%
2,871,329
361,660
4,200,000
Source: Singapore English refers to the
varieties of English spoken in Singapore
Those that least resemble Standard Eng-
lish are colloquially known by the port-
manteau term Singlish, though in aca-
demic discussion these are most often
referred to as Singapore Colloquial Eng-
lish (SCE). Standard Singapore English
(SSE) is the term for varieties of Singa-
pore English that are very similar to
standard forms of English elsewhere.
Note: Total = First language + Other language; Percentage = Total / Population
state governments.[43] English is not a de jure official lan-
guage of Israel; however, the country has maintained of-
ficial language use a de facto role for English since the
British mandate.[44]
English as a global language
See also: English in computing, International Eng-
lish, and World language
Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been re-
ferred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the
modern era.[9] While English is not an official language
in most countries, it is currently the language most of-
ten taught as a second language around the world. Some
linguists (such as David Graddol) believe that it is no
longer the exclusive cultural property of "native English
speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing as-
pects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow.[9] It
is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial
and maritime communications.[45] English is an official
language of the United Nations and many other interna-
tional
organizations,
including
the
International
Olympic Committee.
English is the language most often studied as a for-
eign language in the European Union (by 89% of school-
children), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and
Spanish (8%).[46] Among non-English speaking EU coun-
tries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be
able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%),
Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Fin-
land (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%),
and Germany (51%).[47] Norway and Iceland also have a
large majority of competent English-speakers.
Books, magazines, and newspapers written in Eng-
lish are available in many countries around the world.
English is also the most commonly used language in the
sciences.[9] In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported
that 95% of its articles were written in English, even
though only half of them came from authors in English-
speaking countries.
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.[9] Because of that global
spread, English has developed a host of English dialects
and English-based creole languages and pidgins.
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 some-
times called BBC (or the Queen’s) English, and it may be
noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunci-
ation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the
standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other
languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent,
and other areas influenced either by the British Com-
monwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the
United States. 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) which
have had either close association with the United States
or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major
dialects are numerous other varieties 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 lan-
guage authority like France’s Académie française; and
therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "in-
correct" except in terms of the expectations of the par-
ticular audience to which the language is directed.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
5
Scots developed—largely independently—from the
same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a pro-
cess of language attrition began, whereby successive
generations adopted more and more features from Eng-
lish causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separ-
ate language or a dialect of English better described as
Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, gram-
mar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes
substantially, from other varieties of English.
Because of the wide use of English as a second lan-
guage, English speakers have many different accents,
which often signal the speaker’s native dialect or lan-
guage. For the more distinctive characteristics of region-
al 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 attri-
tion has led most of this variation to die out.[48]
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many
different languages over its history, English loanwords
now appear in many languages around the world, indic-
ative of the technological and cultural influence of its
speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have
been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois,
Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in
English coined to describe forms of particular non-Eng-
lish 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 to be.
• English reform is an attempt to improve collectively
upon the English language.
• Manually Coded English – a variety of systems 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 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.
• Special English is a simplified version of English used
by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only
1500 words.
Phonology
Vowels
See also: IPA chart for English dialects
It is the vowels that differ most from region to region.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds
to American English, General American accent; the
second corresponds
to British English, Received
Pronunciation.
Notes
[1]
Some American English dialects lack this sound; in
such dialects, words with this sound are
pronounced with /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. See Lot-cloth split.
[2]
Some dialects of North American English do not
have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
[3]
The letter can represent either /u/ or the
iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel
/ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often
triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant,
turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as
in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American
English, palatalization does not generally happen
unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that
/(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/
respectively, as in nature, verdure, sure, and treasure.
[4]
The North American variation of this sound is a
rhotic vowel.
[5]
^ Many speakers of North American English do not
distinguish between these two unstressed vowels.
For them, roses and Rosa’s are pronounced the
same, and the symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
[6]
This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/.
[7]
^ The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are
monophthongal for many General American
speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
[8]
Vowel length plays a phonetic role in the majority
of English dialects, and is said to be phonemic in a
few dialects, such as Australian English and New
Zealand English. In certain dialects of the modern
English language, for instance General American,
there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes
are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced
consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable.
Before the Great Vowel Shift, vowel length was
phonemically contrastive.
