English is extremely widely spoken throughout the world and is used in the United Kingdom, North America (the USA and Canada), Australia, New Zealand, parts of Africa and as a second language almost everywhere.
English belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group within the western branch of the Germanic languages (a subfamily of the Indo-European languages). It is related most closely to the Frisian language, to a lesser extent to Dutch and the Low German (Plattdeutsch) dialects, and more distantly to Modern High German.
It has its origins in the British Isles when a number of dialects spoken by invaders from Jutland was introduced in the 5th century AD and formed the backbone of the language. The four major dialects forming Old English are Kentish (originally the dialect spoken by the Jutes); West Saxon (a branch of the dialect spoken by the Saxons); and Northumbrian and Mercian (subdivisions of the dialects spoken by the Angles). As time passed, other Germanic languages were added by Saxon, Fresian and Viking (Norse) invaders (from about the 8th century). During this time the native Celtic languages that was spoken by the original inhabitants of Britain were slowly displaced to the Western and Northern extremes of the British Isles (to Ireland, Wales and Scotland (although modern Galic originates from Ireland)).
In the eleventh century French words were also added to the English language when the Normans invaded. Other words derived from Latin were also added continuously as Christianity spread through the British Isles.
Today it is though that approximately 70% of the English language is Germanic in origin with about 30% derived from French (and other Italic languages). It has been estimated that the present-day English vocabulary comprises more than 1 million words (including slang and dialect expressions and scientific and technical terms) many of which only came into use after the middle of the 20th century. The modern English vocabulary is more extensive than that of any other language in the world.
The written representation of words in English does not accurately match their phonetic equivalents. There are many differences between spelling and pronunciation. The most famous of which are the six different pronunciations of ough, as in bough , cough, thorough, thought, through , and rough.
American English is an important development in the history of the language. The most obvious differences between American and British English occur in pronunciation and vocabulary. There are also slight differences in spelling, pitch, and stress.
| Name | Where spoken | Language Family | How many (000s) |
| English | USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia and Africa, and widespread 2nd language use | Indo-European (Germanic) | 300-350m |
Table source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, David Ctystal, Cambridge University Press
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