[9]
This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In
some accents, this sound may be /ɔː/ instead of
/ʊə/. See English-language vowel changes before
historic r.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
6
IPA
Description
word
monophthongs
i(ː)
Close front unrounded vowel
bead
ɪ
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel
bid
ɛ
Open-mid front unrounded vowel
bed
æ
Near-open front unrounded vowel
bad
ɒ
Open back rounded vowel
box[vn 1]
ɔ(ː)
Open-mid back rounded vowel
pawed[vn 2]
ɑ(ː)
Open back unrounded vowel
bra
ʊ
Near-close near-back vowel
good
u(ː)
Close back rounded vowel
booed[vn 3]
ʌ
Open-mid back unrounded vowel, near-open central vowel
bud
ɝ/ɜː
Open-mid central unrounded vowel
bird[vn 4]
ə
Schwa
Rosa’s[vn 5]
ɨ
Close central unrounded vowel
roses[vn 5][vn 6]
diphthongs
e(ɪ)/eɪ
Close-mid front unrounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel
bayed[vn 7]
o(ʊ)/əʊ
Close-mid back rounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel
bode[vn 7]
aɪ
Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel
cry[vn 8]
aʊ
Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel
cow
ɔɪ
Open-mid back rounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel
boy
ʊɚ/ʊə
Near-close near-back vowel
Schwa
boor[vn 9]
ɛɚ/ɛə
Open-mid front unrounded vowel
Schwa
fair[vn 10]
Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Labial-
velar
Glottal
Nasal
m
n
ŋ[cn 1]
Plosive
p b
t d
k ɡ
Affricate
tʃ dʒ[cn 2]
Fricative
f v
θ ð[cn 3]
s z
ʃ ʒ[cn 2]
ç[cn 4]
x[cn 5]
h
Flap
ɾ[cn 6]
Approximant
ɹ[cn 2]
j
ʍ w[cn 7]
Lateral
l
[10] This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In
some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be
dropped, monophthising and lengthening the
sound to /ɛː/.
Consonants
This is the English consonantal system using symbols
from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
7
Notes
[1]
The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of
/n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing
only before /k/ and /g/. In all other dialects it is a
separate phoneme, although it only occurs in
syllable codas.
[2]
^ The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in
some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in
initial position and therefore is sometimes not
transcribed. Most speakers of General American
realize (always rhoticized) as the retroflex
approximant /ɻ/, whereas the same is realized in
Scottish English, etc. as the alveolar trill.
[3]
In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals
/θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/,
and in others, like African American Vernacular
English, /ð/ is merged with dental /d/. In some
Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the
corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast
with the usual alveolar plosives.
[4]
The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most
accents just an allophone of /h/ before /j/; for
instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some
accents (see this), the /j/ is dropped, but the initial
consonant is the same.
[5]
The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used by Scottish
or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic
words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for
loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach
/bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in
South African English. In some dialects such as
Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx]
may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such
as docker [dɒkxə]. Most native speakers have a
great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly
when learning a foreign language. Most speakers
use the sounds [k] and [h] instead.
[6]
The alveolar tap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/
in unstressed syllables in North American English
and Australian English.[49] This is the sound of tt or
dd in the words latter and ladder, which are
homophones for many speakers of North American
English. In some accents such as Scottish English
and Indian English it replaces /ɹ/. This is the same
sound represented by single r in most varieties of
Spanish.
[7]
Voiceless w [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 /w/, in some dialects of
Scots it is merged with /f/.
Voicing and aspiration
Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English de-
pend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can
be given:
• Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and
/ tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or
begin a stressed syllable – compare pin [pʰɪn] and
spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [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: tap [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].
• Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in
some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American
English) – examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [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 language. This means that the
pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to
convey surprise and 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, intona-
tion 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 (rendered in
Received Pronunciation):
- /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything?
- /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don’t, no
- /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don’t know (contracted to, for
example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast
or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause
between don’t and know even further)
Characteristics of intonation
English is a strongly stressed language, 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/stressed and the latter are unaccen-
tuated/unstressed.
Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be sub-
divided into syllables, which can either be stressed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
8
(strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is
called the nuclear syllable. For example:
That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!
Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/
words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed
harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable.
The nuclear syllable carries the main point the
speaker wishes to make. For example:
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else
had.)
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said
he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the
money by some other means.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen
some other money.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen
something else.)
Also
I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her)
I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but
now I will)
I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could
have inferred it, etc)
I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else)
I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else)
This can also be used to express emotion:
Oh, really? (...I did not know that)
Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly
obvious)
The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the oth-
ers 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 posit-
ive–negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "po-
larity known", while rising pitch means "polarity un-
known". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no ques-
tions. For example:
When do you want to be paid?
Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a
question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to
pay now?")
Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a
statement: "I choose to be paid now.")
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
adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disap-
peared from the language and mainly survives in pro-
nouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken)
versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins
has declined in importance in modern English, and the
remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have be-
come more regular.
At the same time, the language has become more
analytic, and 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.
Vocabulary
The English vocabulary has changed considerably over
the centuries.[50]
Like many
languages deriving
from Proto-Indo-
European (PIE), many of the most common words in
English can trace back their origin (through the Ger-
manic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pro-
nouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego,
Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit
mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo,
tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common fam-
ily relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister
etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matṛ";
mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek
mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf.
Greek gignōmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know).
Germanic words (generally words of Old English or
to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than
the Latinate words of English and more common in or-
dinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pro-
nouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that
form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The
longer Latinate words are often regarded as more eleg-
ant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate
words is considered at times to be either pretentious or
an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell’s essay
"Politics and the English Language", considered an im-
portant scrutinization of the English language, is critical
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
9
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 ar-
rive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there
is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a
Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word de-
rived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms
harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, en-
abling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of
thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of
synonyms can give English speakers greater control over
their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latin-
ate equivalents in English.
An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps
unique to English is that the nouns for meats are com-
monly different from, and unrelated to, those for the an-
imals from which they are produced, the animal com-
monly having a Germanic name and the meat having a
French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison;
cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton.
This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the
Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were
the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon
lower classes.
Since the majority of words used in informal settings
will normally be Germanic, such words are often the
preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a
point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of
Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words)
will normally be used in more formal speech and writ-
ing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article.
However, there are other Latinate words that are used
normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal;
these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have
Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better
and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance,
the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use,
push and stay are all Latinate.
English easily accepts technical terms into common
usage and often imports new words and phrases.
Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary
words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms),
as well as genre, über, lingua franca and amigo (imported
words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Span-
ish, 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 contempor-
ary usage.
See also: sociolinguistics.
Number of words in English
The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford
English Dictionary states:
“
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 dir-
ection: the circle of the English language has a
well-defined centre but no discernible
circumference.
”
The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but as-
signing a specific number to its size is more a matter of
definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages,
such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no
Academy to define officially accepted words and
spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine,
science and 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, dia-
lectal, and regional words might or might not be widely
considered as "English".
The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) in-
cludes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather in-
clusive policy:
“
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 OED, 1933).[51]
”
The editors of Webster’s 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.[52]
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 which are Germanic (mostly West
Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Ger-
manic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-de-
rived, either directly or from Norman French or other
Romance languages).
83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all
of the 100 most common, are Germanic.[53] Conversely, a
vast majority of more advanced words from subjects
such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from
Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from as-
tronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic.
Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to
demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocab-
ulary. 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
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
10
Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter
Wolff (1973)[54] that estimated the origin of English
words as follows:
Influences in English vocabulary
• Langue d’oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3%
• Latin, including modern scientific and technical
Latin: 28.24%
• Other Germanic languages (including words directly
inherited from Old English): 25%
• Greek: 5.32%
• No etymology given: 4.03%
• Derived from proper names: 3.28%
• All other languages contributed less than 1%
A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English
Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand
business letters gave this set of statistics:[55]
• French (langue d’oïl): 41%
• "Native" English: 33%
• Latin: 15%
• Old Norse: 2%
• Dutch: 1%
• Other: 10%
Dutch origins
Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and oth-
er objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin.
Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are ex-
amples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g.
spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver
(small coin).
French origins
A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or
Langues d’oïl origin, most derived from, or transmitted
via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in
England for several hundred years after the Norman
conquest of England. Words of French origin include
competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, ma-
chine, force, and many others that have been and are be-
ing anglicised; many are now pronounced according to
English rules of phonology, rather than French (with ex-
ceptions, for example, façade and affaire de cœur.)
Writing system
Since around the ninth century, English has been writ-
ten using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Sax-
on runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is mul-
tilayered, 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 consider-
ably 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 reli-
able.[56] Some phonics spelling advocates claim that Eng-
lish is more than 80% phonetic.[57]
In general, the English language, being the product
of many other languages and having only been codified
orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consist-
ent relationships between sounds and letters than many
other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough
can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways.
The consequence of this complex orthographic history is
that reading can be challenging.[58] It takes longer for
students to become completely fluent readers of English
than of many other languages, including French, Greek,
and Spanish.[59]
Basic sound-letter correspondence
See also: Hard and soft C and Hard and soft G
Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relat-
ively regular way:
Written accents
Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has al-
most no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the
acute accent in café), and in the uncommon use of a di-
aeresis 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/resumé, entrée, fiancée and naïve are fre-
quently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often
added to words to make them have a more "upscale"
commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer
keyboards, caf’e or cafe’ (for example) have begun to be-
come prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the
lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer key-
boards in English-speaking countries.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
11
IPA Alphabetic representation
Dialect-specific
p
p
b
b
t
t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames
th thing (African American, New York)
d
d
th that (African American, New York)
k
c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign words)
g
g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i), gue (final position)
m m
n n
ŋ
n (before g or k), ng
f
f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough
th thing (many forms of English language
in England)
v
v
th with (Cockney, Estuary English)
θ
th thick, think, through
ð
th that, this, the
s
s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y), ç (façade)
z
z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial
x xylophone
ʃ
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 fuchsia only
ʒ
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
x
kh, ch, h (in foreign words)
occasionally ch loch (Scottish English,
Welsh English)
h
h (syllable-initially, otherwise silent)
tʃ
ch, tch, t before u future, culture
t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic
(several dialects - see Phonological history
of English consonant clusters)
dʒ
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)
ɹ
r, wr (initial) wrangle
j
y (initially or surrounded by vowels)
l
l
w w
ʍ wh (pronounced hw)
Scottish and Irish English, as well as
some varieties of American, New Zea-
land, and English English
Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish
them from others, such as animé, exposé, lamé, öre, øre,
pâté, piqué, and rosé, though these are sometimes also
dropped (for example, résumé/resumé is often spelled re-
sume in 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, following the French usage.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
12
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 dia-
lects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and re-
gional expressions. Local variations in the formal writ-
ten version of the language are quite limited, being re-
stricted largely to the spelling differences between Brit-
ish and American English.
Basic and simplified versions
To make English easier to read, there are some simpli-
fied versions of the language. One basic version is named
Basic English, a constructed language with a small num-
ber of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and de-
scribed 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 com-
panies who need to make complex books for interna-
tional use may employ Basic English, as well as language
schools that need to give people some knowledge of Eng-
lish in a short time.
Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that
could be said with a few other words and he worked to
make the words work for speakers of any other lan-
guage. He put his set of words through a large number of
tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar sim-
pler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English
users.
The concept gained its greatest publicity just after
the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Al-
though it was not built into a program, similar simplific-
ations were devised for various international uses.
Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is
a controlled language originally developed for aerospace
industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully lim-
ited and standardised subset of English. Simplified Eng-
lish has a lexicon of approved words and those words
can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word
close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not
"do not go close to the landing gear".
See also
• Changes to Old English vocabulary
• English for Academic Purposes
• English language learning and teaching
• Language Report
• Teaching English as a foreign language
Notes
[1]
"English, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary.
2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press.
6 September 2007 http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/
entry/50075365
[2]
see: Ethnologue (1984 estimate); The Triumph of
English, The Economist, Dec. 20, 2001; Ethnologue
(1999 estimate); "20,000 Teaching Jobs" (in English).
Oxford Seminars. http://www.oxfordseminars.com/
Tesol/Pages/Teach/teach_20000jobs.php. Retrieved on
2007-02-18. ;
[3]
^ "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing.
http://www.ehistling-pub.meotod.de/01_lec06.php.
Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
[4]
Ethnologue (1999 estimate);
[5]
Ethnologue, 1999
[6]
^ Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998),
Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for
Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available
at The World’s Most Widely Spoken Languages
[7]
http://www.bartleby.com/224/1501.html
[8]
"Global English: gift or curse?".
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/
displayAbstract;jsessionid=92238D4607726060BCBD3DB70C472D0F.tomcat1
Retrieved on 2005-04-04.
[9]
^ David Graddol (1997). "The Future of English?" (PDF).
The British Council. http://www.britishcouncil.org/de/
learning-elt-future.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
[10] "The triumph of English". The Economist. 2001-12-20.
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/
displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=883997. Retrieved on
2007-03-26.
[11] "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing.
http://www.ehistling-pub.meotod.de/01_lec06.php.
Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
[12] Crystal, David (2002). Langauge Death. Cambridge
University Press. doi:10.2277/0521012716. ISBN
0521012716.
[13] Cheshire, Jenny (1991). English Around The World:
Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.2277/0521395658. ISBN 0521395658.
[14] Anglik English language resource
[15] [1]
[16] Linguistics research center Texas University
[17] The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe,
Calgary University
[18] English Language Expert
[19] History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle
English"
[20] David Graddol, Dick Leith, and Joan Swann, English:
History, Diversity and Change (New York: Routledge,
1996), 101.
[21] Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language
Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192.
[22] Ethnologue, 1999
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
13
[23] CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages
(World).
[24] Mair, Victor H. (1991). "What Is a Chinese "Dialect/
Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English
Linguistic Terms" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers.
http://sino-platonic.org/complete/
spp029_chinese_dialect.pdf.
[25] "English language". Columbia University Press. 2005.
http://columbia.tfd.com/English+language. Retrieved on
2007-03-26.
[26] 20,000 Teaching
[27] Not the Queen’s English, Newsweek International, 7
March edition, 2007.
[28] "U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United
States: 2003, Section 1 Population" (in English) (pdf). U.S.
Census Bureau. 59 pages. http://www.census.gov/prod/
2005pubs/06statab/pop.pdf. 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.
[29] ^ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David;
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995]
(2003-08-03).
[30] Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006
counts, for Canada, provinces and territories–20%
sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada.
[31] 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.
[32] Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census,
Statistics South Africa.
[33] Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New
Zealand. No figure is given for the number of
native speakers, but it would be somewhere
between the number of people who spoke English
only (3,008,058) and the total number of English
speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187
people who did not provide a usable answer.
[34] Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David;
Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004.
[35] 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]).
[36] Census of India’s Indian Census, Issue 10, 2003, pp
8-10, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census
and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism).
[37] Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages.
Siemens AG, Munich
[38] For 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:
“ Wikipedia’s India estimate of 350 million
includes two categories - "English
Speakers" and "English Users". The
distinction between the Speakers and
Users is that Users only know how to
read English words while Speakers know
how to read English, understand spoken
English as well as form their own
sentences to converse in English. The
distinction becomes clear when you
consider the China numbers. China has
over 200~350 million users that can read
English words but, as anyone can see on
the streets of China, only handful of
million who are English speakers.
”
[39] Australian Bureau of Statistics
[40] Nancy Morris (1995), Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics, and
Identity, Praeger/Greenwood, pp. 62, ISBN 0275952282,
http://books.google.com/
books?id=vyQDYqz2kFsC&pg=RA1-PA62&lpg=RA1-PA62&dq=%22puerto+r
[41] Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual
Translation Center, 2006.
[42] U.S. English Foundation, Official Language
Research – United Kingdom.
[43] U.S. ENGLISH, Inc.
[44] Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research
Center
[45] International Maritime Organization
[46] The Official EU languages
[47] European Union
[48] Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition,
page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002
[49] Cox, Felicity (2006). "Australian English Pronunciation
into the 21st century" (PDF). Prospect 21: 3–21.
http://www.shlrc.mq.edu.au/~felicity/Papers/
Prospect_Erratum_v1.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
[50] For the processes and triggers of English
vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical
Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner)
[51] It went on to clarify,
“
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.
”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English language
14
[52] Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal,
6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw
[53] Old English Online
[54] Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Dieter Wolff (1973). Ordered
profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon.
C. Winter. ISBN 3-533-02253-6.
[55] Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language
at Amazon.com
[56] Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable
generalizations for spelling words: The importance
of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School
Journal 101(2), 233-245.
[57] Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language
essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H.
Brookes Company.
[58] Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can’t Read
(New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169
[59] Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading
acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled
reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin,
131(1), 3-29.
References
• Baugh, Albert C.; Thomas Cable (2002). A history of the
English language (5th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28099-0.
• Bragg, Melvyn (2004). The Adventure of English: The
Biography of a Language. Arcade Publishing. ISBN
1-55970-710-0.
• Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN
0-521-53032-6.
• Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the
English language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
• Crystal, David (2004). The Stories of English. Allen Lane.
ISBN 0-7139-9752-4.
• Halliday, MAK (1994). An introduction to functional
grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. ISBN
0-340-55782-6.
• Hayford, Harrison; Howard P. Vincent (1954). Reader and
Writer. Houghton Mifflin Company. [2]
• Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A
Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C
Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953.
• McArthur, T. (ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the
English Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-214183-X.
• Plotkin, Vulf (2006). The Language System of English.
BrownWalker Press. ISBN 1-58112-993-9.
• Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and Its Closest
Relatives. Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8047-2221-8.
External links
• 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker
• Accents of English from Around the World Hear and
compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in
50 English accents from around the world -
instantaneous playback online
• English language at Ethnologue
• More than 20000 English words recorded by a native
speaker
• National Clearinghouse for English Language
Acquisition
• The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking
how non-native speakers around the world use
English
Dictionaries
• Collection of English bilingual dictionaries
• dict.org
• Dictionary of American Regional English
• English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes
(affixes) dictionary
• Oxford’s online dictionary
• Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary
• Macquarie Dictionary Online
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